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Insiders at Disney are denying a Hollywood Reporter story that a lousy opening weekend for the Robert Zemeckis-produced animated film Mars Needs Moms sank Yellow Submarine, the 3D remake of the psychedelic animated Beatles film that Zemeckis had set up to direct at the studio in August 2009. It is true that Disney won’t go forward with the project, but insiders said that decision was made months ago. At that point, Zemeckis was given permission to shop the film elsewhere. This makes some sense, coming in the aftermath of Disney’s announcement it would shutter ImageMovers Digital, the animation factory based in Marin County, CA. Disney announced a year ago it would shutter the 450-employee animation facility once work was completed on Mars Needs Moms. It’s not immediately clear whether Zemeckis will try hard to dock Submarine elsewhere. The film was originally timed to premiere around the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. The plan was to use 16 Beatles classics including “All You Need Is Love“ and “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.” Zemeckis’ infatuation with performance-capture animated technology seems to have run its course, particularly after an awful opening to the big budget Mars Needs Moms. He has lately been in the discussion for numerous live-action directing assignments. Zemeckis hasn’t directed a live action film since 2000′s Cast Away.
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All I hear is “spin, spin, spin.”
Good studio. Good little studio.
I’d rather have him do a remake of Used Cars that this movie. And I consider both semi-classics in their own right.
Zemeckis is a talented man who needs to return to his very specific talent of working with “people”.
With all due respect, that is like saying mud is wet dirt at this point.
Mr Zemeckis is a genius who owes us to get behind the camera with real people. It has been a decade now.
“Owes us”? Another twisted statement from a mixed-up member of the entitlement corps. “I breathe, therefore I deserve.”
Zemeckis owes no one anything.
Perplexed: Zemeckis doesn’t owe you or anyone else anything.
the writing was on the wall for zemeckis since christmas carol. i agree with j.r. and perplexed – he should stay with live action
Aging directors and their digital addictions/obsessions, and this is who the studios give their big money to! It’s no wonder movies aren’t as good as they used to be.
Robert Zemeckis has created some great cinema — Back to the Future, Romancing the Stone — I just wish there was some balance or more towards movies with people in them rather than animation — otherwise his talent is simply just being wasted.
Some genius if he was totally blind to the creative levels his films have sunk to.
I for one welcome Zemeckis’ return to live action. Can’t wait to see what he comes up with next. How many great movies can one man direct?
“Lousy” weekend opening?
It cost $150M to make. It opened with $7M.
Even Ishtar did better by comparison.
Try embarrassingly tragic for starters.
This is shocking!
People actually believe or care what THR prints?
Suckers.
Remaking Yellow Submarine? Kill me.
(SHAKING FIST) REEEEMA-A-A-A-A-A-AKES!!
We all live in a Disney submarine, a Disney submarine, a Disney submarine…
Disney in the Sky, with Diamonds. Disney in the Sky, with Diamonds.
Cheer up everybody, we at Disney know what we’re doing.
Zemeckis was more trouble than he was worth he was very high maintenance and quite frankly he disappointed us financially.
We had high hopes, yes that’s high hopes, but he let us down.
Buh-bye Bob don’t let the door hit you on the way out!
Stay tuned to Deadline Disney for a major announcement very soon.
I don’t know, he was pretty good directing that soccer ball. I think he should do CATS AND DOGS 3.
Volleyball.
It’s time Bob. Time to do Back to the Future Part IV. Don’t worry about Michael’s parkinsons disease just write it into the script or get Bob Gale to write it into the script he’ll be happy to do it because the poor guy hasn’t done anything at all since Part III. BTTF is his whole life now but I’m ready to go again and so is Chris Lloyd. 88 MPH!!
I suspect you’re being facetious, but perhaps you are not and are simply one of the simpletons writing from the shadows of Oklahoma City.
Do you know Bob Gale personally? If you did, you’d know he’s actually written quite a bit since the BTTF trilogy. In fact, he has a script that’s been making the rounds recently.
Good, because the last thing YS needs is to be associated with Disney. They have become the Walmart of cinema.
Bobby Z, some things don’t need to be remade. Yellow Submarine stands on its own as a classic that is closely associated with the unique art of its time. Don’t remake this – and don’t even THINK about remaking it in 3D.
Talk about karma biting Disney in the ass. They deserve to flop into oblivion.
Come on, BZ – take a step back and put together a small comedy in the vein of Used Cars again. Remember how fun that was?
(I’m basing that “fun” claim solely on the DVD commentary. Sounded like you guys had a friggin’ blast with that one.)
It’s true they did. Do a sequel set 30 years later where Kurt Russell has achieved his lifelong goal he’s been a Congressman for the last 28 years and now he’s ready to run for president. Rudy Russo for President should be the title.
Used Cars was a pathetic piece of trash. Could barely sit through it.
When I saw the commercials, I thought, “Yech, uncanny valley.” But I ended up really liking the movie. And it’s one of the rare films in the latest 3D craze that actually uses the technology organically and effectively. It’s the best use of 3D I’ve seen.
The problem with Zemeckis right now is his pitbull Jack Rapke consistently stops good material from getting to Bob. Jack wouldn’t know a good script if it bit him in the ass. There are several very good projects that have gone out and sold that Jack passed on before letting Bob read. He also stops material that Zemeckis could elevate from getting to him.
Bob’s a great filmmaker and will come back with something strong. Just makes me sad how much Rapke is controlling what material gets to Bob’s eyes these days.
Actually, no. Jack brings the emperor great material and gets it thrown back in his face. Your description of the process could not be further from the truth.
APPLE began its own remake of YELLOW SUBMARINE in the nineties after the success of THE ANTHOLOGY on ABC. Internal disagreements among the surviving Beatles stopped the process cold after a lot of work had been done in 3D animation. One of the issues was the use of the songs in the piece and the danger of exploiting the library. With the death of Neil Aspinall, the guardian of the Beatles legacy, it appears that The Beatles have decided to kill the golden goose. A remake of THE YELLOW SUBMARINE would be tragic. The present film is perfect for what it is. Any remake would compound what the original film has been criticized for, the lack of The Beatles actual involvement. THE YELLOW SUBMARINE captured their spirit despite their ‘lack of involvement’ and it particularly captured the spirit of the times. What performers would perform the motion capture? Who will voice them? I don’t think that John or George would approve.
I assume that the APPLE to which you refer is Apple Records, and not Apple, Inc. That would be most logical.
This is a colossal bomb for Disney. It will have deep ramifications. The Times says that Disney execs worry that the market for family films is saturated. As a family man, I can say that I’d love to take my little kids to the movies – but there is nothing out there that is both a quality story and told in a wholesome way. My kids get freaked out and scared at these movies. And I find some of the sexualization of tweens to be really disturbing. I say the market is far from saturated – it is starved for quality.
Zemeckis still makes better movies than 99% of his counterparts in this town. If anything we all owe him something. I hate how you people push out truly amazing filmmakers (ie: Coppola) and bow at the feet of the shitty ones. It’s shameful.
it’s a mistake to make sweeping generalizations about a genre or technology based on one film.
Is this the end of mocap? No. Avatar and the Hobbit will use the technology. Not to mention TinTin and others. And while people don’t love it as zem has used it, past efforts have had average returns.
Saturated family films? Hardly. Look at most spring break periods. They are full of films for families–Ice age franchise has done hundreds of millions at this time of year.
The utter floppiness of this movie has to do with the marketing. It was absolutely horrible. Not one good joke. Stale music. And commercials cut to feature zany action instead of interesting moments or fun characters. It was truly an example of how not to cut a movie ad.
If the public rejected the movie once it opened, blame the filmmakers, the tech, but a doa opening like this is all about the message which in this case was quite simply, stay away.
When does empty MT empty out her office?
Mr. Zemeckis, period live-action please–