Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, the beloved children’s story that’s also its author’s favorite work, opens in theaters on March 2^nd. To promote the film’s release, Collider got to participate in the press junket and sit down with producer Chris Meledandri (founder and CEO of Illumination Entertainment).

While we will run what he had to say about the film, closer to its release date, we did want to share what he had to say about the development of the live-action film Illumination is doing on the life of Theodor Geisel, the man behind the work of Dr. Seuss, that is being produced by Johnny Depp, who will possibly star in the lead role. Meledandri said that he takes the protection of the Seuss legacy very serious and will not move forward with the film until they believe it’s right, and that they are planning for it do include a mix of the animated characters of his creation. He also said they’ve just started animating Despicable Me 2, and how excited they are to have Al Pacino making his animated feature debut as the villain. Check out what he had to say after the jump:

After Disney nearly pulled the plug on the big-budget adaptation of The Lone Ranger, the production is now a go.  Director Gore Verbinski, producer Jerry Bruckheimer, and stars Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer all agreed to take pay cuts, and Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio reworked the script by Justin Haythe (Revolutionary Road) to excise some of the more costly aspects.  All in all, the creatives involved were able to bring the budget down from $250 million to $215 million (which is still an insane amount of money for a western).  While the behind-the-scenes drama is well documented, very little about the actual movie is known.  Depp recently talked a bit about the project and elaborated on the direction the film will take. He also touched on the Dr. Seuss biopic that he’s producing (and possibly starring in), revealing that the project will include some of Seuss’ beloved characters. Hit the jump to see what Depp had to say.