YM!

Endless Interview: Xavier Johnson, the CEO and owner of Endless Entertainment, Endless Animation and the newly created Infinite Studios talks about last year, Y3, and beyond Part 1: Endless Entertainment Lynn Terview: Hello, Mr Johnson, how are you this morning. X.J.: Pretty good, I have been excited about this interview. LT: Okay let’s get started then. Tell us how you feel about your debut year. XJ: Well it was no picnic. We original had a big slate but due to time concerns we picked the best projects ready for development. Although plans for the Bionicle Universe was/is a bust, it wasn’t a total bomb, we made some decent money but not enough for it’s gargantuan $200M budget. We may pursue another attempt in the future but now it’s dead. However we are pleased at the performance of Treasure Planet. We weren’t expecting huge numbers but it overperformed, audiences wanted some quality escapism and we provided. We even won an Oscar. LT: A Visual Oscar and it was argued it only did that well due to how barren the slate was. XJ: Still an Oscar, but we do understand that the playing field allowed these numbers and have plans for a sequel. Taika Waititi is returning for Gauntlet of Midas, early November Y4. Tonally it’s similar to Guardians of The Galaxy and Pirates of The Carribean in terms of fun swashbuckling adventures but it has a lot of heart and is all original. It definitely has a lot more of his charm LT: I’m curious about the other remakes you have planned. Lilo and Stitch comes out this March and Brother Bear is planned for the Spring Y4. XJ: We actually learned a lot for TP about how to make a reboot. Lilo and Stitch, although has it’s similarities has a lot of differences too. The emotional dynamic between Lilo and Stitch is very strong. We see Stitch evolve more as a character. Favreau thought it was a great idea to incorporate Lilo’s parents into the movie and develop Gantu and Jumba more as characters. LT: It’s surely anticipated, are you worried? XJ: Yes and No. Yes because Lilo and Stitch is a classic and one of my favorite animated movies. No because I think we have something special here. LT: And Brother Bear? XJ: One thing we changed was getting rid off the awkward Phil Collins songs. We also wanted to focus more on emotions in Brother Bear too. Brother Bear will use photo realistic CGI and live action ala Farveau’s Jungle Book but Favreau won’t return. LT: Also some of the other films this and next year look cool. XJ: You are damn right. We have an original story from the minds of Lord and Miller about a love potion gone wrong. It’s a coproduction with our family at Infinite Studios. God of War is a fun but heartfelt and gritty action spectacle. Alpha Flight is pretty damn cool. We think we have something special here, Matthew Vaughn poured his heart and soul on this. Bullets and Lyrics is also an Infinite co production. We recently screened a rough cut and got some big praises. LT: I see you didn’t mention Kim Possible or Miraculous XJ: Both of those are great movies. Both of them are our efforts to get into live action family fare. We are very excited for Miraculous. Next Year, I think El Tigre or Teenage Robot is next. LT: Anything about next year? XJ: Well, excluding the aforementioned projects spoken about earlier, we have an untitled monster movie brewing we have been courting Gareth Edwards for it but it’s all preliminary, we have an idea for El Superbeasto, Horizon Zero Dawn is a must, there’s also George Miller’s sci-fi project. LT: Limitless? XJ: It’s untitled now but Miller finally cracked it. I’d tell more but you’ll know more soon. LT: Okay. Sounds mysterious and I love it. Next we’ll have the head of Endless Animation talk next. Stay Tuned folks.

A Wrinkle In Time North Shore Cinema 3/8/18 (4 days before previews, 5 before release) Mequon, WI 7:00 - 6/301 - USCR 9:45 - 0/301 - USCR Running 28.5% ($14.5M OW) of Coco, 37.5% ($10.5M OW) of Wonder, and 85.7% ($25.4M) of Daddy’s Home 2. However it is worth noting it has Ultrascreen for previews so results may vary but overall doesn’t look good.

Not this year at least. I plan on having him return for TP2 in Y4.

Any thoughts on OW?

Just need to add in the action scenes for God Of War and I’m done.

Didn’t Wonder Woman, The Mummy and Cars 3 had IMAX in the span of three weeks?

I mean yes it’s bizarre and absurd but hey we are living in a box office era where Jumanji 2 doubled it’s predecessor adjusted, and quadrupled the original, where TGS with mixed critical reception is having insane legs, where a Black Panther Movie is about the be the biggest CBM domestically. Nothing is impossible anymore.

Not really. I mean if JWFK has an Ultron drop it -ends at $480M. IW assuming a $210M OW (again remember this is a part one movie and will likely be heavily frontloaded regardless of reception.). Give it a 2.3 multiplier it ends at $483M. Sure IW outgrosses it but it can be close. Also with Peter Rabbit and maybe Wrinkle looking to be the only family films sniffing $100M, Incredibles will ride on a wave of hype, likely good reviews and no competition I can see it surprising like way more than it normally would. The spot for second place this year will be interesting for sure.

Full disclosure, Alpha Flight is edited weirdly. I put a lot of dialouge and important plot points inside spoiler boxes. I might fix it because I kind of don’t like it but I thought it’d work well.

WIT is way behind other family films (Wonder, DH2, Coco, and even The Star) in presales in my theater. Might be a bad sign.

I had a big idea for GameVerse especially in both but I’m afraid I might be ripping off a movie.

@cayommagazine Endless Entertainment to debut a new Alpha Flight trailer with Spark: Homeward Endless Entertainment will also debut a teaser for Horizon: Zero Dawn attached to God of War.

http://deadline.com/2018/03/warner-bros-pegs-memorial-day-2019-for-six-billion-dollar-man-dates-other-films-1202308701/ 9/20/19 @CJohn @grim22

And Boss Baby 2 is screwed.

Family Guy is basically going to be a buddy comedy between Peter and Meg. I have an idea for one plot point but I don’t know the rules about appearances from other films. I want to have a few characters from The Simpsons and Futurama but by no means do I want the rights.

What the rules for cameo appearances in films?

@Xillix we have a problem.

I know I was joking as well.

@Xillix May I move Kim Possible to September 20th.

Scrooge is moving! I repeat Scrooge is moving!

Ross Lynch replaced by Jace Norman for Miraculous due to lackluster performance. Miraculous is still coming Christmas Y3.

$300M+ for Grinch $210M-$250M for Ralph 2

Is this getting IMAX? I know Disney has an IMAX deal and all the Pixar movies after Dory got an IMAX release and Zootopia also got IMAX.

Yeah. This would’ve dominated March maybe even done $300M. However, I’m confident this won’t be a KFP2/Dragon 2/TLBM despite the six year wait due to how good it looks. However not expecting much of an increase due to Grinch