Zack Snyder’s Guardians of Ga’Hoole: Lord of the Rings in Scope?
Producer Donald De Line talked to Collider about Zack Snyder’s animated children’s film Guardians of Ga’Hoole, an adaptation of the 14 book bestselling kids series by author Kathryn Lasky and illustrator Richard Cowdry (the film is based on the first three books in the series). De Line described the tone of the film as more “Harry Potter” ”than Happy Feet.”
“It’s a big kind of epic story. There’s 14 books in the series and so it’s more of that feel to it. Lord of the Rings might be another analogy; you know that kind of scope,” De Line told Collider. “It won’t be out until 2010, so he’s been involved in all his spare time ‘quote unquote’ doing character design and working on the screenplay and laying down a scratch track and doing all kinds of stuff.”
The story follows a young barn owl named Soren, who is kidnapped by owls of St. Aggie’s,where owlets are brainwashed into becoming soldiers. He and his new friends escape to the island of Ga’Hoole, to assist its noble, wise owls who fight the army being created by the wicked rulers of St. Aggie’s.
Casting has just begun, so I would look for announcements to happen sooner rather than later.
New WALL-E Trailer with Live Action Humans?
Disney has released a strange new trailer for Pixar’s WALL-E. “Meet The Bots” introduces us to the many bots we’ll meet in Andrew Stanton’s film. The strange part is that it begins as a promotional video from the Buy N Large Corporation. For a few seconds we get to see what live-action humans look like on the luxury starliner (before they became giant couch potato blobs, or course). It looks very Happy Feet-ish.
Stanton confirmed last year at WonderCon that “There is a live action element involved” but wouldn’t reveal more, only insisting that “We’re not doing anything like Happy Feet.” Fred Willard later revealed that he appears on a television monitor as the live-action spokesman of Buy N Large. So it’s clear that the human characters that left earth use to look like live action humans (as opposed to the animated Captain played by Jeff Garlin). And we have since seen that WALL-E watches a live-action version of the musical Hello Dolly in his trailer full of human collectibles. So I’m very curious to see if this is actually part of the film itself.
Thanks to Reader Dustin R for sending over the tip.
Syesha’s Un-Happy Feet
No, Syesha Mercado wasn't exactly ecstatic about Happy Feet.
"It's not like I could change it," Mercado said of being required, per American Idol producers, to perform the penguin movie ditty "Hit Me Up" on Tuesday's show. "So, I could try to make the best of it."
Mercado, who was dismissed from Idol last night, one week shy of the finale, didn't pin her exit on the so-called producer's choice song, one of three she belted on Tuesday.
But, while upbeat in a conference call with reporters this morning, she didn't disagree with a suggestion that "Hit Me Up" wasn't a singer's song.
"Not, it really wasn't," Mercado said. "Most of the song was backup singers."
Mercado, 21, was insistent she was perfectly happy with her Idol stint. After surviving the bottom three five times, not including Tuesday, she placed third, higher than distinguished Idol alums Chris Daughtry and Tamyra Gray.
"I'm just so proud of myself for making it this far, and being the last girl," she said.
Next week's finale will feature the battle of the Davidsearly favorite David Archuleta and emerging favorite David Cook.
"I feel like I'm a big sister, and a little sister to both of the Davids," said Mercado, meaning, no, she wasn't making a pick or prediction.
Mercado, who said she refused to prepack her bags each week in order to keep her eye on the prize, allowed she had a feeling Tuesday night that her run was about done.
"I got too many bad comments from the judges," she said. "At this point in the game, you couldn't have too many bad comments.
"And I moved on. I made peace with it."
Other tidbits:
- Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber was her favorite mentorno surprise, since her performance of his "One Rock & Roll Too Many" changed her previously low profile in the competition. "That was my shining moment on stage," she said. "He just encouraged me to perform the song the way I wanted to perform it."
- Vocal problems during Hollywood week "separated me from everyone else, and it kinda put this negative eye on me, and it kinda started me off on a bad note," she said on Idol host Ryan Seacrest's morning radio show.
- Mercado wants to do everythingseriously, everything: "I want to make an album. I want to star in a film, star on Broadway…Open an organic restaurant."
Fred Willard is The First Live Action Pixar Character
At Comic Con this year, WALL-E director Andrew Stanton confirmed that there would in fact be a live action element in the upcoming Pixar film.
“We’re not doing anything like Happy Feet,” said Stanton. “There is a live action element involved but that’s the most I can say.”
And that is a good thing because I thought the live-action integration in Happy Feet was very off putting. Last month actor Jeff Garlin added that he is the “only animated character that speaks” in the film. Garlin plays the Captain of a starliner ship, which most of humanity (now couch potatoes) call home.
“A lot of the film is silent and they’re robots so they make noises and such and there’s sound but I’m one of the only characters that speak – not one of them – I am the only animated character that speaks,” Garlin said. “There’s another character but I can’t talk about it. But I’m the only animated character that speaks.”
The film follows a small Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class robot (or WALL-E for short)’s fantastic journey across a universe of never-before-imagined visions of the future. We’ve wondered for a while now who this other character was and if he was the live action element of WALL-E. And thanks to Rotten Tomatoes, we now have the answer:
The Live Action Element of WALL-E is… Fred Willard. You know, the guy from the Christopher Guest mockumentaries. Apparently Willard plays Shelby Forthright, the CEO of the Buy N Large corporation.
“[Buy N Large] practically owns everything in the world. It’s kind of a take off on Wal Mart.”
You can actually visit the official website for the fictional corporation at buynlarge.com. So how will a live-action Fred Willard look in the computer animated world of Pixar? Well…
“I appear on a TV monitor but I’m more than a voice. Jeff Garlin is a voice but people are saying, ‘Oh, you’re a voice.’ No, I actually appear. People will say, ‘Oh, that’s Fred Willard.’”
Having the live-action human character on a monitor might be a lot less jarring than seeing a human interact with with the Pixar animated characters. Willard has already recorded his footage for the film, which hits theaters in June 2008.
Photo credits: Futuristic TV, Spaceship Hallway