Brad Bird Left Pixar

[Sotiris]

He has moved to Lasseter's Skydance Animation.

Skydance Animation Brings ‘The Incredibles’ Brad Bird Into Fold To Direct His Animated Film Creation ‘Ray Gunn’
https://deadline.com/2022/02/brad-bird- ... 234935520/

[Rumpelstiltskin]

From what I can remember Brad Bird was always a freelancer more than a full time employee at Pixar. And he did try to reach out to Lasseter during his "sabbatical", so it appears to be no bad blood between them.

Skydance Animation is also a new and fresh animation studio, and hasn't even released a single movie yet. Unlike an established studio like Pixar, which have now been around for decades, Skydance is still growing and looking for directors and other talents. One of the main reasons people are leaving Disney and Pixar is the opportunity to make their own movies. An animation studio can only release a very limited amount of movies on a yearly basis, and the number of people working there that wants to make something they can call their own exceeds how many features that can actually be made.

It is also possible that there are too many formulas and traditions one has to relate to at Pixar. Which is ironic if that's so, because Pixar made a list of Disney formulas they wanted to avoid when they first made Toy Story. Glen Keane said one of the reasons he left Disney was because there were too many people making decisions, instead of letting the director and a small team decide how to make the movie. A freedom he was given at Netflix. And he didn't sound too fond of concepts like the braintrust.

Just my thoughts.

[blackcauldron85]

Bird's wanted to make Ray Gunn forever so I'm happy for him that he's getting his shot. That article said that he worked with Skydance's CEO on Mission Impossible so he knows more than just Lassiter at the company.

[Rumpelstiltskin]

If he had been allowed to make this movie when the idea was still fresh, it would have been hand-drawn, and now it will be CGI instead.

I do like the visual style based on the concept art (but these days I doubt we will see any characters smoking):
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/825 ... get-ground

[Farerb]

From what I can remember Brad Bird was always a freelancer more than a full time employee at Pixar.

At this point I actually don't understand why this isn't more of a thing, why directors can't do a movie at one studio and then another when it comes to animation. With Live Action movies, directors don't have to stick to one studio.

I could have understood that if they actually let animators direct the films like they used to, but half of Disney's story trust are people who don't have a background in animation and mostly did live action - Carlos López Estrada, Stella Meghie, even Jennifer Lee... So what is the point of keeping an in house directors anymore?

[estefan]

There are some live-action directors who have largely stuck with one studio for most of their careers. Judd Apatow directed all of his movies for Universal until he recently moved to Netflix for his next film. Quentin Tarantino worked almost exclusively for the Weinsteins until the scandal. M. Night Shyamalan directed four movies for Disney before jumping around for a bit and now he's been content with making movies for Universal since 2015. But you're right in that it's rare nowadays for a director to stick with one place.

It appears that Pete Docter is one of the few OG Pixar directors still heavily involved with the studio nowadays. Lasseter, Unkrich and now Bird have gone elsewhere. Andrew Stanton did play a role in "Toy Story 4" and apparently still provides guidance on productions. But he's also directing for live-action television shows and is developing a couple of live-action movies. Stanton has said he wants to make more live-action films, because they don't take as long as animated films and he's not getting any younger.

It's kind of exciting this new era for Pixar and the talent they're building up now.

[Rumpelstiltskin]

I think the problem is that the philosophy at Pixar, and probably Disney, is that things movies should be done by employees only. Most have probably heard how Tim Burton opened up the door for Pixar when making The Nightmare Before Christmas, allowing outsiders to make movies for the studio. Before that everything had to be done at Disney. Except for the voice actors, obviously.

Pixar's rules says they can not accept scripts or anything from non-employees. If you do work there, even as a janitor, you could make some contribution if you have the talent (at least that's what they claim). Lasseter and Brad Bird were old friends, and Pixar hadn't made many movies when Bird was brought in as an outsider in 2000. But the general rules appears to be that to make a movie at Pixar, you need to be employed.

Jennifer Lee recently said: ‘I’m going to bring in talent that is going to be incredibly valuable to this studio. They’re going to bring in a different voice and perspective because they won’t have come directly from animation,” says Spencer. “It was a little uncomfortable for some people, because it was a new way of thinking about it. But she knew that, as a studio, we had to shift and change.”

But nothing about what the contract says, if they are allowed to move freely to other studios once the project they're working on at Disney is complete, and then return later if they are wanted.

Disney and Pixar didn't borrow employees from each other because they wanted the two studios to be different and not gradually melt into each other. But it felt that was happening anyway when Lasseter was CCO for both studios. Now they have two different CCOs and two different presidents, so that probably helps to tell them apart.

It wouldn't be a bad idea to open up a little. Why not bring back for instance Chris Sanders for a feature, and then he could return to DreamWorks when it was complete? Some may want to feel secure by being full time employees, while others prefer not being permanently tied to a specific studio. When Don Bluth and some animators left Disney they were called traitors. It's kind of understandable that Disney was upset after they left in the middle of the production of a movie, and back then there were relative few animators in the business. Today the situation is different, and studios would benefit from being a little more open, at least when it comes to directors and script-writers.

[Farerb]

It wouldn't be a bad idea to open up a little. Why not bring back for instance Chris Sanders for a feature, and then he could return to DreamWorks when it was complete?

Because he's a white man and Disney wants more inclusivity and diversity in order to have more authentic representation:
https://youtu.be/5Ku6GTKB2OU

[Disney's Divinity]

Skydance Animation is also a new and fresh animation studio, and hasn't even released a single movie yet. Unlike an established studio like Pixar, which have now been around for decades, Skydance is still growing and looking for directors and other talents. One of the main reasons people are leaving Disney and Pixar is the opportunity to make their own movies. An animation studio can only release a very limited amount of movies on a yearly basis, and the number of people working there that wants to make something they can call their own exceeds how many features that can actually be made.

Yeah, but Lasseter's not exactly going to give anyone who works there free reign over things to tell the story they want to tell.

Then again, it's possible he may have offered Bird the chance to do his own thing and that he wouldn't interfere too much if that's the only way he could lure him over to work with him.

Lasseter, Unkrich and now Bird have gone elsewhere.

One of these wasn't given a choice in the matter. Lasseter was thrown out and then found a job with who would still take him, he didn't make a lateral move from one place to another like these others.

[Sotiris]

Bird started developing the story for Ray Gunn in the late ’90s at what was then Turner Feature Animation, which merged with Warner Bros. The new studio asked Bird to switch gears and offered him the opportunity to instead helm The Iron Giant. But Bird never forgot the project, and says he recently negotiated for the rights to the material, telling Warner Bros., “Either let’s make it or let me try to make it somewhere else.” He signed a deal to make the film with Skydance in 2021.

Bird describes Ray Gunn as a more adult project in the noir genre, “sort of a detective film in an alternate future” that follows protagonist Raymond Gunn. “If you mashed up The Maltese Falcon with Buck Rogers, it might be something like that. But hopefully with a bit more action and funnier.” When he arrived at Skydance, Bird reassembled some of his longtime collaborators, including Oscar-winning composer Michael Giacchino, character designers Teddy Newton and Tony Fucile, editor Darren T. Holmes and storyboard artist Jeff Lynch.

Source: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movie ... 235186710/

[Farerb]

Cinesite is now hiring for the upcoming Netflix film from Skydance Animation’s “Ray Gunn,” Directed by Brad Bird
https://cinesite.com/ray-gunn-is-in-pro ... -cinesite/