Pixar usually comes up as an example of great storytelling when you talk to people who know the craft of screenwriting.
And indeed, when the Pixar gang are on top of their game, their movies are amazing, and any screenwriter in training who is striving for greatness should pay close attention to their films.
So a number of Pixar screenwriters are currently in demand for a number of projects, including, as it turns out, The Hunger Games sequel, Catching Fire. Catching Fire already has Francis Lawrence, helmer of I Am Legend, onboard to direct, and the first writer on the script is Simon Beaufoy, who also wrote 127 Hours and Slumdog Millionaire.
Now Cinema Blend tells us that Michael Arndt, who wrote the screenplay for Toy Story 3, as well as the screenplay for Little Miss Sunshine, is coming on for a script re-write before Fire starts shooting this summer. The news also just broke that Brad Bird, creator of The Incredibles and The Iron Giant, will be joining forces with Damon Lindelof, who co-created Lost and scripted Prometheus.
According to Entertainment Weekly, they’re collaborating on a project called 1952, a sci-fi project that will reportedly be “a major tentpole for Disney.” In true Team Abrams fashion, the plotline for 1952 is top secret.
In other Pixar-related news, Lee Unkrich, who directed Toy Story 3, has a new project for Pixar in the works. As EW tells us, it centers around the Mexican day of the dead holiday, and it’s titled Dia de los Muertos, which is slated for a 2015 release.
John Lasseter, chief of animation at Disney, also said at CinemaCon in Vegas that there’s two other Pixar flix on the way, Monster University, and The Good Dinosaur. Look for Monsters University in June 2013, The Good Dinosaur on May 30, 2014, and Dia de los Muertos some time in 2015.
