Ever since Disney acquired Marvel Studios, fans have been essentially foaming at the mouth at the prospect of a possible animated Marvel film from the exceptionally talented folks at Pixar. The acquisition is still fairly recent so we really haven’t gotten much solid word on that possibility as of yet, but if anybody knew what the true chances of a Marvel/Pixar crossover were it would be John Lasseter. You may know Lasseter’s name as the director of Pixar films like Toy Story and Cars, and as one of the founding members of the animation studio he has overseen every Pixar film to date. Moreover, Lasseter serves as the Chief Creative Officer at both Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios.
Steve recently got the chance to speak with Lasseter at the press junket for Pixar’s latest creation, Brave. During the course of their interview (in Scotland, no less), Steve asked Lasseter about the chances of a Marvel/Pixar film actually happening. Hit the jump to see Lasseter’s somewhat surprisingly hopeful answer.
During their interview, Steve asked Lasseter if the idea of Pixar making a Marvel film was a possibility, and the multi-hyphenate responded thusly:
“Well, I can’t say anything about that because Marvel just got—[they’ve] been a couple years as part of the Disney company, we’ve been six years as part of the Disney company. And at Pixar, we stay focused on making original films. Even our sequels are kind of created internally and we come up with ideas [on our own]. I’m also leading the Walt Disney Animation Studio and all of that. These studios are filmmaker driven studios, so if a filmmaker comes to me and says, ‘Hey, I wanna do this,’ then I would be really open to it.”
Given that Pixar notoriously generates their own material, it’s been assumed in the past that the prospect of an animated Marvel film getting made was up to the animation studio. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige said as much during his interview with Steve back in April, but it appears that Lasseter would be open to the idea if a filmmaker came up with great take on a Marvel character.
For those unaware, most of Pixar’s films are borne out of a long development period in which filmmakers pair up with producers and develop an idea until it gets to a stage where it’s ready to pitch to the studio’s “Brain Trust” (ie. a group of the head honchos of Pixar). Some films move forward after this stage, and others return to development for further foundation work. This is what Lasseter means when he says that Pixar and Disney are “filmmaker driven studios,” as their films begin and end with the filmmaker.
While it’ll most likely be a while before we see anything from a Pixar/Marvel team-up should the pairing actually happen, it’s definitely reassuring to hear that Lasseter isn’t opposed to the idea. You can watch the portion of Steve’s interview with Lasseter in which they talk about a possible Pixar/Marvel film below, and be sure to look for the full interview next week. We’ll be running a new interview with the cast and filmmakers of Brave every day next week leading up to the film’s release, so keep an eye on the site for lots of Brave goodness.
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Lets me honest here… Marvel is creating a “WORLD” in their movies and would probably like to keep it open to have any/all their characters appear in each others films together. Doing an Animated movie would disregard that character(s) from doing so. I really doubt it will happen.
You know, I think Pixar could work well if they tried to make a Guardians of the Galaxy movie. As it is the movie would have to be makeup or CGI intensive anyway if you wanted to remain true to the source, but it could work well as an animated movie. The series isn’t overly violent, often humorous, characters like Rocket Racoon and Groot would probably translate better into an animated movie than a live action film, and the varied collective of heroes as well as the cosmic setting could help keep Pixar from returning to the Incredibles with the movie.
do a Rick Ross Pixar moive
This movie would be amazing. Hmm, I say either a Guardians of the Galaxy or a Heroes for Hire film would be an amazing Pixar movie. Fantastic Four would probably be really good to; though I would rather Pixar do a hero/heroes that hasn’t been done yet. Which is why I suggest Guardians of the Galaxy or Heroes for Hire.
Filmmaker driven? One name springs to mind: BRAD BIRD. This guy would make an awesome Marvel movie, live action OR animated. Can we please champion this?!
Why would you want one of the few studios to produce ORIGINAL to change course and make Marvel Movies? Translation of JL’s quote: “Not likely to really happen.” Honestly, I think Marvel is going to get to the point where they exhaust moviegoers from releasing too many films based on their characters. They also seem to have a wretched track record with directors being happy with them. Hell, it’s been over a month and they haven’t signed the guy that made them a sh*t load of money for the sequel. Remember when it was reported that Whedon wasn’t sure he even wanted to do the sequel? Marvel is cheap. They don’t care about quality, just profit.
Lots of people has mentioned they wish spidey and xmen reverts back to marvel, but unfortunately I say if these franchises started with marvel in the first place we would never ever have the classics like spiderman 2, x united and first class. Why? Becos marvel is notoriously control freaky with their own products (understandable to a degree), and wants to keep a tight leash on their directors. Look at the directors they pick…aside from fan Dave wheldon, everyone they choose are someone they can easily control within their own system so they make exactly what they want. Look at the current picks for cap and Thor 2…both tv directors…
What I am saying is…if marvel was in control with spidey do u really think they would have something like a 2.5 hrs epic of a sequel for spiderman 2 by raimi? All of marvels movies r kept under 2 hrs, have mediocre third acts and really quite forgettable. I am saying this despite being a fan of captain America.
Marvel has a lot of action figures. They could have their own Toy Story using them.
I’d pay to see that in a heartbeat. It’d be kinda like LEGO Star Wars or LEGO Batman, something geared towards kids, but you could still have an amazing story. You could have the heroes battle Dr. Doom and Magneto, who are trying to start a toy uprising and conquer the humans.
Would love for them to do a Guardians of the Galaxy film. and they could still have it crossover with the other films if they want by having some of the actors lend their voices for cameos or whatever.
Let’s be honest. Pixar has already made a Marvel movie. The Incredibles was basically the Fantastic Four, replacing the Human Torch with the Flash. They even managed to throw Franklin in there.
So, yeah, I would absolutely love to see it.
John Lasseter needs to team with Aaron Sorkin to direct the real Steve Jobs biopic. Joseph Gordon levitt and Matt Berry for Jobs and Wozniak.
If they could do Alex Ross’s “Marvels” that would be amazing!
Use the Marvel rights in the Incredibles sequel. The fake heroes from the first were cool, but the Incredibles side by side or opposite “legit” super characters would be smart.
While we shouldn’t forget that Marvel and Pixar already brainstormed potential collaborations during at least one pre-acquisition meeting, Lasseter’s words are very encouring. While characters such as Morph and Warlock (the later doesn’t appear in any online Fox/X-Men lists) would lend themselves to the CGI format, you almost wonder if Pixar and Marvel should just work together to create a brand new character…
I always thought Pixar would do a great Power Pack (http://www.blogcdn.com/blog.moviefone.com/media/2010/09/pixar-powerpack.jpg) movie. In my opinion, the premise itself already sounds like the plot of a Pixar film: four kid siblings who were each given super powers fight to protect the world with their parents being completely unaware. kids would love it. Marvel fans would love it. Plus they sometimes hang out with Franklin Richards which could tie it in with any future fantastic four movies (provided Marvel ever gets the rights back from fox). A Pixar Power Pack movie is definitely the logical choice.