On the eve of Ratatouille's DVD release, director Brad Bird sat down to to discuss his film hitting home video. Along the way, he dropped some tidbits about Pixar's next two animated films, Andrew Stanton's WALL-E and Up.
Pete Docter to Direct Up, Bob Peterson Writes Script
"I think it's a really great, emotional, whimsical (story)," Bird told Sci-Fi Wire in reference to Up. "It's not like any other Pixar film."
There's not a lot known about this flick, which will be Pixar's 2009 entry, but certainly the basic specs appear to be solid. Pete Docter (Monsters Inc.) will direct Up based on a script by Bob Peterson (Finding Nemo). Those two have also been tapped to help write the script for Andrew Stanton's post-WALL-E project, the long-awaited adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars. This proposed trio of movies will mark Pixar's first entrance into the realm of live-action-plus-CGI, as seen in films like The Lord of the Rings trilogy and last summer's Transformers.
Up's basic story, from what I can gather, is that it follows a 70-year-old man who teams up with a forest ranger to fight assorted villains and monsters. Although the film will be geared for a more mature audience, the under-12 set won't be left out in the cold.
"I think kids will like it," Bird says.
WALL-E: Robot Find His Soul
Of course anyone who has been following animated films knows that WALL-E is coming next summer and that, from all reports, is another brilliant movie from a studio that hasn't screwed up yet. That same spy report also notes that WALL-E is a bit darker than previous Pixar films. Its futuristic setting also set it apart from the Emeryville studio's other flicks. According to Brad Bird, that's intentional.
"Wall-E is not like any other Pixar film," he says. "Ratatouille is very different from Cars. Cars is different from (Bird's 2004 film) The Incredibles. One of the wonderful things about Pixar is they're always looking for a different way to tell a story. And they are passion-driven projects . . . These films are more emotionally invested in from the word go. And they feel that that kind of passion to see it get made is what's going to carry it through."
WALL-E rolls into theatres on June 27, 2008.
Fun Fact: Fred Willard will play Shelby Forthright, the president of the bumbling BuyNLarge Corporation. As I've mentioned once or twice before, Willard will be the first actor to actually appear onscreen in a Pixar movie.
 |
 |
