Musings About Spielberg's Mouse House Movings...

Really nice article by Peter Bart over at Variety today...

It focuses on his/DreamWorks journey and perspectives about how things have and will be going with Disney in the future.

Give it a read...

Teasing Basterds...

The teaser trailer shown on E.T. tonight that I gave you a heads-up about is now online...

Am I the only one bothered by Brad Pitt's over the top, cheesy accent? Here's hoping this is going to be a great popcorn experience.

We'll find out audiences react when it premieres at Canne in May...

UPDATE:

The trailer is officially up now over at Yahoo! Movies for those that want to see it undisturbed by annoying Entertainment Tonight voices.

What The Prequels Should Have Looked Like...

If you haven't seen the trailer for the three part conclusion known as "The Ryloth Trilogy,"("Storm Over Ryloth," "Innocents of Ryloth," and "Liberty on Ryloth") of the Cartoon Network's Clone Wars series Season One, then take a look...

It's pretty swanky if you ask me, and I ain't been too kind to Master Lucas' handling of the Star Wars franchise of late.

Frodo Never Lived...

Jeff Pepper over at the always great 2719 Hyperion has a detailed article on the history of the perceptions that Walt Disney once owned the rights to The Lord of the Rings...

It's a great read, give it a look.

Deco Digs to Animation Cribs...

In the market for a new chair or desk? How about one of these... an "airline" chair from designer/architect KEM Weber. The airline chair was made between 1934-35 and was only produced in limited quantities. If you happen to be lucky enough to find one for sale these days you'd better be ready to cough up a pretty penny. They range anywhere from $10-25,00o. Guess who was rather fond of this design and happened to order a few hundred of them for a certain new studio- Mr. Disney himself!


While KEM Weber (KEM being short for his full name Karl Emanuel Martin) was a student in Berlin at the School of Decorative Arts, he became involved in the construction of the German Pavilion at the Brussels World Fair in 1910. After graduating in 1912 KEM again worked for the German government on a display for the San Francisco "Panama Pacific International Exposition" in 1915. KEM was eventually sent to San Francisco to work on the project and was then stranded in the U.S shortly after WWI erupted. He took it as an opportunity and quickly opened his own design studio while also teaching in Santa Barbara. Years later he headed south to Los Angeles as an Art Director for Barker Bros.

Weber's unique design style of post Art Deco and Modern Streamline designs were bound to catch the eye of Hollywood. And they did. Walt made Weber the principle architect for the Disney Studio in the 1930's (there is a great gallery of his designs for the studio on disc 2 of the Walt Disney Treasures "Behind the Scenes at the Walt Disney Studios")

But what a lot of people don't know is that he also designed all the furniture for the animation department as well. There are many aspects and departments in the animation process and Weber designed furniture, most notably desks, for each specific task in the process. There were layout desks, story desks, background desks, animation desks, directors desks, and ink & paint desks.



Weber's design influence has almost become iconic with the Disney look of the 1930's. When the new animation building was built in the 90's a second generation of Weber influenced animation desks were ushered in to populate the new digs. There was even a "KEM Weber" font created for all the signage and name plates for the staff. It's no surprise that some of the artistic staff, preferring the authentic, refused to upgrade to the new furniture. With the boom of the "second golden age" of Disney animation some of the staff even negotiated these pieces into their contracts.

Andreas Deja actually took the time to hunt down a specific Kem Weber animation desk out of hundreds stored in a warehouse in Glendale. What was he looking for? A specific pattern in the wood grain. No seriously he was. He was trying to identify Milt Kahl's old desk from a photo, and after a little searching he found it.



Forget the Bentley's and the Cristal in the fridge. I want to see an MTV animation cribs episode where Andrea's flaunts his KEM Weber/Milt Kahl desk!



All artwork/pictures are copyright their respective owners.

How To Construct A Dream...

The Hollywood Reporter has all the inside nuts and bolts of the Disney/DreamWorks deal...

Give it a read if you're curious about such things, or happen to want to know what mezzanine financing is.

Oh and as has been discussed, when this deal was announced, many a Disney Fan/Geek's first thought was: "what about a Spielberg created Disney attraction?" Well over at Slashfilm, they've tried to put the breaks on this idea in a post entitled: "Why Steven Spielberg Won’t Contribute To Disney Theme Parks." They could be right, but all is not lost...

What Peter Sciretta, the author of the piece doesn't mention or hasn't heard is that Universal recently was asking the director to renegotiate his 2% fee on the parks. Here's a quote from Deadline Hollywood Daily:

"Spielberg was irritated that Universal came to him asking to renegotiate his longstanding 2% theme parks consulting deal dating back to the days when Lew Wasserman/Sid Sheinberg controlled the studio. These days, that's worth $50 million a year to the director. And Universal also asked to delay for 5 years Spielberg's '"put" deal -- his right to have the studio buy him out of the parks deal in a year."

- Nikki Finke

Spielberg balked. If they press the issue and he walks away from that deal we'll see if Disney would be willing to have him design an attraction with Imagineers.

I wonder what he'd do?

TRON Trailer @ Comic-Con...

After having watched the teaser trailer they showed at last years San Diego Comic-Con, this should come as a no-brainer...

Walt Disney Pictures will premiere the "actual" teaser trailer for "TRON" at this years Comic-Con in San Diego during the Disney Pictures panel.

Geeks of the world rejoice and let the pilgrimage to Nerdvana begin!

And yes, it will be called "Tron" as I've said before, not Tron 2 or TR2N...

Hat Tip to Dark Horizons.