Brad Bird

Started by MacGuffin, February 23, 2007, 11:37:59 AM

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

MacGuffin

Bird Droppings
Incredibles helmer mulls live-action.

Oscar-winning animated director Brad Bird (The Incredibles) is considering making the leap to live-action feature filmmaking.

Bird will reportedly helm 1906, a drama about the great San Francisco earthquake, according to Slashfilm.com. The Warners pic is based on James Dalessandro's novel.

Barry Levinson is said to have previously been attached to direct the film. Bird will reportedly segue to 1906 after his next Pixar effort, Ratatouille, is finished.

Publisher's Weekly says 1906 is "an imaginative and dense interplay between fact and fiction in this story of corruption, crime lords and the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906. Annalisa Passarelli, the Evening Bulletin's music critic, narrates the tale with a mix of first-person intimacy and cool omniscience. She's secretly helping the chief of detectives, Byron Fallon, gather dirt on a corrupt political syndicate headed by Adam Rolf, city attorney and power broker. Rolf (a fictional character) owns the 'puppet-mayor,' Eugene Schmitz (an actual person), and is supported by an army of goons and waterfront toughs led by the infamous Shanghai Kelly, who, as Dalessandro notes in his afterword, was actually dead by 1906."
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

matt35mm

That would be jizz-worthy if it happens.

MacGuffin

Toon titan Bird quaking for Warners
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Brad Bird has signed on to make his live-action feature directorial debut with "1906," a co-production between Warner Bros. and Disney/Pixar, with the historical San Francisco earthquake as its backdrop.

The story centers on a college student who begins to investigate the murder of his father, uncovering a web of deceit that has left the city vulnerable to the sort of fire that breaks out when the Great Earthquake of 1906 hits San Francisco.

Bird is rewriting the original John Logan script.

Paula Weinstein is producing the feature, while John Walker, Bird's producing partner, executive produces. Disney/Pixar will co-finance the movie.

Courtenay Valenti is overseeing for Warners.

"1906" will mark a return for Bird to the studio that released his 1999 2-D-animated film "The Iron Giant." The movie was critically acclaimed though failed to muster much muscle at the boxoffice, causing some to suggest that Warner Bros. had failed to market the film aggressively enough.

In the period since, animation -- especially the 3-D CGI variety -- has become big business, and Bird has become one of the biggest and most respected names in the medium.

Bird, who has picked up Oscars for his past two efforts, Pixar's "Ratatouille" and "The Incredibles," has worked in live action before, helming an episode of "Amazing Stories" in 1987.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

MacGuffin

Brad Bird Updates '1906' And 'Toy Story 3'
Source: MTV

Longtime friend of Henry Selick, Brad Bird was on hand tonight at the Portland premiere of "Coraline", treating MTV News to updates on his first live-action feature, "1906" and updating us on the status of "Toy Story 3."

"The best way to sum up ["1906"]," says Bird, "would be that it's a romantic, epic, mystery with lots of action in it, based around events leading up to and through the earthquake in San Francisco in 1906."

The basest level of pre-production has already begun as Bird is looking for places to shoot while trying to put finishing touches on the script.

"It's really a hard script to write. Mostly because there are so many things going on in that place in that particular period of time. Any time you're going toward something, you're going away from five other cool things... We'll see if they have the courage to make it. We're proceeding as if."

The "they" in question include three different studios. Bird describes it as "Pixar-adjacent," officially a WB picture with some Disney involvement.

Shooting in life action, Bird explains that much of the city of San Francisco will have to be done with special effects like was done with Peter Jackson's "King Kong." As for cast, he has a few people in mind, but doesn't want to reveal anything quite yet.

"There are some wonderful people who are interested in it and I hope they're still interested when I finish the script."

Meanwhile, Bird has caught glimpses at the "Toy Story 3" pre-production going on around him and had a few updates:

"It's about ready to go into production. They're just about finished with "Up!" and then the animators will regain their senses for a few weeks."

Though I pressed him for more details, Brad only laughed.

"You're trying to trick me! There are some new characters, yes. It's going to be a lot of fun."
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

MacGuffin

Brad Bird Considering Taking Over Robert Zemeckis's Abandoned Sea Monster Movie
Source: NY Mag

Last November, it was revealed that director Robert Zemeckis had ended his flirtation with Brian Helgeland's American history and monster mash-up Here There Be Monsters, which pitted American Revolutionary War hero John Paul Jones against various tentacled monsters of the deep, and little more was heard about the project. But now insiders tell Vulture that the project may have signs of life, as Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol director Brad Bird is meeting with Legendary brass about the project, which originated as an idea by company chairman Thomas Tull.

There's no deal in place yet for Bird, but our interest is piqued by the story: The Helgeland-fashioned script had Jones wrongly stripped of his British naval commission and hired by a shipping magnate to investigate the disappearance of his merchant ships in the North Atlantic. Soon enough, Jones and his crew suspect that it's the handiwork of a sea monster and have to fight to survive it. Giant squid, call your agent! 
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

MacGuffin

Brad Bird to Direct Damon Lindelof's Sci-Fi Feature '1952'
The Disney project, shrouded in secrecy, is being written by the "Lost" co-creator and Jeff Jensen.
Source: THR

Brad Bird is teaming up with Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof for 1952, the mystery project set up at Disney.

Lindelof is producing the project and writing the script with Jeff Jensen, the Entertainment Weekly writer who covered Lost for the magazine and recently received an Eisner nomination for his graphic novel Green River Killer.

The project was set up by Lindelof last year under a shroud of secrecy but it is described as a epic tentpole.

Bird, already a successful and acclaimed animation director known for helming The Incredibles and Ratatouille, is coming off the giant success of his live-action debut, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. The fourth installment of the Tom Cruise franchise grossed almost $700 million worldwide.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

Jeremy Blackman


wiped_out

I liked Brad Bird's The Incredibles, a great deal.
MI:4 was a piece of crap, unfortunate because MI:3 was excellent.

I hope Brad Bird makes a sequel to The Incredibles. I am not sold on his live action action movies.

BB

Quote from: wiped_out on May 03, 2012, 11:15:39 PM
MI:4 was a piece of crap

Really? It was such dumb fun. I had a great time. I ate popcorn and watched a cat-fight and Tom Cruise run down a building. What didn't you like about it?

Pubrick

Quote from: wiped_out on May 03, 2012, 11:15:39 PM
I am not sold on his live action action movies.

All.. ONE of them?

Ghost protocol was pretty good especially in imax, you must be thinking of John Carter or some other misfire. He did good on the mission impossible brand and the massive box office reflects that.

What else are those films judged on? They're not artistic masterpieces. I found it the most enjoyable in the series since the first one.. Could've used more face swaps though.
under the paving stones.

Sleepless

Quote from: wiped_out on May 03, 2012, 11:15:39 PM
I hope Brad Bird makes a sequel to The Incredibles.

Fuck no. Pixar have done enough sequels. Monsters University notwithstanding they've got an exciting slate of original films coming up.
He held on. The dolphin and all the rest of its pod turned and swam out to sea, and still he held on. This is it, he thought. Then he remembered that they were air-breathers too. It was going to be all right.

MacGuffin

George Clooney in talks for Disney's alien pic '1952'
Brad Bird helming 'Close Encounters'-esque tentpole
Source: Variety

George Clooney is negotiating to star in Brad Bird's extraterrestrial pic "1952" at Disney.

Damon Lindelof and Jeff Jensen penned the script, which the Mouse House sees as a high-profile tentpole. Studio is keeping the plot under wraps, though the project is said to be a "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"-esque story following a man who makes contact with aliens on Earth. Lindelof also will produce.

Disney had no comment. Sources cautioned that the project is not officially greenlit, and no cast is yet set.

Bird would make "1952" his follow up to "Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol," his first live action pic after helming toons like "The Incredibles," "Ratatouille" and "The Iron Giant."

Clooney will next star in and direct "The Monuments Men," which he also co-wrote with Grant Heslov, that is lining up Daniel Craig, Bill Murray, John Goodman, Hugh Bonneville, Bob Balaban, Cate Blanchett and Jean Dujardin to co-star. Project revolves around American and British art experts who go on a mission to recover artwork stolen by the Nazis during World War II.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks