Originally Posted By Rebekah This topic is for discussion of the 6/28/2002 news item <b><a href="http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/art-film.html?2002-06/26/10.10.film" target="_blank">SciFiWire: Lilo Duo Go It Alone</a></b> The June 26th <I>SciFiWire</I> reports Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois following the success of <I>Lilo & Stitch</I> will form their own production company to write and direct animated and live-action movies.
Originally Posted By No1DisneyFan2003 1st Tim Burton left to make his movie company then that DreamWorks guy and now the L&S guys are leaving Disney too!! Geeeezzzzz, man! i hope this doesn't become a trend!?! *Eeek*
Originally Posted By actingforanimators Folks, I think we need to see this in context - SciFiWire is reporting on an article in Variety, which dose not say they're leaving. My take on the Variety lift (posted in full in the thread titled "Lilo & Stitch Creators Leaving Disney") is that this is a VERY strategic placement thanks to the William Morris Agency, designed to increase their clients' earning potential. As I said before, I may have to eat my mouse ears, but I sincerely believe that Disney will strike a deal with these guys, and that if/when they do leave the lot it won't be for another two to five years - if even that soon. You don't score one hit and start a studio. You do start a bidding war, but there is no better facility to support their vision than Disney - and I can promise you SKG can't afford them right now. AFA
Originally Posted By arstogas Besides that, Eisner NEEDS these guys and knows he's got gold with them. It would not only be detrimental to the studio to lose them, but to Eisner's image in the entertainment community as a leader/dealmaker/revenue generator. If he let these guys slip away without a tempting deal, he'd look like a moron. And we know his ego won't suffer that.
Originally Posted By JeffG The other thing to keep in mind is that there is a strong benefit on both sides here. Disney certainly can benefit from continuing to work with the makers of what may be their most successful film in a while. For a team focused on animated films, there really is still no better place to be than Disney either. While other studios have managed to make successful animated films in recent years, Disney is still pretty much unmatched in their ability to capitalize on that kind of success. Take a look at the merchandising of "Lilo & Stitch" compared to other recent animated films. Weeks before the film even opened, the merchandise was already selling at a healthy clip. They recognized the potential of Stitch early on and had the retail distribution network in place to fully capitalize on it. By comparison, look at what happened with "Ice Age" last Spring. That film also had a character ("Scrat") with huge merchandising potential, but that opportunity was almost completely missed. My wife collects plush and very badly wanted a scrat plush. We eventually learned that Fox had given Blockbuster Video (odd choice) exclusive rights to the merchandise. We checked a bunch of Blockbuster locations for several weeks and while many had one or two items from the movie, none had what she was wanting. Meanwhile, we noticed that those stuffed toys were starting to bring in huge prices on Ebay. She finally was only able to get one through the kindness of a friend that works for Fox. Disney really is still the master at selling all aspects of one of these films, which does still provide some huge benefits for having a project there. -Jeff
