Just about a year ago, we learned that The Good Dinosaur lead director Bob Peterson would be stepping off the project, leaving co-director Peter Sohn at the helm (though a new lead director has yet to be confirmed by Pixar). Shortly thereafter, Pixar announced that The Good Dinosaur would be delayed from a May 30, 2014 release to November 25, 2015, and with that delay would come to a hefty storyline change – and possible role changes as well. In a recent interview with Collider (via /Film), John Lithgow says:
I recorded the entire role in Good Dinosaur. They have now dismantled it and completely reimagined it, and it is a fantastic new story. So I’m gonna record again on it within the next month. Don’t worry. It’s coming and it’s gonna be better than I ever imagined.
John Lithgow
As Lithgow stated the entire film is being “completely reimagined”, the original storyline asked the question what if the cataclysmic asteroid that forever changed life on Earth actually missed the planet completely and giant dinosaurs never became extinct? The film followed an Apatotosaurus family as Arlo (the teenage Apatosaurus) befriends a young human boy named Spot.
During the interview when asked about looming role changes Lithgow answered “…me and Frannie McDormand, we’re still playing Momma and Poppa dinosaur.” This confirmation has us excited about the new story but also wondering if Bill Hader, Judy Greer, Lucas Neff and Neil Patrick Harris characters have made the cut and are still in the film. While this is only speculation as we do not have confirmation from Pixar of any role/character changes we can only add that we are excited to see what The Good Dinosaur will bring us late next year and what the reimagined story will be.
Be sure to share your thoughts on the Pixar Post Forum – thanks to forum user maxxie03 for spotting this and posting it to the forum.