UPDATED: Disney has reached out and noted that Dan Scanlon, as originally reported on Oh My Disney is not directing Cars 3 – no other director was noted. Looks like Jim Morris’ original comment about Dan Scanlon working on an original film was correct. Happily, Brad Bird is still slated to direct The Incredibles sequel.
During an interview back in January, Pixar’s President, Jim Morris noted a few upcoming projects within the Pixar pipeline — mainly pointing out that Dan Scanlon (Dir. Monsters University) and Mark Andrews (Dir. Brave) are both working on original films.
News of Dan Scanlon working on an original film piqued the interest of fans as he has been listed as the director of Cars 3 on the film’s IMDb page (not necessarily known for accuracy) for several months. Though there has yet to be an official word from Pixar Animation Studios, the official Oh My Disney Blog appears to have quietly announced that Dan Scanlon will be directing Cars 3 as revealed in a post titled, “8 Pixarians to Follow on Twitter”.
The same Oh My Disney blog post also revealed that Brad Bird will be taking the animated directing reins as he reprises his role for The Incredibles 2. Back in April of 2015, Brad shared in an interview with Ophira Eisenberg on NPR’s Ask Me Another show, that he was currently writing on the film and just this past November famed composer Michael Giacchino officially signed on to score the film. This comes as no surprise that Bird would be directing The Incredibles 2, but it’s always great to hear the news unofficially.
We had chatted about Jim Morris’ interview briefly on our latest Pixar Minute video update, but be sure to let us know your thoughts below and chat about this in the Pixar Post Forum (as we’ve been discussing the possibility of Scanlon’s Cars 3 directing role for some time).
