In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Pixar’s Chief Creative Officer Pete Docter discussed the studio’s plans and how it is navigating the challenging waters of moviemaking post-COVID. Docter is the director of the original Inside Out movie as well as other studio Oscar winners Up and Soul as well as Monsters, Inc.
“I feel like we’re in a really golden place where, after a lot of turmoil, every project we have is exciting to me for multiple reasons — both from new looks and technology, but more importantly, original stories and storytellers. It’s a very exciting place to be, but we’re trying to hold back some of the surprises for the future,” Docter told the magazine. “I’ve been at Pixar for 33 years, and I don’t think we’ve ever been in a period of more turmoil and uncertainty than right now, which is kind of exciting. I know that’s weird maybe to say.”
Among the key takeaways, Docter confirmed that a spin-off Inside Out series for Disney+ is coming soon “next spring.” He roughly explained the story concept: “… In the first film, remember we go to Dream Production to see how Riley’s dreams are made? It semi-explains why they’re so weird. We’ve continued the exploration of the power of dreams and how they affect us in our waking life, as well.”
The news follows the box-office hit debut of Inside Out 2 — which debuted domestically this weekend at No. 1 with $154.2 million from 4,440, scored a new Tuesday take record for an animated movie with $29M+ ($205.5M domestic cume) and has hit $380M worldwide. The pic just opened in France and Italy on Wednesday, launching in Spain and Brazil today, China on Friday and Japan on August 1.
Docter also confirmed that all previously announced Pixar animation projects in development are still in the works, including Elio and Toy Story 5. “We have two original films coming out [next], and then Toy Story [5] , and then some more original,” he added. The CCO also discussed the potential to develop more stories set within the worlds of The Incredibles, Finding Nemo and Monsters, Inc.
On Elio, Docter commented: “Everyone has sat under the night sky and thought, ‘Are we alone? Are we the only intelligent life in the universe?’ So it’s tickling that, and then thematically, it also talks about something that’s very central to our own experience in the same way of, ‘Am I the only one going through this?’ It feels that one, from the beginning, has proven to check all those boxes of something that is a universal concept in terms of the overall conceit and deeper theme.”
He added that the studio has made great strides in the diversity of its filmmakers roster, and that recent first-time filmmakers continue to develop their talents within the Pixar ecosystem. Docter specifies that Domee Shi, director of the Oscar-winning short Bao and the Oscar-nominated feature Turning Red, is working on Elio, while Oscar-nominated Luca director Enrico Casarosa “is doing another [film] that’s just night and day.” Both Turning Red and Luca were original stories that released directly to Disney+.
Read the full interview at EW.com.
