Robogeek's gonna pop a blood vessel or two screaming real loud when he hears the following. Sigh, he's such an anime fan. But I have to say this does have a lot of good news/interesting news. Prepare, here's some Disney news about Miyazaki and a couple of other things..
Miyazaki (if you ever want to piss him off, just call him the Walt Disney of Japan). The most recently produced of his animation films enjoyed an AMAZING run in Japan where it outdid "E.T." (the former Japanese moneymaking record holder) and did over $100 million (Titanicesque in Japanese terms). I've seen a sub-titled private screening of this film, "Princess Mononoke," and it is very good, I think you'd dig it. Not really a kid film, it's set in Medieval Japan and has got Samurai style decapitations and arm amputations all over the place along with some pretty freaky demons. Definitely not G-rated material, so I wonder how Disney is going to market it. I thought the music was pretty decent (although kind of a Braveheart rip-off), so I doubt I'll ever work on it.
Anyways...
KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE
Disney just had a test screening on Saturday for a film by the great Japanese animator Miyazaki called "Kiki's Delivery Service". They added to, sweetened and arranged the original music and dubbed new voices (in English of course). This is a coming of age film about a cute little 13 year old good witch. Disney would have liked to edit it a bit to reflect more of a Western aesthetic regarding pace, but were contractually forbidden to cut a frame. This film really has the "cute" factor and I'd say it goes after a target audience of little girls (I've heard this is a very under-represented sector of the market which might be why Disney is producing this particular Miyazaki film first).
Disney got Kirsten Dunst, Phil Hartman, Debbie Reynolds, Janine Garafolo, and the youngest Lawrence brother (that one on Boy Meets World) as the voice-over talent.
Disney has been waffling as to whether to go straight-to-video or big screen with it, but I did hear that they have a McDonald's Happy Meal merchandising deal all lined up to tie in with it. They still have some visual stuff to do in post so I think the release date will be late summer or early fall.
LAPUTA: CASTLE IN THE SKY
This next one that I just started working on is less cute and has got more action and violence. I think you might like it. It's called "Laputa: Castle in the Sky." Disney will change the title, probably to just "Castle in the Sky" or "Castle," because as Jonathan Swift satirically knew in "Gulliver's Travels" (where this proper noun comes from), but animator Miyazaki apparently didn't, the word "Laputa" translates to "whore" in Spanish. Disney could lose a little of it's family-values sheen in its Spanish speaking market with that one, so that word will be taken out of the movie as much as possible. This movie has a number of deaths, but nothing graphic (i.e. they disappear in explosions or they fall off of airships where you just see them disappear into the clouds and never see them hit the ground). This movie has incredible animated machines, explosions and very cool robots. Disney might have some problems getting a G-rating, but they might be able to pull it off... it's probably borderline. Contains some of the same Western vs. Asian aesthetic differences i.e. some might think it's too long and the pace too slow, but Disney is contractually stuck with that.
Disney got Mark Hamill to play the villain, the protagonist is Anna Paquin, and I've heard that the more minor characters will be played by Chloris Leachman, Andy Dick, Mandy Patemkin, and the guy who plays Dawber on "Coach." I've also heard that they really want to get they guy who plays Dawson on "Dawson's Creek" to do the main part opposite Anna Paquin.
INTERESTING RUMOR
I heard from a good source that Disney is going to do a remake of "Shall We Dance" with Tom Hanks playing the main character. They did something similar when they bought the distribution AND remake rights to a French film which they proceeded to make into "Jungle 2 Jungle" with Tim what's-his-bucket from Home Improvement. Let's hope the remake of "Shall We Dance" ends up better than "Jungle 2 Jungle."
BODY & SOUL
I haven't started working on this yet, but I will in a month or two. I'm excited about this because this will be the biggest project of my minuscule career so far. This will be a re-make of a great old John Garfield boxing movie, you've probably seen it, it was famous in it's day. I think the re-written script is just awesome, but I think it will only go to the theaters internationally and will be shown on Showtime here in the States. It's being partially produced by MGM on a shoestring budget. Hey, if it were a huge project, I'm sure I never would have got the job for lack of big time credits.
This movie will star the former boxing champion Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini. Ray owns the option on the script and is producing it as well. Ray's been in serious training for the fight scenes which will be shot in Reno in a few weeks. I've also heard that Jerry Lewis has agreed to do the film and will have a straight role, probably as a mean s.o.b. mobster character. If you saw the original, this will have a much harsher edge to it, even though it still will remain a redemption movie.
