UPDATED: August 31, 2013 – Bob Peterson opens up and gives a little more insight on his feelings regarding The Good Dinosaur via Twitter. From the tweet, we are thrilled to hear he is in good spirits and forging ahead to work on future projects as well as he has eased our minds about his future with Pixar. We wish nothing but the best for him!
Earlier this week, we noted that rumors had been swirling regarding Bob Peterson no longer being part of the production team on Pixar’s upcoming, The Good Dinosaur. Today, we can report that the rumor has been confirmed as Ed Catmull, Pixar’s President and co-founder, spoke to in a recent conversation with the LA Times (via /Film). Details were discussed regarding the intermittent Directors (yes, plural), Producer change, the timing of the film’s release, and Peterson’s employment status with Pixar.
“All directors get really deep in their films,” Catmull said this week. “Sometimes you just need a different perspective to get the idea out. Sometimes directors … are so deeply embedded in their ideas it actually takes someone else to finish it up. I would go so far as to argue that a lot of live-action films would be better off with that same process.”
The next logical question that comes up is who will be taking over for Peterson? Will the movie fall to Peter Sohn since he has been the co-Director since the beginning of the film? Luckily, Catmull addressed that fact as well in the article,
Until a new director is named, Pixar is relying on a team of people to shepherd various sections of the movie, due in theaters in nine months. That group includes Pixar Chief Creative Officer John Lasseter, “Toy Story 3” director Lee Unkrich, “Brave” director Mark Andrews and the film’s original co-director Peter Sohn (at Pixar, a co-director plays a deputy role to the director).
As we also discussed earlier this week, Denise Ream is now the official Producer for The Good Dinosaur (as noted from her D23 Expo appearance). John Walker, the film’s previous Producer has left and is now concentrating on Brad Bird’s Tomorrowland film.
What we were most concerned about when hearing this rumor was the potential of Bob Peterson’s exit from Pixar, as he is a studio legend and jack-of-all-trades. Jim Morris (General Manager and Vice President of Production) did put our minds at rest by mentioning that Peterson is still employed at Pixar and is actually already directing another project in development.
Finally, Ed Catmull also mentioned that the timeline for the films release is still on track at this point with no major story changes at hand.
As of now, the release date for “The Good Dinosaur” is unchanged and the movie is proceeding on its production schedule, according to Catmull. “We’ve been around long enough to know it will never be smooth,” Catmull said. “But getting this process smooth is not our goal; our goal is to make the movie great.”
From our personal perspective, one item that has rung through loud and clear is that this news seems to be affecting fans more than any other directing change we’ve seen in the past. This is most likely because Peterson is so well-loved within the Pixar fan community – as evidenced by the feedback that has been pouring in after the rumor was announced. Business decisions are never easy, especially when it involves someone that is so loved in Pixar’s long and storied history. Let’s remember that we’re only looking in from the outside and we’re sure this decision wasn’t easy for Pixar’s management team either.
What are your thoughts – can Pixar meet the existing release date? Leave a comment below or continue the conversation in the Pixar Post Forum and chat about the change overall, or who you would like to see take the lead directing role.
I completely agree that people (myself included) have taken this directorial change a lot worse than any previous ones. I love Bob! He's a great guy, he's funny, and his influence on Up shouldn't be understated either.That said, if Lasseter's seen fit to remove him, I do believe it'll ultimately be for the good of the film. And with John, Lee, Mark & Pete all working on it, I still have faith.Can't see it being done my May though…
I just hope it doesn't affect the quality of the final product just like it happened (in my opinion) with Cars 2 and Brave….
One thing we cannot speculate on is that Cars 2 or Brave were better or worse before they were officially released since we only saw the end product. Unfortunately, that will be the case for The Good Dinosaur as well. Even the employees working on the movie wouldn't know for sure since it won't be released as it was originally slated and there won't be any reviews or audience feedback.I argue with myself in real life about this all the time and ask myself, \”should I have done this, or that\”…or \”what if I had done this\”. My Father always told me, \”you can 'what if' yourself to death – never look back\”. Sadly, although that is sound advice, I still look back! 🙂 Ha!
Yeah, the release date is a struggle for me as well. I guess we'll have to see if it's still possible based on how many changes they make.The one thing that's clear though is that this decision didn't happen today, it's obviously been in the works for some time, so although we're not 100% sure when Bob really left the process…we at least know it was before the D23 Expo (or he would have been there).
I would like to see John Lasseter make this film since Cars 2 was pretty much a bomb at the box office and hasn't made a big hit since Cars, and Cars was considered at okay. Gee, I hope John Lasseter could step in and hopefully make this film a success!
I would like to see John Lasseter step up as director, because he hasn't made a big hit since Cars, and Cars 2 was pretty much a bomb, Pixar's first bomb in fact. So I'm thinking that if John Lasseter would become director of the film, I bet he'd try to make the film really good and it would become a success! Too bad he's only executive producer of the film… 🙁 I would've liked Joe Ranft as director of this film, but he's living with the angels so too bad he's missing out… 🙁 and I'm really sorry that Bob Peterson has been kicked off The Good Dinosaur as director… 🙁
Well, he tweeted about directing the film on 23rd June, so he was at least still in charge of things then.
I would like to see John Lasseter making The Good Dinosaur. Why? Because now that I'm thinking of it, he's one of my favorites and he hasn't made a big hit since Cars, and Cars 2 was pretty much a bomb at the box office. So, if he steps up as director and makes this film really good, it'll be a success! And, now that I think of it, I'm not mentioning Bob Peterson in this. So, what I have to say is, I'm sorry that Bob Peterson got kicked off The Good Dinosaur… 🙁