Friday, December 30, 2005

No, it's not "The Incredibles"...



Waaaaaay back in 1998, I came up with an idea for an animated superhero movie. In '99, I was given the chance to pitch it as a project that I might write and direct. The big challenge: Sell Tom Schumacher, (the head of Feature animation at Disney at the time) on the idea. Now Tom was famous for hating comic books in general, and superheroes in particular. He felt that superhero movies were too dark, too violent, and not emotional enough. Hence the challenge. With the help of some incredibly talented colleagues, (including our own Mr. Skribbl), I put together a story that would satisfy the superhero fans (like myself) but still had, as Tom himself said "Disney warmth". Tom loved it.
Unfortunately, Brad Bird had just signed on at Pixar to produce "The Incredibles", and Tom just could'nt see his way to putting both films into production. He also sighted several similarities between the two stories which he would'nt and could'nt divulge. When I finally saw "The Incredibles", I was able to see what he meant. In my story, I had a former sidekick that turns bad and, as away of winning the public over, stages a battle with a giant robot!
Oh well. The work I did on the story convinced Tom that I could, in fact, direct so when a certain cow movie went off the rails, he made me one of the directors.
I still want to do a superhero movie some day.
I'm a geek, what can I say.
By the way, "The Incredibles" is one of my favorite movies of all time.

4 comments:

Jeff said...

It was fun to help design the bad guy. I was working on "Wild Life" at the time so it was fun to do something different. 180 degrees different.

I'm not bagging on you RTKZ, I just find it weird that in Hollywood we all come up with the same ideas at the same time. It's just who comes out with it first. But Jeffery is another story.

Maddie said...

Damn dude! Nice! Those are some crazy similarities. Of course that says to me you're thinking the right way.

John S. said...

Thanks guys!!
Hey Skribbl, I'm going to dig up that bad guy design and post it, if that is okay with you, along with some cool Joe Moesier designs.
Skribbl! You gotta talk about your "Wild Life" experiences! Now THAT is interesting reading!
Happy New Year!

Jeff said...

Go for it yo!