Latinoreview.com got to catch up with Brad Bird to talk about his upcoming live action movie 1906 and the progress on Toy Story 3:
So what's going on with 1906?
Bird: We're looking at places to shoot it. The script I'm still working. it's a really hard script to write. And mostly because there are so many interesting things going on in that place and that particular period of time that anytime you're going towards something, you're going away from 5 other cool things. So it's been really hard for me to write. but I think it's going to great. and we'll see IF they have the courage to make.
What is the story about?
Bird: The simple way to sum it up would be to say it's a romantic, epic mystery with lots of action in it, based around events leading up to and through the earthquake of San Francisco of 1906.
Do you have casting in mind?
Bird: I do, but I can't say because it'll jinx it. There are some wonderful people who are interested and I hope they're still interested when I finish the script.
It's all going to be live action?
Bird: It's live action. But obviously San Francisco doesn't exist anymore the way that it was so that would all be special effects, much like New York was special effects in Kong.
Are you anxious about going from animation to live action?
Bird: I've been wanting to do it a long time. When I was in development hell, which was a really long period of time, half the projects I had in development were live action and half were animated, and animation they gave me an opportunity and once I had that opportunity, I got more opportunities so I'm taking advantage of the chance to do live action, but I'm interested in both. To me it's all film making.
Are you involved at all or do you talk to Andrew about John Carter of Mars?
Bird: Well, I haven't talked with him about John Carter yet. I had some questions about 1906 and he and John Lasseter gave me some feedback on that. These films are Pixar adjacent, I mean, we're still at Pixar while we're working on them, but they're done in a slightly different way. John Carter is with Disney proper, it is not a Pixar film. And 1906 is with Warner Brothers and Disney has some involvement with it. So we're both still engaged heavily with Pixar but we're also some things that are not quite what Pixar does. So I don't think either of us have lost any interest in Pixar, it's just that Pixar does certain kinds of films and we have other films that we'd like to make that are Pixar films and some that aren't.
So do you see a lot of the other stuff that Pixar is working on, like Toy Story 3?
Bird: Oh, absolutely. Michael Arndt, who wrote Little Miss Sunshine, wrote the script to it, so it's going to be really great.
How far along is it?
Bird: It's about ready to go into production. They're just about finished with Up, and the animators will regain their sense for a few weeks...
You don't want it to be like Toy Story 2 where it was a nightmare for these guys...
Bird: Well, they've learned how to pace themselves, people actually got injured on Toy Story 2, with RSI, Repetitive Stress Injuries, and they've learned a lot about how to keep people in the game and they realize that if they burn people out there's no more movies, so people get a little time off then they'll plunge into Toy Story 3 and i think it's gonna be great.
That's going to be in 3-D, correct?
Bird: That is. And so is Up.
Are there any new toys in Toy Story 3?
Bird: Uh...ah, ya....
I know Ken is in it...
Bird: Ya, you're trying to trick me! There are some new characters, and it will be funny.
Did you say there was an outside chance of an Iron Giant theatrical re-release?
Bird: An outside chance, yes. This year will mark its tenth anniversary, so there might be a small release.
