Pixar's GOOD DINOSAUR Cans Director, Delayed 18 Months

[AndyDursin]

Trouble in paradise??

This also means no Pixar movie in 2014.

The film of the backstory of the villain from the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale starring Angelina Jolie’s is coming out earlier now while the release date of Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur has been moved back a year and a half, Disney announced today.

Avoiding a pile up with the World Cup plus Transformers 4 and Fast & Furious 7, Maleficent will now be out on May 30, 2014 as opposed to July 2. Taking Pixar’s only 2014 release off the calendar for that year, The Good Dinosaur is now moving from that May 30, 2014 date November 24, 2015.

Long awaited Nemo sequel Finding Dory has been moved to a June 17, 2016 release in 3D from its previous November 25, 2015 date, now occupied by Good Dinosaur.Undoubtedly related, director Bob Peterson exited Good Dinosaur late last month and no official single replacement has been announced.

Other announcements and moves in Disney’s release schedule Wednesday see The Fifth Estate now moving to a wide release on October 18 from its previous limited status and the Kevin Costner-starring high school track pic McFarland getting a November 21, 2014 release.

[AndyDursin]

Oh, ok...

"Nobody ever remembers the fact that you slipped a film, but they will remember a bad film," said Pixar's president, Ed Catmull. "Our conclusion was that we were going to give the [dinosaur] film some more time."

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/mo ... ?track=rss

[jkholm]

Didn't the same thing happen with Ratatouille? Brad Bird was not the original director. Let's hope this decision makes The Good Dinosaur a better movie.

[Mike Skerritt]

It happened with BRAVE, too, though I don't know much about what in that story as originally conceived eventually sent Brenda Chapman packing. It's a shame because while I like BRAVE a lot (and hoo boy so does my 3 year old), there was a much more interesting movie to be made from the basic strands of the first act and, frankly, I would've liked a female director's take on such a female-centric story.

But certainly, as with RATATOUILLE, this kind of move doesn't have to be a bad thing. Though I'm damn curious to know what exactly pushed Peterson out.

[AndyDursin]

Yeah, it's happened before -- sometimes with good results, but other times not so much. Sounds like the movie is not working in its current form though from the sounds of it.

Pixar has been in a rut for a while IMO. Too many sequels and a few of the original offerings have been tepid (wasn't so crazy about Brave myself)...will be interesting to see if this creative break helps. Not turning out a movie in 2014 may be a good thing indeed.