Murphy's Multiverse

Tag: Disney

  • ‘Strange World’ Scores Disney Animation’s Worst CinemaScore

    ‘Strange World’ Scores Disney Animation’s Worst CinemaScore

    Here’s a shocker, the latest animated film by Disney Animation, Strange World, has seemingly gotten a B CinemaScore from the general audience. For those that may not know, CinemaScore is an analysis conducted based on cinema-goers after watching a film. It’s a rather rough showcase of overall interest in film but mostly is used to get a feeling for how a film will perform at the box office. Disney Animation has been very consistent and always got at least an A-. So, this marks the first time ever that a Disney Animation film got a B score.

    https://twitter.com/CinemaScore/status/1595766105012056065

    What makes this interesting is that Strange World has barely been advertised for a Thanksgiving release. With weaker word-of-mouth, keep in mind that this scoring is very frontloaded, it’ll hurt the film even more considering it pulled ina rather disappointing $800K in its opening previews. It looks like the high-budget film will only make around $40M or less over the Thanksgiving holiday. While the animation isn’t always the biggest box office draw, it’s still not a good sign for a production that cost $180M.

    Earlier this year, we’ve seen a similar issue with Lightyear, Pixar’s latest release that was seemingly struggling at the box office. Though, outside of two productions, most films were underperforming throughout the year as we’re still seeing the ripples from the pandemic on the market. Yet, as animation has seemingly not gained any momentum over the weekend, Minions: The Rise of Gru, one of the two productions mentioned previously, has pulled in $937.8M.

    Source: Twitter, Variety

  • Kareem Daniel to Leave Disney, Streaming Division Facing Reorganization

    Kareem Daniel to Leave Disney, Streaming Division Facing Reorganization

    It was only a question of time but it’s insane that it only took a day before the news hit that former Disney CEO Bob Chapek‘s internal executive structure is already falling apart. As it seems, the head of media and entertainment distribution, Kareem Daniel, is set to leave the company as well with former CEO Bob Iger returning. It was a strong move away from Iger’s creative-focused era that has left the company with a few scars in its wake, especially souring the views on its streaming ambitions with Disney+. Iger always was the kind of leader that used data but didn’t overly rely on it to muddle creative ambitions; the issue the current leadership fell into, especially with dramas surrounding Black Widow‘s release.

    In a world and business that is awash with data, it is tempting to use data to answer all of our questions, including creative questions. I urge all of you not to do that.

    Bob Iger

    Daniel and Chapek’s goals were quite ambitious and they aimed to grow Disney+ as fast as possible with investment, but it seemingly led to many sparks internally, especially with the issue of return on investment being left behind in those ambitions. Disney+, ESPN, and Hulu stand at a proud 235M combined subscriber base making it quite competitive with Netflix and shouldn’t be ignored, but the concern that the $1.5B investment can’t be recouped by the time it was meant to be is definitely one of the reasons for this massive executive switch. Still, with Daniel‘s exit, we can expect some major changes in Disney+’s streaming strategy and structure moving forward.

    Source: The Hollywood Reporter

  • Bob Iger Returns as CEO of Disney, Bob Chapek Exits Company

    Bob Iger Returns as CEO of Disney, Bob Chapek Exits Company

    Disney has been under constant fire for some time with a lot of uncertainty about where exactly the company is truly trying to head. Bob Chapek took over at a rather rough time, as streaming was still a booming market, and then suddenly the pandemic happened. No matter where one lies in regard to streaming’s future, Disney was all in long before Chapek took over and Bob Iger was still leading.

    in a shocking twist though, it seems that Iger is back in business. While having left the position behind, the iconic manager has once again decided to return to the position. Chapek is set to leave the company with the Disney board of directors has announced it on a Sunday night, a very uncommon move in the industry.

    We thank Bob Chapek for his service to Disney over his long career, including navigating the company through the unprecedented challenges of the pandemic. The Board has concluded that as Disney embarks on an increasingly complex period of industry transformation, Bob Iger is uniquely situated to lead the Company through this pivotal period.

    Susan Arnold, Chairman of the Board

    What makes this announcement bizarre is that Chapek already signed a multi-year contract. So, he’ll definitely be leaving with a nice package as he leaves the role behind. Iger has already sent out an e-mail to employees and going by online reactions, there’s a certain excitement in the air.

    It should be noted that Iger’s new contract is only set for two years, as he prepares for a true successor; a highlight of why this decision was made. The controversies surrounding their digital expansion have definitely left a sour taste with the market’s boom, especially when Netflix hit a sudden ceiling; though has seen some more positive developments as of late.

    The issue on top of it all is also the controversy surrounding Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which was a PR nightmare for the company and ended up souring its relationship with many. Add in some harsh quarter developments with heavy investments and not hitting profitability targets, and the board definitely has been concerned and took immediate action to correct the course, or rather find the man to steer a “complex period of industry transformation.”

    Source: The Hollywood Reporter

  • ‘Strange World’ Stars Reveal a Wild Glitch in the Matrix

    ‘Strange World’ Stars Reveal a Wild Glitch in the Matrix

    Disney Studios Animation’s newest film, Strange World, is a pulpy throwback influenced by the works of authors H.G. Wells and Jules Verne featuring characters based on iconic blasts from the past such as Ka-Zar and Doc Savage. Co-director Don Hall (Big Hero 6) describes the film as an exploration of the universal father-son relationship told through 3 generations of the Clade family.

    As always, Disney has assembled a fantastic voice cast for the project, including Jake Gyllenhall as Searcher Clade and Dennis Quaid as his father, Jaeger, a legendary, larger-than-life explorer whose life’s work took him away from his family. Strange World isn’t the first time Quaid and Gyllenhall portrayed a father-son duo on screen, having played Jack Hall and Sam Hall, respectively, in the 2004 disaster flick The Day After Tomorrow; however, as Quaid revealed in the global press conference for Strange World, the two stars had never previously met!

    When asked about what parallels there were in the chemistry between him and Gyllenhall in the two film, Quaid laughed, saying “This is the first time Jake and I have been in the same room, actually.” The actor went on, seemingly jokingly, to say, “I’ve never seen any of those films, so I didn’t know what he looked like.” Gyllenhaal backed up Quaid’s comments, saying “I literally never met Dennis until this moment, which is really –yeah.” Quaid continued saying, “In Day After Tomorrow, we really didn’t have scenes together.” In an effort to answer the original question, Quaid did point out that the pair of actors have swapped one key part of their arc in the two films, saying to Gyllenhall, “The only difference is, is that I was searching for you and now you’re searching for me.”

    Despite working “together” on two projects, it took a press junket to bring Gyllenhall and Quaid into the same room together for the first time. A glitch in the matrix if ever there were one. Strange World hits theaters November 23rd.



    DENNIS: Yeah. In Day After Tomorrow, we really didn’t have
    scenes together. The only difference is, is that I was
    searching for you and now you’re searching for me.
    STRANGE WORLD – GLOBAL PRESS CONFERENCE [00:16:15]
    JACQUELINE: Seriously, though.
    DENNIS: Yeah.
    JACQUELINE: Did you all do that on purpose? Or it just
    happened? Just happened, okay.
    DENNIS: Just happened.
    JACQUELINE: Just cute. I’m just kidding. Jeff Ewing from
    Looper has a question for Jaboukie. Ethan Clade is such a
    modern different protagonist than so many we’ve seen in
    prior Disney films. To you, why is the character such as
    Ethan important addition to the Disney canon?

  • Disney Eyeing a ‘The Princess Diaries’ Revival

    Disney Eyeing a ‘The Princess Diaries’ Revival

    Who knew Disney had a thing for princess stories? Jokes aside, it looks like Disney is hoping to revive the popular The Princess Diaries franchise as they have attached Supergirl and Reacher‘s Aadrita Mukerji to write a script that would act as a continuation of the 2004 film Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement. It should be noted that Anne Hathaway is not attached yet but she has been open to potentially returning one day in the past. If Disney approves of a script and finds a director, we might see her return to the role.

    The original was first released in 2001 and explored the story of an unassuming teenager from the States that ends up being the heir of a fictional European kingdom known as Genovia. The film was based on a novel by Meg Cabot and was quite a box-office hit at the time. Its sequel didn’t bring in as much as the first but remained just as much a pop culture favorite for years. Debra Martin Chase is back to produce the film, as she did with the first two entries with Godmothered and The Other Woman screenwriter Melissa Stack set to executive produce.

    The original two films were directed by the late Garry Mashall, who sadly passed away in 2016. He famously went on to direct the unofficial holiday trilogy, Valentine’s Day, New Year’s Eve, and Mother’s Day. It’s still too early to say if a third film will be made but Disney isn’t a stranger to reviving classic franchises, as they did recently with Hocus Pocus 2 and even going on to revive some of their newly acquired 20th Century projects. So, we’ll see how long it takes for them to move forward with the project.

    Source: The Hollywood Reporter

  • Margot Robbie’s ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ Film is No Longer Happening

    Margot Robbie’s ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ Film is No Longer Happening

    Yo ho, yo ho, the pirates’ life is not for Margot Robbie. The Oscar-nominated actress, who has skyrocketed to international fame in the last decade, was previously attached to star in a female-led spin-off of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise at Disney, but now says the film is dead in the water. Robbie‘s untitled Pirates project was revealed in June of 2020, with her Birds of Prey creative partner Christina Hodson set to write the script. The film was still in early development as of May, when longtime producer Jerry Bruckheimer mentioned during an interview that he and Disney had been in touch with Robbie about the film’s status. At the time, Bruckheimer hinted that the future of the movie was not set in stone, and unfortunately, it looks like it has since been made to walk to the plank.

    Robbie made the world savvy to her project becoming shark bait during a recent conversation with Vanity Fair, in which she discussed her impressive career. When asked about the potential of Pirates as her next adventure, she made the following statement:

    We had an idea and we were developing it for a while, ages ago, to have more of a female-led—not totally female-led, but just a different kind of story—which we thought would’ve been really cool, but I guess they don’t want to do it.

    Margot Robbie

    The film would have been the sixth installment in the Pirates franchise, and the first without Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow. Bruckheimer is currently at work on a separate Pirates reboot, with Chernobyl and The Last of Us showrunner Craig Mazin writing a script alongside franchise veteran Ted Elliot. The fate of this movie, also without Depp, remains uncertain. Until more is known, fans of the Pirates movies should remain hopeful. After all, dead movies tell no tales.

    Source: Vanity Fair, Variety

  • EXCLUSIVE: Live-Action ‘Lilo & Stitch’ Replacing an Iconic Character from the Animated Original

    EXCLUSIVE: Live-Action ‘Lilo & Stitch’ Replacing an Iconic Character from the Animated Original

    Disney is all about live-action remakes these days and they’ve eyed pretty much any of their iconic animated films to get the treatment. Among them is the iconic Lilo and Stitch, which is set to be directed by Dean Fleischer-Camp based on a script from Chris Kekianiokalani Bright, which once again explores the story of a young girl named Lilo who ends up with a rather different kind of pet who she names Stitch. While the film will follow the story of the original, we can exclusively share a few details of two original characters being added to the story.

    The film is currently busy casting for the roles of Lilo, Nani, and David Kawena from the original animated film. There’s no word if they are actively looking for a voice actor for Stitch, or perhaps they might even see Chris Sanders return to the role. Yet, they are also actively casting two new roles for the film which are a character known as Tutu and Mrs. Kekoa. The former is described as someone who speaks with a local Pidgin accent and is the neighbor of the Pelekai sisters, Lilo and Nani.

    The surprising new addition is Mrs. Kekoa, as she seemingly will take on the role of Cobra Bubbles. It’s unclear if that character will still be featured in the film, but it seems that this new character is being cast as the social worker, who pays Nani a few visits to see if their living conditions are right for her to continue looking after Lilo. The addition of an alien pretending to be a dog won’t help matters much. Her inclusion does raise the question if Bubbles will be featured in the film at all, but it is possible they may be taking a different route.

    There have been a few rumblings hinting at Disney hoping to start production on it soon. DisInsider shared back in August that the film might be set as a Disney+ exclusive. This was highlighted by Discussing Film’s Jacob Fischer, who also hinted at a production start in February, which we can also confirm. They will be filming until the end of May 2023 in Hawaii, which will definitely make the project stand out and sticks to the aspects that made the original shine.

  • Disney’s Live-Action ‘Hercules’ to be Inspired by TikTok

    Disney’s Live-Action ‘Hercules’ to be Inspired by TikTok

    While the Russo Brothers aren’t going to make a return to Marvel anytime soon, it doesn’t mean they won’t be working together with Disney on other projects. They have been quite busy taking on a producing role on various projects, such as Guy Ritchie‘s upcoming live-action adaptation of Hercules. We’ve seen many iterations of the Greek demi-god throughout the years, but this new take might be the strangest yet.

    In an interview with Variety, the producing brothers revealed that they are definitely taking a different direction with this live-action adaptation. They confirmed it will be a musical, which isn’t always a definite with the live-action remakes from Disney, and they are taking some inspiration from TikTok.

    There are questions about how you translate it as a musical. Audiences today have been trained by TikTok, right? What is their expectation of what that musical looks like & feels like?

    Russo Brothers

    Some may raise an eyebrow at how effective this approach might be, especially with TikTok’s entire format being primarily based on six-second videos. It’s not a bad idea to modernize the take to the current landscape but there is the question of how far can you push that concept. The screenplay by David Callahan will have a really big challenge ahead if it’s trying to introduce some modern elements into this story.

    The original Disney animated film already took quite the liberty with the mythos for the sake of making a modern commentary on sports promotion. So, we’ll see just how far they’ll try to push this adaptation and if we’ll have to suffer through TikTok dances in musical form.

    Source: Variety

  • Bob Chapek Teases More Adult-Oriented Content for Disney

    Bob Chapek Teases More Adult-Oriented Content for Disney

    As Disney further continues into the era of Bob Chapek serving as their CEO, more changes to the creative structure of the company appear to be on the way. It looks like one change that the head of Disney would like to see further discussed is for the company to broaden its programming into more adult-oriented content. Chapek went on record on the topic in relation to the company’s history of leaning more toward family-friendly content while talking with The Wall Street Journal.

    I want to respect what this brand is. But at the same time, I know that we may be even more precious about what is ‘Disney’ than the consumer base is. If the consumer base has more elasticity, we probably ought to listen to our audience, which means we have more degrees of freedom than we probably thought.

    Bob Chapek

    This new direction from Chapek flies in the face of the old mentality of Bob Iger, his immediate predecessor. Ultimately, a shift to including more mature content would be a relatively rare concept in the history of Disney as a company. In terms of whether this will be an effective creative business strategy, it will of course come down to the quality of the projects themselves. The concept of making R or TV-MA-rated content has often been a false equivalence to “high quality” to some fans. For instance, a project like Andor has successfully been covering many serious themes in a mature way without pushing the needle toward a more explicit rating.

    It will be interesting to follow if this loose edict will have any effect on future Marvel Studios projects. As of now, the only true “adult-oriented” content on the way from them includes Deadpool 3’s theatrical release in 2024 and the Marvel Zombies animated series heading to Disney+.

    Source: Wall Street Journal

  • Ryan Reynolds, Qui Nguyen Developing Film Based on ‘Society of Explorers and Adventurers’

    Ryan Reynolds, Qui Nguyen Developing Film Based on ‘Society of Explorers and Adventurers’

    Another theme park attraction is getting the movie treatment. On Thursday, The Hollywood Reporter announced that Ryan Reynolds was teaming up with Strange World co-director Qui Nguyen to develop a movie based on Society of Explorers and Adventurers. Nguyen will pen the screenplay for the film, which will be a live action take, while Reynolds will produce through his Maximum Effort banner.

    This marks the second project centered around the Society of Explorers and Adventurers attraction. A Disney+ series is also in the works from executive producer and writer Ron Moore (For All Mankind). It’s said that Moore’s project will exist within the Magic Kingdom Universe, while Nguyen’s film will add “alternative angles to SEA mythology in present day by adding a new supernatural element to the history and following new characters not present in the original SEA lore.”

    The Society of Explorers and Adventurers, or the SEA, first launched in Tokyo Disneyland before expanding to Hong Kong Disneyland. The attraction has a rich mythology to it that “sees its founding in 1538 in Italy and expanding around the globe as an organization that consists of not only explorers and adventurers but also scientists, artists, and travelers.” Disney is hopeful to launch a new franchise with the film.

    Reynolds, of course, is prepping for Deadpool 3, the first Deadpool movie to be a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Production is expected to kick off sometime next year. While Nguyen has Strange World up next with Disney in November. He penned the screenplay and co-directed the film starring Jake Gyllenhaal. Prior to that, Nguyen also wrote the screenplay for Raya and the Last Dragon.

    Source: THR.