Category: Disney News

The live-action adaptation of “Ghost in the Shell” will now be distributed by ParamountPictures instead of Disney.

The move comes after Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks Pictures ended its agreement with Disney and moved to Universal Pictures. Paramount is co-financing the film.

Based on Masamune Shirow’s seminal cyberpunk manga and the subsequent anime franchise, “Ghost in the Shell” centers on Public Security Section 9, a counter-cyberterrorist organization in near-future Japan led by Major Motoko Kusanagi.

Directed by Rupert Sanders (“Snow White and the Huntsman”), the film stars Scarlett Johansson and Pilou Asbæk. It’s set to open March 31, 2017.

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As “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” approaches $900 million at the domestic box office, Disney is looking to add significantly to its haul with the sale of free TV rights to a nine-movie “Star Wars” package.

Execs with Disney/ABC Home Entertainment and Television Distribution began a blitz of pitching prospective buyers last week that will extend into this week. Industry sources say Disney is hoping to nab some $30 million apiece for “Force Awakens” and the following two titles, “Episode VIII,” slated for 2017, and “Episode IX,” expected in 2019.

The asking prices for the six older titles in the series — which started in 1977 with “Star Wars” — is unclear but sources characterized it as it high, especially for vintage titles. It’s expected that the package will also include other non-“Star Wars” titles, yet there’s no question that the Force is the driving force in this package.

Among the cable outlets that are believed to have been pitched or scheduled to meet with Disney execs are Turner, FX Networks, Viacom, NBCUniversal (focusing on USA and Syfy), A+E Networks and AMC Networks.

A rep for Disney/ABC Home Entertainment declined to comment.

The “Star Wars” collection is the first movie package to stir up significant industry chatter among cable buyers in some time. Movies in general have become less of a hot commodity for broadcasters because they’re so widely available in the home via premium VOD, SVOD and online rental services. Those availabilities precede the home video and pay TV windows that kick in six- to 12 months after theatrical release. But as the most enduring titles remain a reliable source of ratings the demand for top-tier titles remains strong among the largest cablers. The appetite for content among SVOD players has also boosted the market for marquee studio titles.

Starz has the traditional pay TV rights to “Force Awakens” starting at the end of this year through its prior movie output deal with Disney. The title probably won’t hit free TV until 2018 at the earliest.

One wrinkle in the price considerations for “Episode VIII” and “Episode IX” is the Netflix factor. The next two “Star Wars” movies and other Disney theatrical releases will shift to Netflix for the traditional pay TV window, under the blockbuster output deal that Disney struck with Netflix in late 2012. That deal, valued at $300 million a year for Disney, covers the Mouse’s theatrical releases starting in 2016.

One industry veteran said there is sure to be some concern about how the Netflix’s 24/7 streaming availability will affect the exposure level of “Episode VIII” and “Episode IX” by the time they land in the free TV window.

The six older “Star Wars” pics will likely become available much earlier to free-TV buyers through the package now on the auction block. Those movies were most recently licensed by Viacom’s Spike TV in a six-year deal valued at $65-$70 million. The titles have been out of circulation on commercial TV since the Spike TV license expired in 2014.

In 2008, Paramount made the four “Indiana Jones” films available to free-TV as a package three months before the May 2008 release of “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.” Those titles were said to have nabbed about $25 million apiece in a sale to USA Network. But with the weaker numbers for most theatricals on commercial-TV, industry observers said $30 million apiece for multiple runs of the new “Star Wars” titles would be on the high end of market value.

Among seasoned movie buyers, there’s speculation that Disney/ABC’s aggressive pitch strategy may be a process of determining what the market will bear before setting a licensing pact with one or more of its internal networks such as ABC or Freeform (formerly ABC Family). If the new movies go to Disney-owned outlets, the Mouse would be vulnerable to self-dealing claims from profit participants without clear documentation of the value placed on the titles by outside networks.

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New research by linguists Carmen Fought and Karen Eisenhauer, published by The Washington Post, say despite princesses having the lead roles, the men in the films have more to say.

Men speak 68 per cent of the time in The Little Mermaid; 71 per cent in Beauty and the Beast; 76 per cent in Pocahontas; and 77 per cent in Mulan.

More men than women … had speaking roles in The Little Mermaid. Picture: DisneySource:Supplied

For Aladdin, which doesn’t have a female lead, the percentage was even worse; just 10 per cent of speaking roles were female.

The trend seems to be immune from early Disney films, with Snow White (1937) holding an equal share of male and female words spoken, and women outspeaking their male counterparts in Cinderella (1950) and Sleeping Beauty (1959).

Poor Princess Jasmin … even male characters in Aladdin had more speaking time.Source:Supplied

The new age of Disney, beginning with The Little Mermaid in 1989, saw the roles reversed.

“There’s one isolated princess trying to get someone to marry her, but there are no women doing any other things,” Fought told The Washington Post.

“There are no women leading the townspeople to go against the Beast, no women bonding in the tavern together singing drinking songs, women giving each other directions, or women inventing things.

Disney princess Mulan … another film dominated by male characters.Source:Supplied

“Everybody who’s doing anything else, other than finding a husband in the movie, pretty much, is a male.”

The research found that the older Disney films had fewer speaking roles in general but more gender balance.

But with more ensemble musical interludes in the `80s and `90s, the number of characters grew and so did the disparity.

Women spoke more … in movies like Sleeping Beauty. Picture: DisneySource:Supplied

“My best guess is that it’s carelessness, because we’re so trained to think that male is the norm,” Eisenhauer said.

“So when you want to add a shopkeeper, that shopkeeper is a man. Or you add a guard, that guard is a man. I think that’s just really ingrained in our culture.”

Things started looking like they were taking a turn in the 2000s, with strong female leads in Tangled and Brave.

Fifty-two per cent of dialogue was spoken by women in 2010s Tangled, while 2012’s Brave had 74 per cent of lines spoken by women.

Frozen didn’t keep to the trend, with the 2013 film about two sisters seeing 59 per cent of lines spoken by men.

However, for the most modern films, the female leads were more likely to be praised for their skills and achievements rather than their looks.

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Disney’s soon-to-open Magic Kingdom in Shanghai  might lose some of its sparkle as China’s notorious smog problem threatens to snuff out the park’s signature closing fireworks show.

A new regional fire services rule that took effect at the beginning of this year says all fireworks shows will be prohibited in Shanghai without exception on “heavily polluted days.”

According to a notice posted on its website, the local government defines “heavily polluted days” as days when the air quality index is above 200 on China’s 500-point scale.

Shanghai suffered 8 heavily polluted days in 2015, according to the local environmental protection bureau’s database.

It isn’t clear whether the local authorities might treat the “happiest place on earth” with mercy on polluted days, considering the government’s previous offers of unusual extra attention and efforts to support Shanghai Disneyland, the first Disney theme park to open in mainland China.

A local newspaper affiliated with Shanghai’s party-controlled Jiefang Daily Groupquoted the chairman of Shanghai Shendi Group — a joint venture between Walt Disney Co. and the Shanghai government — as saying the theme park is located outside Shanghai’s outer ring and therefore isn’t restricted by the firework ban on normal days, without explaining what that meant.

The chairman, Fan Xiping, also said that the theme park will minimize the pyrotechnic extravaganza’s influence on the local environment by using advanced and environmentally-friendly fireworks.

Mr. Fan could not be reached for confirmation on Tuesday.

A Disney spokeswoman said in an e-mail that the company “had a long-standing record and commitment to fireworks shows and technologies that were uniquely entertaining and environmentally friendly.” She added that Disney has been working closely with all government authorities and would strictly comply with all local regulations.

Calls to the Shanghai fire department went unanswered.

Major Chinese cities like Beijing and Shanghai are struggling to fight smog – yet doing so presents them with the dilemma of sacrificing economic activity for the sake of air quality as the country’s growth is slowing down.

This week, the Shanghai government set a goal of decreasing the average daily density of PM2.5 particles, a major contributor to air pollution, to 42 micrograms per cubic meter by 2020, from 53 last year.

The World Health Organization sets a safe level of PM2.5 exposure at 25 micrograms per cubic meter over a 24-hour period.

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Two former technology employees at Walt Disney World in Florida are suing Disney and the outsourcing companies they say colluded to break the law and replace workers with cheaper immigrant labour.

Representing both former employees, lawyer Sara Blackwell filed lawsuits in Tampa federal court on Monday against Disney and two consulting companies, HCL Inc and Cognizant.

Blackwell says her clients, Leo Perrero and Dena Moore, were among 250 tech workers laid off by Disney last year.

She says Disney is colluding with consulting companies to abuse visas meant to fill specialty occupations and replace American workers with immigrants.

Disney said in a statement the lawsuits are based on an unsustainable legal theory and are a misrepresentation of the facts.

Cognizant said in a statement that it complies with all US regulations regarding the visas.

An email seeking comment from HCL wasn’t immediately returned.

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Upcoming Disney Movies To Watch Out For In 2016
2016 is going to be full of amazing Disney movies! Without further ado, here is a list of the top Disney flicks to watch out for.
4 March 2016 – Zootopia: It is set in a world where there are no humans, just animals. It stars Jason Bateman as a fox wrong accused of crime, Ginnifer Goodwin as a police bunny and Shakira as a pop star called Gazelle.

15 April 2016 – The Jungle Book: This will be a live action movie with Scarlett Johansson as Kaa, Christopher Walken as King Louie, Bill Murray as Baloo, Lupita Nyong’o as Raksha and Idris Elba as Shere Khan.

6 May 2016 – Captain America: Civil War : This will see a major rift among the Avengers, with the 2 sides led by Captain America and Iron Man. Who will win?

27 May 2016 – Alice Through the Looking Glass: This is a sequel to Tim Burton’s ‘Alice In Wonderland’. In it Mia Wasikowska and Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway and Helena Donham Carter will reprise their roles as Alice, the Mad Hatter, Red Queen and Red Queen. In the movie Alice will travel back in time to save the Mad Hatter.

17 June 2016 – Finding Dory: The movie starts 6 months after ‘Finding Nemo’. In this Dory, along with Nemo and Marlin go on journey looking for Dory’s family.

1 July 2016 – BFG: Steven Spielberg will adapt Roald Dahl’s book ‘BFG’, an acronym for Big Friendly Giant. Bill Hader will play the role of BFG.

12 August 2016 – Pete’s Dragon: It is a remake of the 1977 movie of the same name. In the movie a young orphan will seek the help of a dragon.

4 November 2016 – Doctor Strange: Benedict Cumberbatch will play the role of a failed surgeon turned sorcerer who fights evil.

23 November 2016 – Moana: This is an animated musical. In this a teen along with demigod Maui, played by Dwayne Johnson, will set out on an adventure to find a magical island.

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A night of dinner and wine led to a running pact for four friends. For Jennifer White, it would be a return to the magical place beloved by her daughter Olivia, who died in 2012 from a blood infection at the age of 5.

RICK MADONIK / TORONTO STAR Order this photo

Jennifer White is training for the Feb. 21 Disney Princess Half Marathon race at Disney World.

When Disney’s Frozen came out three years ago, millions of children and adults fell in love with Olaf, the goofy, buck-toothed snowman who happens to be obsessed with summer. Olaf is also a popular character in Disney Infinity, an action-adventure video game that synchronizes physical, collectible figurines of famous Disney characters with the game system to unlock special content. Now, a special ‘behind the scenes’ video from Disney’s Boxed series reveals the entire process of creating of a 3D printed Olaf Disney Infinity Figure, from 2D concept art, to 3D printing, to its final boxing.

The 2/12 minute long Making of an Infinity Figure video is a great insider’s look into just how much care and attention to detail goes into each 3D printed Disney Infinity figure—particularly at the level of 3D sculpting in ZBrush by Pixologic, and 3D printing using high-precision SLA 3D printing technology.

The first step in the creation of a Disney Infinity figure is creating the 2D sketch. At this stage, concept artists must carefully adapt the original design of the character to the Infinity game’s iconic computer-animated look.

Once the flat, 2D concept is complete, ZBrush 3D sculpting artist Shane Olson swoops in to transform it into a full, 3D rendering of the character that can walk, talk and move just like in the movie. For Olaf, that meant recreating his wide, toothy smile and wobbly, clown-like walk.  This 3D rendering will be used both to create the in-game character, and as a digital model to 3D print the actual Disney Infinity figurine.

The next stop on this behind the scenes video tour is the 3D Printing Room, where Olson’s 3D model of Olaf truly comes to life, emerging as a physical 3D object from a pool of murky grey goo. Of course, 3D printing enthusiasts will know that that ‘grey goo’ is actually the resin used in SLA (stereolithography) 3D printing. In this process, a UV laser draws a pre-programmed design into the surface of a vat of photopolymer resin, causing the resin to solidify one layer at a time.

SLA 3D printing is widely recognized as being more precise and accurate than FDM 3D printing, producing high-resolution objects with a much finer level of detail. This precision can clearly be seen on the 3D printed Olaf in Disney’s video, whose skinny twig-like arms have been recreated with amazing accuracy.

The next steps are to carefully remove the support structures, and sand down any rough edges, seams or blemishes before priming and assembling the various 3D printed parts. Now, our 3D printed Olaf is ready to be painted. The video shows talented artists carefully hand painting every precise detail, from his expressive eyebrows to a tiny purple flower that is attached to the base. The attention to detail is truly stunning, but we wouldn’t expect anything less from Disney at this point.

Finally, assembled, painted, and programmed, the video shows our 3D printed Olaf placed onto the game console and magically transported directly into the Disney Infinity game onscreen. It’s been quite the process, getting from 2D concept to 3D printed model, to 3D video game character—but that’s all in a regular day’s work for your average Disney Infinity figurine.

The Disney Boxed ‘making of’ video gives some great insight into how beloved Disney characters are brought to life via 3D modeling and 3D printing technology. Check it out in full below:

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Disney Cruise Line is now offering exclusive Star Wars Day at Sea sailings aboard the Disney Fantasy on select Western Caribbean voyages through April of this year (check the website for schedule of dates), and it is exactly what you think I said: A STAR WARS CRUISE!

I’ll wait here if you need to go breathe into a paper bag or something.

Generally speaking, the sailing is everything you have come to know and love about a Disney Cruise Line adventure: There are scheduled stops in Cozumel, Mexico and Grand Cayman, not to mention Disney’s private island of Castaway Cay; amazing food (and lots of it); endless activities for guests of all ages (including the best youth clubs I have ever seen, anywhere); Broadway-style shows; exclusive shopping; and that famous attention to service and detail that only Disney can achieve. Bottom line, sailing with Disney Cruise Line is one of the best trips available on the planet.

And now, with the addition of Star Wars Day at Sea sailings, it is one of the best trips in the galaxy, or any galaxy for that matter, regardless of time or distance. If you felt a disturbance in your travel plans, it was this–the Star Wars cruise you have been looking for (droids included).

My family and I set sail on the inaugural Star Wars Day at Sea, and we had an absolute blast. We experienced meet-and-greets with Chewbacca and Captain Phasma (so far the only place you can meet her!), attended the Jedi Training Academy, screened every Star Wars film, watched episodes of Disney’s animated series Star Wars Rebels from the pool, and had the opportunity to speak with Star Wars insiders–for instance, I had the opportunity to interview Executive Creative Director of Walt Disney Imagineering Dan Fields:

You’ll notice that I mentioned the strong female characters aboard the Star Wars Cruise, of which there were a few. For those readers unaware, there has been a lot of negative feedback toward a few toy companies regarding the lack of female Star Wars characters being offered, namely Rey, in their respective toy lines, and rightfully so. I figured I would draw attention to someone doing it right. Nicely done, Disney Cruise Line.

Are you wondering why it is called “Star Wars Day at Sea” as opposed to “days” or “week” when there is no shortage of Star Wars events and activities throughout the entirety of the sailing? That is because the big party and organized costumed events are all scheduled into one packed day (doable, but packed).

Speaking of costumes, the guests really rise to the occasion. Several times it was hard to tell if we were taking photos with a fellow passenger or an official character, and to Disney’s credit they were cool with it.

These are guests:

This is an official Star Wars character:

This is how every screening started:

This was around every corner:

And this was the just desserts:

This is the part where I tell you my family and I loved Disney Cruise Line’s Star Wars Day at Sea, and that you will, too.

This is where you say, “I know.”

Note: My family and I were guests of Disney Cruise Line for the “Star Wars” Day at Sea sailing. All opinions are my own. All photos and videos by Whit Honea except interview video (the professional looking one) courtesy of Disney Cruise Line.

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