Thursday, October 9, 2008

The Shuffle...


While I've always been excited about seeing "The Princess and the Frog", I've looked even more forward to seeing "Rapunzel", not only because of the beautiful style of it's design or the good vibes I was getting from people that have seen it, but also because it was a labor of love for co-director(and my favorite living animator) Glen Keane.

Well...

No more.

He has left the project as director. His co-director, Dean Wellins has left the project as well. Nathan Greno(head of story on "Bolt") & Byron Howard(co-director of "Bolt") are the new duo in charge of bringing all that hair to the screen. Glen will stay on as an executive producer, while Wellins will be working on directing a short and several pitches for a future Disney animated film.

Don't take this as a disaster. If they've left the project, it's a reflection of where Lasseter wants to take the story and it apparently wasn't going there based on the last story reel he watched. While I regret the loss of seeing Keane get to direct his first film, I realize that for the film to succeed Lasseter has make sure the film is proceeding ahead in a direction he believes in. There is over two years before the film comes out and that's more time than an obscure director named Brad Bird had on a little film called "Ratatouille." It boils down to my faith in John Lasseter. I still believe in him and his decision making. We'll get our first look at his work for the Mouse on Thanksgiving weekend...

Developing...

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is unfortunate for Keane. I hope he gets to direct his first animated movie eventually. I trust John Lasseter right now and can't wait to see what happens with Rapunzel and hope it is an amazing movie.

Anonymous said...

Walt did the same thing in Sleeping Beauty...he yanked a director because they were taking too long and over budget on a single sequence. Some animators just aren't directors.

Anonymous said...

Is the future animated film that you say he is now working on a disney animated film? Or did he leave like Chris Sanders?

Anonymous said...

Oy vey.

I sure hope Disney doesn't lose Glen Keane. Losing Chris Sanders was bad, Glen Keane would feel much worse.

Any word on how this came to be? This sounds really unfortunate.

Anonymous said...

Actually, it sounds like Keane is stepping down because of health problems. "Non-life threatening" health problems. Which is why he's staying attached to the project.

From aintitcool...

Anonymous said...

Doesn't necessarily bode well, but I don't think it's a tragedy. Thus far, John Lasseter's instinct on these things has been dead on, every time. But I certainly hope Glen Keane doesn't go anywhere.

Anonymous said...

Such a shame. I hope he is okay. But I look forward to seeing what the new directing team come up with, these things happen.
Nice to hear that there are more shorts going into development too. Good luck to Wellins on that! It would be a nice touch if that short ended up before Rapunzel.

So excited about the slate of films and shorts.

MB Thomas said...

Where's my arsenic?! WHERE'S MY ARSENIC?!!