Elton's "Gnomeo" cartoon a no-go at Disney

[CareBlair]

Elton's "Gnomeo" cartoon a no-go at Disney
Tuesday March 28 8:30 AM ET

The Elton John movie "Gnomeo & Juliet," an animated musical based on William Shakespeare's tragic romance, is no longer in production at Walt Disney Feature Animation, the studio said Monday.

John was producing the movie about small star-crossed lovers through his Rocket Pictures banner, and was engaged to write the songs.

"Gnomeo" was Disney's second animation collaboration with John following 1994's "The Lion King," which featured John and lyricist Tim Rice's Oscar-winning "Can You Feel the Love Tonight."

The crews at Walt Disney Feature Animation who were in production on the project have been reassigned to other projects, a Disney spokeswoman said.

John recently appeared in support of "Gnomeo" at the Walt Disney Studios Showcase in September when the studio offered members of the press a sneak peek of its slate through 2008. John marked the occasion by playing "Crocodile Rock" on a trademark red piano.

Walt Disney Feature Animation's film slate is under close review following Disney's purchase of Pixar Animation Studios, the firm behind the "Toy Story" movies. Pixar executives John Lasseter and Ed Catmull are reviewing the Disney slate while simultaneously developing new animated titles.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

http://movies.yahoo.com/mv/news/va/20060328/114356341900.html

[Another Voice]

It's still around.

Distribution for this movie will now be handled by Miramax Pictures, which remains wholly owned by The Walt Disney Company. Everyone within Disney still wants to go forward with this picture; rumors say that John Lasseter and the Pixar gang were underwhelmed with what they say (and this leads in to a huge battle going on now between "Disney people" and "Pixar people").

Elton John is still writing songs for the film (and it's buzzed that he made phone calls to everyone in Hollywood to pressure Disney to keep this film going). He's also offering up songs from his own collection. Which means, thanks to the switch to Miramax, that his 'The B*tch is Back' will be heavily featured in the new movie.

Rumor is the film's production will be moved to a company, probably in the U.K.

[Sarangel]

I thought I'd read that Dreamworks picked this up

Sarangel