It looks like the Mouse is going to give Tinker Bell a few siblings...
It's been rumored that Lucasfilm Animation was working on a fairy film for a few years, but of late the talk around the water coolers have virtually vanished. No one has heard anything in the past couple of years about the project. Some have thought the film was dead or had sadly been put into turnaround.
That appears now to not be the case. Kathleen Kennedy has been busy behind the scene doing more than just Star Wars apparently. In addition to working with J.J. Abrams on "Episode VII", she's also determined to make sure Lucasfilm isn't known only for Luke Skywalker and that far off galaxy he lives in.
It seems once one door closes, another opens.
Once the production of Pixar's "Newt" was shut down a couple years ago, its director found himself ready to make a film that was no longer there because of similarities to a competing film. Luckily for him, when Kathleen Kennedy took the top job at Lucasfilm, she went through the inventory of projects in development at Skywalker Ranch and saw potential in the musical about fairies that had been languishing in development for the past few years. She realized it needed a new direction and a director to take it there. Right place, right time. Gary Rydstrom found himself being asked to helm the film, and before you know it, Brenda Chapman was brought in to help focus on the story structure (she's known for strong characters, particularly female characters).
Don't expect to hear much about the film right at this moment, but there'll probably be more focus on it, as well as a possible announcement of it next year, should the creative process not hit anymore speed bumps before then. It'll be nice to see some of the creativity of George's company expanding beyond its most famous piece. There are several other properties the division owns that could still make amazing entertainment for years or decades to come.
Like a particular Archeologist's animated adventures...
