Mouse In A Hurry For "Hexum"...

The Mouse has bought the pitch "Hexum" from screenwriter David Arata in a deal is worth seven figures. The story is an action-thriller in the "National Treasure" vein involving a character dealing with a worst-case scenario while working for the government.

The film will be produced by Sean Bailey through his production company Idealogy which is based on Disney's Burbank lot. The idea is to make this a franchise if successful...

Idealogy is working on several projects right now including Marcus Sakey's novel, "The Blade Itself", "Liberty" and a remake/sequel you may have heard of called "Tron".

Casting Persia...

It appears that the cast for "Prince of Persia" is starting to fill out now that they've got their leads. Today Variety announced that Alfred Molina and Ben Kingsley will join Jake Gyllenhaal and Gemma Arterton in the Mike Newell-directed adaptation of Ubisoft's popular video game.

Molina will play Sheik Amar, who becomes a mentor to the Prince Dastan(Gyllenhaal).

Kingsley will play the role of Nizam, the Royal Adviser to King Shahraman.

Shooting will begin in July in the United Kingdom and Morocco.

The Force Is With You From June 6 to June 29...

If you're going to be at Walt Disney World on the weekend during the month of June, remember the Star Wars Weekends are going to be going on...

Don't forget to bring your lightsaber.

What Becomes Of Junior...

I've been planning on writing this as a follow up to my post about the future of Star Wars exactly one month ago today...

After seeing the latest adventure of Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones Jr. my analysis is somewhat colored. As I mentioned in the Star Wars piece, when someone eventually takes over Lucasfilm, Vader and Kenobi aren't the only characters that could be affected. Indiana Jones will play a part in that equation as well...

He is an iconic figure like James Bond, John McClane or even newer action hero Jason Bourne. He WILL live on. It's simply a matter of how and what formats. Unlike Bond, I don't see them recasting Indiana Jones. As much as I love Sean Connery and realize 007 doesn't just belong to him, I can't imagine them casting someone other than Harrison Ford to wear that Fedora. There is no way you could embalm the charisma and charm that Ford brings to the role with another actor.

I could see them creating an animated series, although I don't want them to create a CG version. If they were to try something hyper-realistic like "Beowulf" it would just seem weird and creepy. My own take would be for them to do something like "Batman: The Animated Series" and possibly pay a homage to the cartoons of that 30's/40's time period that the Indy films lives in. The Batman series mimicked the Max Fleischer cartoons of that period and a series with Dr. Jones could go well with that style too.

I'm sure we'll still have theme park rides as long as guest keep coming. There will always be room for Indy comics, from Dark Horse's version of the character with stories such as "Indiana Jones & The Tomb of the Gods" or Marvel Comics with their "Further Adventures of Indiana Jones" series featuring a great start off with "The Ikons of Ikammanen” by John Byrne and Terry Austin or the excellent "The Fourth Nail" story by David Michelinie and Kerry Gammill. There are clearly enough stories that can be created for a compelling character like this. Lucas himself commissioned at least three or four scripts before he settled(wrongly, IMO) on "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull"(I'll have more on these Indy scripts later this summer).

I'm not even mentioning the novels and other things that Lucasfilm and whoever winds up owning it could create to keep this character alive and relevant. The big difference between Star Wars and Indiana Jones is that Star Wars exist in a universe waiting to be discovered and Indy exist in our own world and what he finds there is what we rediscover from our own past. While the SW Universe is an environment made for exploring, Indiana Jones tales are character based stories in which we're invested in the lead character. The fun of these adventures is always in finding out where he goes and how he reacts to the situations he finds himself in.

In the future, once Lucas has let go of the tight reigns he keeps on his company and his creations, we'll hopefully get to see this character explored in some new ways... just not in anymore movies. The treasure in those films has been plundered. The chamber of ideas has been stolen by a grave robber named Lucas and Indy is too old to go after him. It's up to others to restore the magic that is Indiana Jones. Someday, someone out there will do that... I hope that it's someone that loves this character as much as I... maybe that could even be the Mouse. Then again, maybe not.

Time will tell...

Perfect Timing...

On this day...

Seventy-five years ago, the first Mickey Mouse watch was introduced to the world by Ingersoll-Waterbury.

Classic and understated, don't you think?

Going Through A Phase(s)...

What was Dreamed...





Estimated Cost: 3 Billion dollars(includes park: 1.7 billion dollars and hotels/entertainment complex: 1.2 billion dollars).

What was Planned...





Estimated Cost: 1.8 Billion dollars(includes park: 950 million dollars and hotels/entertainment complex: 850 million dollars).

What was Built...





Estimated Cost: 1.4 Billion dollars(includes park: 650 million dollars and hotels/entertainment complex: 750 million dollars).

Re(de)fining Mickey...

As WDAS slowly morphs into a Pixar-like environment there are always interesting and strange things happening...

With Lasseter and Catmull now in charge of almost all Mouse animation it has become introspective in what it creates and what it has already created. Such an example would be the decree that Lasseter put down about not having anymore cheapquels. The latest example of the redefining of what Walt Disney Animation (Studios) is happened in the middle of last week without much notice.

There was a get-together over in the Valley. A sort of meeting like the Brain Trust at Pixar has, or the Story Trust at Disney has been having. But being as Suits are "persona non grata" with John in charge there was simply a gathering of animators, story people and such. The focus was on the reemergence of Disney's most famous creation...

Mickey Mouse.

There was a brainstorming as to how can he become more relevant. How can he be brought back into the consciousness of a 21st Century America and even a 21st Century world? What format would be best to present him in? Where should the largest amount of energy be spent on doing this(Shorts, Movies, the Web, etc.)?

Creative people trying to come up with solutions and not a Suit in sight...

Nice. I like it. From what I've heard there are several top animators that have some exciting ideas they want to move forward and get greenlit. I'm crossing my fingers that they succeed. One thing is for sure, though. The marketers and bean counters didn't have much, if any say in what route Mickey takes in this. No soulless demographic slide show or pie charts saying what they felt the public needed or wanted(ala: DCA), just good old fashioned creativity thrown out into the arena of ideas.

Let the winner now be determined...