Pixar Takes Over Toy Story 3

[NHMickey]

Now that Disney has completed its takeover of Pixar, the animation studio will take over development of the long-gestating Toy Story 3, the Bloomberg news service reported. While reporting the company's first quarter earnings, Disney chief executive officer Robert Iger said that Disney would release about two Pixar films each year, an increase over Pixar's earlier goal of about one per year, and that Pixar will take over production of Toy Story 3, a sequel that Disney's in-house animators had been working on.

Got this news from Scifi.com

 

[Sarangel]

Nat -

How old was that post on SciFi.com? Rumor has been saying that Lassiter canned TS3, and would only consider reviving it if he felt that there was a real story to be told...

Just trying to reconcile conflicting rumors.

Sarangel

 

[NHMickey]

It was new today.

www.scifi.com

 

[gary403]

"It looks like John Lasseter’s reign over Disney’s animation division is already weakening. Just a week ago, a couple of days after the completion of a merger between Disney and Pixar and his appointment as head of the Disney Animation division, Lasseter announced that they were killing the in-production, Pixarless Toy Story sequel Toy Story 3. Now it looks like he’s been overruled.

Discussing their fourth quarter earnings, Disney head Bob Iger spoke to Bloomberg about their future plans, and he says those plans include a Toy Story 3. The difference is that they’ll be starting over on the project, this time with Pixar people in charge.

Of course when Lasseter shut down Disney’s in-progress version of the film, he didn’t say they’d never do it, he merely said they wouldn’t do it unless they had a story that demanded it. Either a week was all the guys at Pixar needed to come up with a fantastic story, or Lasseter is being pressured to suck the Toy Story franchise dry against his wishes. Let’s hope it’s not the latter.

Either way, for Toy Story fans this is still a lot better than where we were a month ago, with Disney making Toy Story 3 without Pixar. Whether this is their idea or Disney’s, at least the right people will be involved in making the film."

 

[GrimGhost]

I usually don't jump to conclusions about such things. However, this makes me a little nervous!

 

[pkgman]

While Disney will almost certainly complete the purchase of Pixar, everyone need to remember that are two separate companies until its finalized. Both of them need to conduct business like it may not completed to protect themselves from lawsuits. So anything that either side says is just conjecture.

 

[YoHo]

Umm, I'm pretty sure the purchase is complete. Both boards okayed it.

 

[DancingBear]

The Boards just approved the entry into the Merger Agreement. They're shooting for a closing this Summer (I'd think they'd try to get it done before Cars is released, although it's not really necessary).

From Pixar's SEC filings:

Consummation of the Merger is subject to several closing conditions, including the approval of the principal terms of the Merger Agreement and the Merger by the shareholders of Pixar, the receipt of antitrust approvals or the expiration of applicable waiting periods in certain jurisdictions, the absence of certain governmental restraints, and effectiveness of a Form S-4 registration statement to be filed by Disney. The Merger is intended to qualify as a tax-free reorganization under Section 368(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended.