Disney Studios are the real Scrooges

From Slashfilm:

"Very unexpected news from the Disney camp today: the studio has just issued a press release saying that, after production finishes on Mars Needs Moms!, the Robert Zemeckis studio ImageMovers Digital will be closed in 2011.


We don’t have a lot of details on the closing right now, but a statement from Walt Disney Studios president Alan Bergman says it all:

'Bob and the entire IMD team successfully built a state of the art studio and produced an amazing film, A Christmas Carol, at a time when the dynamics of the industry are rapidly changing. But, given today’s economic realities, we need to find alternative ways to bring creative content to audiences and IMD no longer fits into our business model.'

In other words, the movies from IMD are quite expensive, and if A Christmas Carol is any indication, they’re not making the sort of money the new Disney regime would like. The press release says that a new production deal may be formed to continue work on the Yellow Submarine remake.

The LA Times reports that 450 people will be laid off as operations at the studio wind down."

Here's the full press release:

"BURBANK, Calif. – March 12, 2010 – The Walt Disney Studios and ImageMovers Digital (IMD) today announced that they will close operations at IMD’s Marin County facility after production is completed on Mars Needs Moms. The IMD facility is expected to be closed by January 2011.

'Bob and the entire IMD team successfully built a state of the art studio and produced an amazing film, A Christmas Carol, at a time when the dynamics of the industry are rapidly changing,' said Alan Bergman, President of The Walt Disney Studios. 'But, given today’s economic realities, we need to find alternative ways to bring creative content to audiences and IMD no longer fits into our business model.'

'I’m incredibly proud of the talented team that we assembled at IMD and the fantastic work they have accomplished,' said Robert Zemeckis, one of the co-founders of ImageMovers Digital. 'Their pride and dedication to making quality movies is evident in everything we have produced.'

The Studio is hoping to create a new long-term production deal with Zemeckis and his IMD partners, Jack Rapke and Steve Starkey, which will include the continued development of the Yellow Submarine project."

Maybe they'll go back to Paramount (distributor of Beowulf) or Warner Bros. (distributor of The Polar Express) or Columbia Pictures (distributor of Monster House). I'm sure after the massive success of the mo-cap epic Avatar, they'll be welcome back with open arms.

And the Beatles are...

From ComingSoon.net:

"Heat Vision reports that Cary Elwes, Dean Lennox Kelly, Peter Serafinowicz and Adam Campbell are in talks to play The Beatles in Robert Zemeckis' Yellow Submarine at Walt Disney Pictures.

In the 3D performance capture film, Kelly (BBC's 'Robin Hood', [Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel]) is portraying John Lennon, Serafinowicz [(Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace)] plays Paul McCartney, Elwes (Disney's A Christmas Carol) is George Harrison, and Campbell [(Date Movie, Epic Movie)] will be Ringo Starr.

The 1968 animated feature was based on the music of The Beatles and featured the inspired art direction and design of Heinz Edelmann. The movie is set in Pepperland, an undersea paradise inhabited by music lovers who live in peace and harmony and are protected by Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. That is... until they are threatened by the music hating Blue Meanies. It's up to John, Paul, George and Ringo to set off on a magical adventure in their yellow submarine and bring music and harmony back to Pepperland."

Aw, and here I was hoping for Tom Hanks or Jim Carrey to be involved somehow. Mmm.

Ooh, interesting - Peter Serafinowicz also played the voice of Darth Maul in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. "At last, we will reveal ourselves to the Meanies. At last, we will have revenge."

UPDATE:

From RollingStone.com:

"For the performance footage in Zemeckis’ motion-capture take on Yellow Submarine, the Back to the Future director has recruited 'The Ultimate Beatles Band,' the Fab Four. Producers for Yellow Submarine have secured the rights to the Beatles’ music, so the songs in the film will come courtesy of the real Fab Four and not the tribute band. By hiring actors to portray the Beatles, Zemeckis is keeping in tradition of the original film, which also employed voice actors in place of the actual band. The Beatles themselves only appeared in the film’s live-action epilogue.

As Rolling Stone previously reported, Zemeckis was interested in bringing in the two surviving Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, to contribute to the Yellow Submarine remake. With actors being cast in their roles, it’s unclear whether Zemeckis still has plans for the pair, but considering new Spock (Zachary Quinto) interacted with old Spock (Leonard Nimoy) in the Star Trek reboot, Zemeckis — who is writing the screenplay — can surely construct a subplot where the faux Macca and Starr meet the real Paul and Ringo."

Now that sounds interesting.

Be the Beatles

From Slashfilm:

"This weekend, the 28th and 29th of November, there’s a huge Beatles convention taking place in Stamford, Connecticut. Amongst all of the merchandise sales and other such typical expo shenanigans, there’s also set to be an open audition for Beatlemaniacs wanting to try out for casting in what they’re calling 'The Fab Four'. Of course, that the film 'will be shot as a motion-capture feature like the current Disney release of A Christmas Carol' tells us everything we need to know - this is Robert Zemeckis' remake of Yellow Submarine.



There’s already some suspicion, though, that this casting call is nothing more than a publicity stunt. Zemeckis has already talked about the possibility of Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr playing themselves in the film, there’s been a number of previous auditions, and even stories of name actors being up for the roles, perhaps even cast in them already.

Jim Hill had the details on the Stamford Event, including a link to the Showfax page where one can purchase audition sides from the film. The sides have been given interesting titles - Buckingham Palace Scene, Help - Bar Scene and John, Paul, George and Ringo. There’s no Buckingham Palace Scene per se in the original film, though the building does make a brief cameo appearance.... Neither is there a bar scene in the original Yellow Submarine, nor any use of the song Help. It’s now pretty clear that Zemeckis' remake is taking some liberties with the original material, and I’m thinking that’s a really good thing. We already have the old Yellow Submarine, now it’s time for something new.

The only other scene we can pretty much lock down so far is a press conference. There’s a whole host of video reference supplied on a blogspot page set up to promote the auditions, including one headed JOHN LENNON - #1 VIDEO REFERENCE FOR NEWS CONFERENCE SCENE.

Also note that the mannerism references are clips from Richard Lester’s A Hard Day’s Night in which the Beatles played versions of themselves.

A report on The Examiner claimed that auditions, for the John Lennon role in particular, took place on October 12th. These do not appear to have been publicly announced, suggesting that they were peopled with jobbing actors and not mo-topped hopefuls from the great unwashed.

A new story from the UK’s Sun newspaper... claimed that Stephen Graham had been given the role of Ringo. Again, this is a far from routinely dependable source but this rumour seems esoteric enough to bear some consideration."