Why have DreamWorks and Disney mended their fences? And will the Rabbit return?

(Source: jimhillmedia.com)

Since October, 2005, Walt Disney Company CEO Robert Iger has spent much of his time making nice with all the people that his predecessor, Michael Eisner, pissed off.

Iger started by resolving the developing battle with Pixar in the best way he could: he bought the CGI studio for a stunning $7.6 billion, and made Pixar founder Steve Jobs Disney's largest single shareholder. Disney also gave Jobs' other company, Apple Computers, a major boost by offering Disney and ABC shows on Apple's iTunes site. In addition, by making Pixar's John Lasseter the chief creative officer at Walt Disney Feature Animation, Iger essentially installed Pixar's work culture (itself an imitation of Disney's Golden Years) at the Mouse House.

Iger also got Roy E. Disney back on the executive (Disney, Walt's nephew, once staged an anti-Eisner rally at Disney's annual meeting in 2005) and installed him as a creative consultant.

Iger also has been having dinner with another Eisner nemesis, DreamWorks chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg. This resulted in a deal for Disney affiliate ABC to air DreamWorks' Shrek the Halls Christmas special next Yuletide, and to be an ABC exclusive for the next five years.

This series of dinner meetings could have repercussions in other ways. One of Disney's last animated hits was with Who Framed Roger Rabbit? a live-action/animated hybrid that Disney put together with Katzenberg and Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment. Robert Zemeckis, who just started producing mocap movies for the Mouse, directed that flick.

Would Iger be wanting to produce Roger Rabbit 2? The original made a respectable $154,222,492 at the box office back in 1988 (and another $349,200,000 worldwide), so the dollar potential is definitely there. Spielberg was another enemy of Eisner-era Disney but with Zemeckis and Katzenberg putting in a good word, he might be convinced. In fact, a Roger Rabbit sequel may become Zemeckis' first flick for the Mouse House.

Some people are saying that, since it's been nearly 20 years since Roger Rabbit was in theatres, that there's no chance of a sequel. Certainly, it'll be tough to get Bob Hoskins, Joanna Cassidy or even Christopher Lloyd back in harness. However, with Pixar still on the fence about sequels (other than Toy Story), Disney will want some franchises to generate big bucks. Zemeckis isn't averse to franchises, as the Back to the Future movies proved, so he might be more amenable to the notion than Lasseter.

Either way, there are interesting times ahead in the Mouse House.

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