Silver-Screen Highlights: Fall 2003

Want to know what will be gracing international silver-screens within the next year? I've got it all year for your enjoyment.

Curious George film develops

Two solid names in Hollywood have joined the cast of the upcoming "Curious George" film, which will be theatrically released November 4, 2005.

The first is Jun Falkenstein, the director of Disney's "The Tigger Movie." The second is actor Will Ferrell ("Old School," upcoming flick "Elf"), who will voice The Man in the Yellow Hat, Curious George's owner. Mary Parent and Scott Stuber, presidents of production for Universal Pictures, said, "Having Will Ferrell on-board gives us a superstar voice that is uniquely appealing to both kids and adults."

In the producers' chair will be Academy Award-winning directors Brian Grazer and Ron Howard. The screenplay has been written by Michael McCullers ("Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me," "Austin Powers in Goldmember," the upcoming "Thunderbirds"), Daniel Gerson & Rob Baird (Monsters Inc.) and Joe Stillman (Shrek and the upcoming Shrek 2).

Originally rumored to be computer animated, this Universal Pictures/Imagine Entertainment movie luckily be classically animated, allowing it to look and feel like the legendary children's book by Margaret and H.A. Rey of that the film is based upon.

Gabor Csupo to direct "Green Monkeys"

Half of the Emmy-winning duo, of Gabor Csupo and Arlene Klasky (the brains behind "Rugrats," "The Wild Thornberrys") will direct the feature "Green Monkeys." Based on a comic strip, the theatrically-released movie will be a mix of live-action and computer animation. Published by Dan's Papers, and written by Mickey and Betty Paraskevas, the strip follows green monkeys who think they are human.

Csupo and Nickelodeon Movies optioned the comic strip, finding writers John Trozak and Dave Connaughton, before taking it to Paramount Pictures.

Sayonara

"Our experience working in Japan for the past 14 years has been outstanding, primarily because of the world-class artists and executives who have produced exceptional animation. However, after reviewing our business plans and production requirements, we determined we no longer can support this additional production capacity."

With these parting words, The Walt Disney Co. said adieu to its Tokyo-based animation studio. The studio just finished "The Heffalump Movie," part of the continuously successful Winnie the Pooh series, a movie that will either premiere in theatres, or solely on Disney DVD/video. Other titles from this Japanese studio include theatrically-released Pooh flicks "Piglet's Big Movie," and "The Tigger Movie," and the 2003 direct-to-video "101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure."

This closure affects the 103 local animators and craftspeople in the animation trade, employed at the studio. It was first announced in a in-house notice Friday, September 12, 2003.

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