DreamWorks Animation Reveals Release Slate Through 2014

By Krystal Clark
From http://screencrave.com/


DreamWorks Animation has decided to let us in on their theatrical plans for the next three years. The studio has announced their release schedule that’s booked all the way up to 2014, and features several anticipated tentpoles. Some of the notable films on the list include the Shrek spin-off Puss in Boots, How to Train Our Dragon 2, and the Robert Downey Jr. voiced Mr. Peabody & Sherman. Check out the roster…

Here’s the schedule (via Deadline)

• May 26, 2011: Kung Fu Panda 2
• Nov. 4, 2011: Puss In Boots (Chris Miller director; Joe Aguilar and Latifa Ouaou, producers)
• June 8, 2012: Madagascar 3 (Eric Darnell, director; Mireille Soria and Mark Swift, producers)
• Nov. 21, 2012: Rise of the Guardians (Peter Ramsey, director, William Joyce, co-director; Christina Steinberg and Nancy Bernstein, producers)
• March 1, 2013: The Croods (Chris Sanders and Kirk DeMicco, directors; Kristine Belson and Jane Hartwell, producers)
• June 7, 2013: Turbo (David Soren, director; Lisa Stewart, producer)
• Nov. 8, 2013: Me and My Shadow (Mark Dindal, director; Melissa Cobb and Teresa Cheng, producer)
• March 21, 2014: Mr. Peabody & Sherman (Rob Minkoff, director; Jason Clark and Denise Nolan Cascino, producers)
• June 20, 2014: How to Train Your Dragon 2 (Dean DeBlois, director; Bonnie Arnold, producer)

We forgot all about Madagascar 3! Granted we love the franchise, but the fact that a third one was on the horizon completely slipped our minds. In terms of the non-sequel projects, we’re interested in seeing Mr. Peabody & Sherman. Anything with Robert Downey Jr. deserves a little bit of attention.

Jon Favreau, Robert Downey Jr. making 'Cowboys & Aliens'

By Jay A. Fernandez and Borys Kit

Jon Favreau and Robert Downey Jr. are bringing their iron-clad collaboration to another comic-book property: "Cowboys & Aliens."

Downey has been attached to the DreamWorks/Universal project since last summer, when "Iron Man" co-screenwriters Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby were working on the adaptation of the Platinum Studios Comics graphic novel written by Fred Van Lente and Andrew Foley.

In the fall, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, who are executive producers on the project, took over scripting, along with "Lost" exec producer Damon Lindelof.

Now Favreau has come on to make "Cowboys" his next directing gig.

The sci-fi Western explores what would happen if the traditional Old West enemies -- cowboys and Native Americans -- found the prairie attacked by aliens in mid-1800s Arizona. Long in development, the "Aliens" project originally was set up at Universal and DreamWorks in 1997 with Steve Oedekerk writing and directing. It later moved to Columbia, with "Sahara" scribes Joshua Oppenheimer and Thomas Donnelly writing.

The Favreau-Downey-Kurtzman-Orci-Lindelof nexus represents the current nucleus of geek-genre pop culture. Kurtzman and Orci recently delivered the sci-fi megahits "Star Trek" and "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," Lindelof maintains his control over the "Lost" mind screw, and Favreau and Downey will serve up another highly anticipated "Iron Man" saga next year.

For DreamWorks, the property represents an essential tentpole to help elevate its newly independent status now that the studio's first round of financing is complete. DreamWorks included "Cowboys" among the 17 projects it bought from Paramount upon leaving last fall.

As part of that exit arrangement, Paramount has an option to co-distribute the film with new DreamWorks distributor Disney, an opportunity it presumably will engage given Favreau's $585 million worldwide success on the Paramount-distributed "Iron Man."

Imagine Entertainment principals Brian Grazer and Ron Howard -- the latter once a possibility to direct -- are producing with Platinum topper Scott Mitchell Rosenberg. Universal, where Imagine is housed, co-developed and is co-financing the project.

As it ramps up production for the next few years' slates, DreamWorks likely would anchor its 2011 summer to "Cowboys." DreamWorks and Kurtzman and Orci also are developing the Platinum property "Atlantis Rising," another big-budget sci-fi hybrid, with director Len Wiseman and writer Joby Harold.

The CAA-repped Favreau is in postproduction on Paramount/Marvel's "Iron Man 2," slated for a May release. As a writer and actor, he will next appear in the Oct. 9 Universal comedy "Couples Retreat." He is also providing a voice to the MGM comedy "The Zookeeper."

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Steven Spielberg takes on 'Pirate Latitudes'

Project based on Michael Crichton's final novel

By Jay A. Fernandez

It's a 7-year-old boy's dream team -- Steven Spielberg, Michael Crichton and David Koepp moving on from rampaging dinosaurs to marauding pirates.

DreamWorks Studios has acquired the film rights to the action-adventure novel "Pirate Latitudes," which Crichton wrote just before his death in November. Spielberg, who directed Koepp's adaptations of Crichton's "Jurassic Park" and "The Lost World," will produce the film and possibly direct.

Koepp has signed on to adapt.

"Michael was a scrupulous researcher and one of the most innovative writers of our era," said Koepp. "To have gotten to work with one of his novels was a privilege; to work with three seems like a dream."

"Latitudes," which takes place in 1665, is about a daring plan to infiltrate Port Royal, one of the world's richest and most notorious cities, and raid a Spanish galleon filled with treasure. HarperCollins will publish the novel, which Crichton's assistant found in a completed manuscript after his death, on November 24.

Crichton and Spielberg also collaborated on the long-running medical drama "ER," which they launched together in 1994.

"Michael Crichton was one of our greatest storytellers who expanded all of our imaginations with his books, films, and television," said Spielberg. "With the 'ER' series and 'Jurassic Park' series, I enjoyed one of the best collaborations of my career. Now with 'Pirate Latitudes,' I and all of us at DreamWorks have the chance to be excited about bringing this new Michael Crichton work to the screen."

CAA brokered the deal on behalf of the Crichton estate in conjunction with literary agency Janklow & Nesbit.

A Harvard medical school graduate, Crichton published deeply researched novels, typically about technology run amok, for 40 years. A dozen of his books were adapted into films, and he also wrote and/or directed original screenplays, including "Twister," "Runaway," "Looker" and "Westworld."

The CAA-repped Koepp also worked on the screenplays for Spielberg's "War of the Worlds" and "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull." He additionally wrote and directed "Ghost Town" for DreamWorks last year.

Spielberg, also repped by CAA, is finishing up "The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn" for Paramount and Sony before moving on to his remake of "Harvey" for DreamWorks and Fox.

Robert Downey Jr., Tina Fey in talks for 'Master Mind'

Ben Stiller producing DreamWorks Animation project

By Jay A. Fernandez and Borys Kit

Robert Downey Jr.(left), Tina Fey and Ben Stiller (Getty Images photos)

Robert Downey Jr. and Tina Fey are in negotiations to lead the voice cast for DreamWorks Animation's superhero lark "Master Mind." Ben Stiller is a producer on the movie through his Red Hour Films.

The satiric film, with a screenplay by Alan J. Schoolcraft and Brent Simons, concerns a brilliant superhero villain who loses his life's purpose when he accidentally kills his good-guy nemesis. DWA plans a Nov. 5, 2010, release (though the title might change).

DWA had a banner year in 2008 with its releases "Kung Fu Panda" and "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa" (also starring Stiller), which together have grossed more than $1.2 billion worldwide. The Jeffrey Katzenberg-led company also has "Monsters vs. Aliens" in theaters in March, "How to Train Your Dragon" and "Shrek Goes Fourth" in 2010, and a "Kung Fu Panda" sequel scheduled for 2011.

Paramount, which distributes DWA's output, has its own animated feature, "Rango," starring Johnny Depp, in production for a March 2011 release.

Fey, repped by Endeavor and 3 Arts, most recently starred in the Universal comedy "Baby Mama" and is attached to star in the Fox comedy "Date Night" with Steve Carell. She continues to produce, write and star in "30 Rock" on NBC.

The Endeavor-repped Stiller has "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian" coming in May and most recently co-wrote, directed and starred in the DreamWorks comedy "Tropic Thunder."

Downey, repped by CAA, has "Sherlock Holmes" and "Iron Man 2" in production this year, and "The Soloist" hitting theaters in April. He did an Oscar-nominated turn in "Tropic Thunder" last summer.

Jay A. Fernandez reported from Los Angeles; Borys Kit reported from Berlin.

2500 Theaters to go 3-D by April 2009

3-D vision doesn't waver

DreamWorks Animation chief predicts 2,500 screens by April

By Carolyn Giardina

Dec 1, 2008, 06:10 PM ET

"Monsters vs. Aliens"

Jeffrey Katzenberg boldly predicted Monday that there will be nearly 2,500 screens ready for 3-D in time for the March 27 release of DreamWorks Animation's "Monsters vs. Aliens."

At the 3-D Entertainment Summit here, DWA's CEO also forecast that there will be 7,500 3-D screens for the summer 2010 release of his company's "Shrek Goes Fourth."

Estimates suggest that the number of 3-D-ready digital-cinema screens now in the domestic market is in the 1,500 range.

But Katzenberg, the ultimate 3-D cheerleader, expressed optimism, once again calling the format an "economic game-changer for movie theaters."

"I expect a $5 premium will be paid for the 3-D experience," he said. "Fifty% of the admissions of 'Bolt' -- which was 3-D on only 1,300 of its 4,000 screens -- is 3-D. The customers have spoken time and time again. If you offer them a premium-quality experience, they will for the most part trade up."

Commenting on "Monsters," Katzenberg suggested that there will be "more than enough screens to give us our investment back of $15 million. We spent $150 million making a movie like this, with a $15 million incremental cost for 3-D."

Digital-cinema installations are required to offer digital 3-D, so challenges like raising d-cinema deployment financing in today's tough economic climate remain.

"Just at the moment when exhibition and distribution got together, negotiated and finally closed deals for virtual print fees, there's no money," Katzenberg said. "I think in the first quarter of next year, certainly by the second quarter, financing will come together for Digital Cinema Integration Partners."

DCIP, the joint venture owned by AMC, Cinemark and Regal, represents about 14,000 screens in North America.