YM!

@cayommagazine Due to prior obligations to Alpha Pictures’ upcoming Summer Wars and Endless Animation’s Gateways 2.0, Jennifer Yuh Nelson has left Green Lantern Corps: Evolution. Ava DuVernay (Selma, A Wrinkle in Time, upcoming The New Gods) has signed on to direct the film instead as Nelson’s replacement. Xavier B Irving notes “DuVernay is an extraordinary visionary when it comes to building great characters and providing great entertainment and it’s an honor to have her in the Endless Entertainment family.” Green Lantern Corps: Evolution is still slated for May 2nd, Y9.

@cayommagazine In a shocking turn of events, Endless Animation shakes up its Y10 and Y11 slate. Genndy Tartakovsky’s Will You Imagine? has been pushed back to Spring Y11 to further develop the story, moving Jorge R. Guiterrez’s untitled film to Summer Y11. The sci-fi animated musical mockumentary, The Valkyries vs The Galaxy is now moving to 3/27/Y10 with Molly Ostertag (The Owl House) now making her directorial debut alongside Erica Rivinoja (Clone High, Girl’s Trip, Trolls) who joins part of writing team. Dreamcatcher will stay in summer Y10. As for the holiday season of Y10, Gateways 2.0. is being fast tracked. Jennifer Yuh Nelson (Kung Fu Panda 2, Spark: A Hero’s Promise, the upcoming Summer Wars) will now direct the project, with a script from Academy Award winner Pete Docter (Inside Out, To The Moon, Gateways) and Brenda Chapman (Brave, Herestias). McKenna Grace, Donald Glover, and Awkwafina have signed on to return their original roles as new cast members join or in talks of joining as Angelina Jolie has officially signed on as the voice of Piper, Bailee’s long lost mother. More plot details are expected next month but the brief summary is being described as taking place a year after Gateways, as Bailee, Levi, Magi and Stripes have gotten into the groove of their odd nuclear family as things get dicey for stability as a two threats collide: the end of the multiverse which involves the return of Piper in Bailee’s life and the growing love life of Levi.

Actually, Endless Entertainment was involved with the project, not Endless Animation.

I feel this episode was the weakest although I enjoyed it. I want more sitcom stuff.

I feel that’s still too optimistic, WW sure but I think DOM has a good chance to go under 250M, maybe around 150m-200m as I don’t suspect California or NY to be open, yet alone over 50% capacity.

https://www.animationmagazine.net/features/exclusive-locksmith-20th-century-debut-rons-gone-wrong-imagery/

@Alpha I now want to open The Wild Thornberrys on 3/28/Y8 instead of 3/27/Y8.

FYC for Best Original Song: Us Against The Universe from Phineas and Ferb: Candace Against the Universe.

This was a co-production between my studio and Blankments Productions.

To be honest, so far, this is the best thing the MCU has put out since Black Panther. I hope the rest of the Disney+ shows are as fun.

Tbh there’s a good chance we don’t see a film over TROS WW this year.

I mean the choice is obvious. One is a pile of garbage that can only do one thing which it does decent at best who can’t draw in an audience successfully outside of one role and the other is an Oscar nominated ice cream sundae.

@cayommagazine Sierra Capri (On My Block, Hidden Figures) has replaced Peyton List for the role of Maureen Connor/Permafrost, in Static Shock: Permafrost. The sequel arrives in theaters 2/9/Y8.

The War Between Ants Studio: Infinite Studios Release Date: 9/20/Y8 Genre: Documentary Director: John-Paul Davidson Rating: PG-13 for thematic elements and mild language Budget: $7.5M Theater Count: 2,652 Runtime: 95 minutes The subject interviewed are the animators at PDI/DreamWorks and Pixar Plot: 1998 was a big year for animation, creating many milestones as two non-Disney distributed animated films grossed over $100M domestic; Paramount/Nickelodeon’s The Rugrats Movie and DreamWorks Animation’s The Prince of Egypt. Disney also had a bang up year as their second film in their deal with Pixar, A Bug’s Life broke Thanksgiving records and hopped over $160M domestic being the biggest animation of 1998, and Mulan also did $120M domestic. 1998 also had another big animated movie about ants titled Antz, from the newly formed rival DreamWorks which grossed $90M. The most interesting thing about Antz is it opened a month before A Bug’s Life but both films have similar plots, and spawned a tale of rivalry and drama. In 1994, former Disney chairman of the film division, Jeffrey Katzenberg quit Disney after a feud with Disney’s CEO at the time, Michael Eisner, over the position of president of the film division. Katzenberg left, as Eisner convinced the board not to pay Katzenberg’s contract bonus. Katzenberg teamed up with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen to form DreamWorks SKG, a new film studio, with an animation division set to rival Disney. Katzenberg used ideas that he suggested at Disney to make their film lineup, from collaborations with Aardman, The Prince of Egypt and Sinbad. In 1996, DreamWorks teamed up with and bought 40% of Pacific Data Images (PDI) to make computer animated features, and began working on their first film: Antz scheduled for March 1999. However, this started a ripple in the animation pool, that soon became a tsunami. Pixar, who had just made the biggest film of 1995, the computer animated Toy Story which grossed over $190M domestic, making it the third biggest animated movie at the time, where dismayed to hear this as their next film was A Bug’s Life which was called Bugs at the time. The director of A Bug’s Life and former Pixar CEO, John Lasseter and Chairman and Apple guru Steve Jobs accused Katzenberg of stealing their idea as Lasseter was close contact with Katzenberg, as the two were known to be solid friends as Katzenberg helped the Pixar deal. Lasseter alongside co-director Andrew Stanton told Katzenberg, shortly after Toy Story opened about Bugs in detail. Stanton mentions that Lasseter was excited about Toy Story, noting it’d open more doors for computer animation but noted that Lasseter noted that Katzenberg was curious when Bugs was releasing and in hindsight they should’ve been more tight lipped. As in 1995, DreamWorks initially wanted to open The Prince of Egypt as their first animated feature in Thanksgiving 1998. A year later, Disney retaliated by opening Pixar’s Bugs on the same release date which Lassiter confirmed around the same time. Lasseter immediately called Katzenberg, asking if the Antz rumors were true, which Katzenberg confirmed. While Katzenberg never confirmed taking the idea, they’re many different stories how Antz was greenlit, some saying it came from Antz’s Director Tim Johnson in 1991, or in 1994, Antz’s producer Nina Jacobson who was a DreamWorks executive who pitched it. Regardless, Lasseter noted that Katzenberg was paranoid about the deal, and was focused more on revenge on Disney. Katzenberg was furious by Bugs opening in Thanksgiving 1998, contacting many Disney executives to convince them to move Bugs to no avail, pushing Egypt to Christmas. Paramount’s The Rugrats Movie was also set for the week before Thanksgiving in 1998 as well making things more complicated, forcing Katzenberg to take more drastic measures. Katzenberg moved Antz to October 1998, as well as giving PDI employees financial incentives to get it out on time in an attempt to get A Bug’s Life to move back. Writers of Antz, the Weitz brothers (Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz) noted how the pace was hectic, noting that they had to do multiple rewrites and revisions. Jobs and Lassiter were also furious as Katzenberg called Lasseter to reveal his true plan. Katzenberg would shutdown production on Antz if Lasseter moved A Bug’s Life so The Prince of Egypt could open in Thanksgiving. This infuriated Lasseter as he slammed the phone down and went straight to Jobs, who recalled Lasseter went “bullshit”. Jobs called Katzenberg to discuss this as Jobs couldn’t change dates as Katzenberg had a plea deal. Katzenberg taught Jobs a lot of business, suggested Bug’s Life could have “animation troubles” and Jobs has a lot of pull at Disney. Jobs called this extortion leaving things between the two computer animation titans frosty. Lasseter never saw Antz at the time, noting if the film was anything else, he’d have the whole studio take a day off to see it, dismissing Antz as a shlock A Bug’s Life. This soon took a turn worse in the media as Jobs and Katzenberg would create a press frenzy, as Jobs said “The bad guys rarely win” which DreamWorks’ marketing head Terry Press fired back “Steve Jobs should take a pill”. This lead to a riff between Jobs and Katzenberg for years as Katzenberg at Shrek’s premiere went to talk to Jobs noting Antz wasn’t stolen as he would’ve gotten a percentage of A Bug’s Life due to his settlement. What happened at the end? In addition to both films financial success, critics loved both. A key difference was tone as A Bug’s Life was more family friendly and lighter while Antz was darker and more adult in tone, scoring a PG. Antz and Egypt also set the tone of how DreamWorks would be different to Pixar, through use of celebrity voices to more adult humor. The studios would both go on to be giants in the industry, and the employees became fast friends again. Although, PDI closed down in 2015 due to budget cuts at DreamWorks. Did the battle between the ant movies shake up the world? No, but it showed the drama behind the scenes and how the studios would craft different films, and helped mainstream animation grow to large successes today.

I think if I gets worse or stays the same come May in the US, $50M is best case scenario.

I honestly can’t tell.

@cayommagazine Endless Entertainment is working on a live action The Princess and The Frog remake. David E. Talbert (Almost Christmas, Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey) has signed on to write, produce and direct. The film is said to be a reimagining and not a retelling such as past remakes the studio did with Treasure Planet and Lilo and Stitch, saying the story will be more focused on the 1920s New Orleans landscape than the bayou. A big change is Tiana will remain human for the film, instead of turning into a frog. Casting is still under ways as Daveed Diggs (Birdwing) is the frontrunner to play the main villain, Dr. Facilier as Leslie Odom Jr. is in talks to play Prince Naveen.

I just wanted to welcome you into the CAYOM community. And I look forward to more of your films in the future. As far as I’m concerned, if you feel your film is fine. It’s fine, you have until March if you want to make certain changes. However, note this largely an activity done out of fun, so don’t stress yourself out. Your film is uploaded in the correct place, though I must ask what is the name of your studio. If you have any questions to ask, any of us would be glad to help.

FYC for Original Song

Attached to Toons v Reality and 3D showings of Green Lantern Corps: Home

Should be. Though I worry with movies likely being pushed onto July, how will Marvel Studios do 4 CBMs in a five month timeframe, unless Shang Chi pushed to 2022 or Widow does hybrid for May.

Again I think other films won’t back down for the holidays even when dealing with SM3, and even though I think it’ll jump, I wonder if it would be somewhat muted in December. Like we get slightly underwhelming OW in exchange for great legs. I also think Eternals will likely get better WOM than SM3, and potentially less competition. Apart from Star Wars, there hasn’t been a December opener over $100M, though I do think the MCU appeal and likely multiple Spider-Man will guarantee an $100M OW, I want to see how the pandemic plays out for both release and schedule wise (while I think $250m is the ceiling for Matrix 4, I think it could snap at SM3’s margins if given a full release like speculated) and how much over $100M will it go, as I can see $150M but I think my range is $130m-$160m OW with a lean more towards the former.

Meh, I’d argue Eternals being bigger 🤷🏿‍♂️

It depends on how loaded the fall/holiday 2021 schedule will be. Judging by how theaters are reacting, I don’t expect movies to be back in capacity until July at earliest.

The Outback Studio: Creatures Incorporated Release Date: 8/23/Y8 Genre: Nature Documentary Director: Alistair Fothergill Rating: G Budget: $5M Theater Count: 2,450 Runtime: 85 minutes Narrator: Chris Hemsworth Composer: John Williams Plot: We follow the life of the various animals in the outback, from crocodiles, bilbies, kangaroos, insects, platypi and birds. We learn about the animals’ diet, grooming and behavior over the course of this film.