This year marks the first time in nearly decade that Pixar Animation Studios won’t have a new film to launch, but they may not sit out 2014 entirely. Screen Daily recently spoke to Pixar’s director of 3-D production Josh Hollander, who let it slip that the animation studio (subsidiary of Walt Disney, which has distributed all of Pixar’s feature length movies) is working on 3-D updates of Brad Bird’s Oscar-winning blockbusters The Incredibles and Ratatouille.Pixar has mined through its library for 3-D retrofitting in the past with the first two Toy Story films, Monsters, Inc. and Finding Nemo, so it makes a certain degree of sense that the studio would continue the process with two of their most popular and critically respected titles. Up (2009) was the first Pixar title to be released in the format and each succeeding title in their library has followed suit including Brave (2012) and and 2013’s Monsters University. If these plans come to fruition, A Bug’s Life (1998), Cars (2006) and WALL-E (2008) would be the remaining films of their canon yet to be retrofitted. The Incredibles, in particular, with it’s brash use of color and thrilling action sequences seems like it may make for a better than adequate transfer. Hollander said of the process:
Right now we’re working on The Incredibles, which is a lot of fun in 3D. I’m not sure what the release strategy for it will be. It’s been an interesting challenge to work on technology because – while the film was released 10 years ago – the technology is even older as it took four years to make.
As of now, there is no official word regarding release dates. Pixar’s next original film will be Inside Out, a film told from inside the mind of a young girl, directed by Oscar-winner Pete Doctor (Up) and written by Michael Arndt (Oscar-winning screenwriter of Little Miss Sunshine.) That will be followed by The Good Dinosaur. Both are due in 2015.
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