Disney Calling All Robots
Michael Dougherty Teams With ImageMovers Digital To Make Film
Michael Dougherty (X-Men United) is putting together motion-capture movie Calling All Robots with Disney and Robert Zemeckis' ImageMovers Digital.
Screenwriter Michael Dougherty, The Walt Disney Company and Robert Zemeckis' ImageMovers Digital are teaming up to make the motion-capture movie Calling All Robots. Dougherty plans to direct the flick using the same motion-capture technology ImageMovers used on such movies as 2004's The Polar Express and last year's Beowulf.
Dougherty, whose script credits include the live-action comic book adaptations X2: X-Men United and Superman Returns for director Bryan Singer, is penning the screenplay with Breehn Burns and Simeon Wilkins. Those two are also serving as artists and visual designers for Calling All Robots.
There's not much known about the flick but, according to Variety, Dougherty wants to "tell a story that's a throwback to old Godzilla movies. I grew up watching Godzilla movies. This film is very much rooted in those movies."
"It's a film we just could not make in live action or traditional animation," Dougherty said about making the film using motion-capture. He reportedly began his film career as an animator.
Calling All Robots will be Dougherty's second trip to the director's chair. His first was the live-action slasher flick Trick 'r Treat for Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures. Burns and Wilkins also assisted Dougherty with the script, and also acted as artists and visual designers.
Trick 'r Treat was originally supposed to have been released last Halloween, but Warner Bros. backed out because they felt there were too many other slasher flicks happening that year. The studio has not yet set a date for the film's release.
Zemeckis and ImageMovers producers Jack Rapke and Steve Starkey are making sure everything happens when it should.
Zemeckis and ImageMovers Doing A Christmas Carol
Calling All Robots won't be coming out anytime before 2010. Before starting on that flick, Robert Zemeckis will be directing Jim Carrey and Bob Hoskins in the umpteenth adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic A Christmas Carol.
Also rumoured to be in the cast are Gary Oldman, Robin Wright-Penn, Colin Firth, Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd and Carey Elwes. According to IMDb, this latest A Christmas Carol is due November 6, 2009.
That means it could be competing with Disney's first full-length animated film in three years, The Princess and the Frog. That film was originally destined for a late 2009 release; The Mouse House hasn't announced a release date for the flick, despite it being farther along than A Christmas Carol. The Princess and the Frog directors Ron Clements and John Musker have already assembled a leading cast which includes Anika Noni Rose, Keith David, Jenifer Lewis, Ritchie Montgomery, and Jennifer Cody.
Who will get the coveted Christmas of 2009 opening? Will there be only one film from Disney that season, or will The Mouse House battle itself for box office supremacy? Stay tuned.
