Over the weekend Disney held their D23 Expo, which is essentially the Mouse House equivalent of Comic Con and on Friday Muppets Most Wanted.
They also announced the newest Disneynature property which will be Bears, directed by Alastair Fothergill (Earth, African Cats and Chimpanzee) and Keith Scholey (African Cats) and will arrive in theaters April 18, 2014.
Clips from upcoming Marvel films — Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy — were shown much to the crowd’s delight, but all the talk soon turned to Star Wars: Episode VII, though fans were left booing as no new information was revealed.
A clip from Saving Mr. Banks was shown as well as an early peek at Kenneth Branagh‘s live-action Cinderella. USA Today has a report detailing the Banks footage, which was apparently quite good and may mean big things for its Oscar chances if the film lives up to this early impression:
Perhaps no footage shown was as enchanting as the scenes debuted from this December’s Saving Mr. Banks. The biopic stars Tom Hanks as Walt Disney opposite Emma Thompson as English author P.L. Travers, who took over 20 years to be persuaded to give up the rights to her book, Mary Poppins. “We will finally see Walt come to life in a medium he loved and embraced,” said Sean Bailey, president of Walt Disney Studios motion picture production.
Scenes included the dour Travers’ horrified reaction at Poppins being made into a musical. (“Mary Poppins does not sing,” she tells Disney firmly.) Although Hanks and Thompson were not present, B.J. Novak and Jason Schwartzman (who play Mary Poppins composers) took the stage with famed composer Richard Sherman to sing a confetti-strewn version of “Let’s Go Fly a Kite”. “What’s so interesting and fun about the movie is dramatizing that process,” said Novak. “The songs that feel so easy to us now came with such difficulty.”
For those of you that weren’t in attendance, myself included, but would still like to get some kind of feel for what took place, I have new title treatments for a trio of the films as well as some video of what took place, though, sadly, none of the clips that were shown are officially available.
First, here are a couple videos from the Marvel presentation which includes the likes of President of Marvel Studios Kevin Feige, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins, Chris Evans and Anthony Mackie.
Now here are some newly released title treatments from three of Disney’s upcoming films along with information of each, followed by highlights from the D23 Expo presentations.
Academy Award®-winning actress Angelina Jolie was on hand and offered a first look at Disney’s Maleficent. Starring as the title character in the highly anticipated live action film, Jolie chatted with Bailey about the film before exiting to wild applause, which can be watched at the bottom of this post.
Maleficent is the untold story of Disney’s most iconic villain from the 1959 classic Sleeping Beauty. A beautiful, pure-hearted young woman, Maleficent has an idyllic life growing up in a peaceable forest kingdom, until one day when an invading army threatens the harmony of the land. Maleficent rises to be the land’s fiercest protector, but she ultimately suffers a ruthless betrayal–an act that begins to turn her pure heart to stone. Bent on revenge, Maleficent faces an epic battle with the invading king’s successor and, as a result, places a curse upon his newborn infant Aurora. As the child grows, Maleficent realizes that Aurora holds the key to peace in the kingdom–and perhaps to Maleficent’s true happiness as well.
The film also stars Sharlto Copley, Elle Fanning, Sam Riley, Imelda Staunton, Miranda Richardson, Juno Temple and Lesley Manville and is produced by Joe Roth and directed by Robert Stromberg. Linda Woolverton, the screenwriter of Alice in Wonderland, The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast, wrote the screenplay. Maleficent opens in theaters on July 2, 2014.
Directed by James Bobin and produced by David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman, Disney’s Muppets Most Wanted takes the entire Muppets gang on a global tour, selling out grand theaters in some of Europe’s most exciting destinations, including Berlin, Madrid and London. But mayhem follows the Muppets overseas, as they find themselves unwittingly entangled in an international crime caper headed by Constantine–the World’s Number One Criminal and a dead ringer for Kermit–and his dastardly sidekick Dominic, aka Number Two, portrayed by Gervais. Fey is featured as Nadya, a feisty prison guard. Bobin co-wrote the screenplay with Nicholas Stoller, who is also executive producer with John G. Scotti. Featuring music from Academy Award®-winning songwriter Bret McKenzie, Muppets Most Wanted hits the big screen March 21, 2014.
The D23 audience was treated to a glimpse into the mysteries surrounding Disney’s Tomorrowland as filmmakers Brad Bird (director, co-writer, producer) and Damon Lindelof (co-writer, producer) talked about the inspiration of the secrets of the black box, which was featured in a short behind-the-scenes piece screened for the audience about the visionary Walt Disney. Although the audience was buzzing with questions, Bailey remained coy, but then announced a special, surprise Tomorrowland exhibit opening in the afternoon on the D23 floor that would reveal the contents of the box and more. Starring George Clooney, Hugh Laurie, Britt Robertson, Raffey Cassidy and Thomas Robinson, the action-packed adventure hits theaters December 12, 2014.
Now here are two more looks at the D23 presentations and if you haven’t yet looked at the information from the animated presentations click here.
