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In November of 2007, Burton signed a deal to direct two Disney Digital 3-D projects. First up is a live-action/motion-capture/CGI adaptation of Lewis Carroll's most famous story. It seems like an apt fit, based on the trippy source material and Burton's penchant for trippy material. Of course, Disney fans will be judging the project next to Walt Disney's 1951 animated film, which today is regarded highly. Eighteen-year-old Australian girl Mia Wasikowska (HBO's "In Treatment") has won the coveted title role. Unsurprisingly among those surrounding her are Burton favorite Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter and the director's partner Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen, a.k.a. the Queen of Hearts. The cast also includes Anne Hathaway as Red's banished sister the White Queen, Alan Rickman as the Caterpillar, Crispin Glover as the Knave of Hearts, Stephen Fry as the Cheshire Cat, and "Little Britain" star Matt Lucas as Tweedledee and Tweedledum. According to Disney, this is something of a sequel to Carroll's first two Alice books, largely telling a new story of a teenaged Alice's return to a Wonderland that includes a number of newly-created characters. Production began September 2008 in England with much effects work to be later filled in. Disney has pegged the film for a March 5, 2010 theatrical release, which will include Disney Digital 3-D engagements.

Oceans - Disney proclaimed a return to its True-Life Adventure roots with the launch of the Disneynature banner. Although such fare has long maintained a niche market outside of IMAX theaters, the studio gave 2009's Earth a heavy promotional push. Earning $31 M domestically, the reworking of a BBC television series handily became the third highest-grossing documentary of all-time, behind bona fide phenomenons Fahrenheit 9/11 and March of the Penguins. Unwilling to tinker with that kind of success, the branch's second American release, Oceans, will bow on Earth Day 2010 (April 22). This one turns our attention to aquatic creatures, care of Winged Migration directors Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzaud.


Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time - On the heels of their record-breaking Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, Jerry Bruckheimer and Walt Disney Pictures are collaborating not just on more National Treasure follow-ups but also a new film series based on the popular Prince of Persia video game series. Debuted in 1989 for the Apple II, Prince of Persia was then quickly developed for IBM PCs, the Atari ST, Nintendo and Sega's third-generation systems, and Game Boy. Sequels followed in the 1990s and in the fall of 2003, the franchise gained new life when Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was made available on PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox, Game Boy Advance, and Windows computers. Subsequent adventures have premiered in the two following holiday seasons. From the title, it would appear that Bruckheimer's first adaptation would be based on merely 2003's game and would be the first of three installments made.

If it remains true to the video game, Sands of Time follows Persian Prince Dastan (Jake Gyllenhaal, Zodiac), his father King Sharaman, and the Maharajah's daughter Princess Farah Tamina (Gemma Arterton) in a trek across India to Azad. Along their way, their potent, newly-acquired possesions (a giant hourglass full of sand and a mysterious dagger) make them the targets of a dying Vizier (Oscar-winning Gandhi portrayer Ben Kingsley) and his staff. Romantic relationships, time warps, and twisted allegiances all figure into what unravels and most of that is sure to translate to the type of sweeping, spectacle cinema that Bruckheimer has repeatedly relied on with success.

Originally pegged for a late 2008 release and then briefly summer 2009, this film -- directed by Michael Bay (Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, Transformers) -- will now open May 28, 2010, supplanting the Disney-departed third Narnia film and narrowly preceding the colossally-expected Toy Story 3.


Toy Story 3 - Few films can boast the guaranteed box office success of this project, once a major factor in Disney/Pixar contract negotations. In the 14 years since the original Toy Story reached theaters as the first all-CGI film, the animation industry has moved almost exclusively to the domain of computers. Although they now regularly face competition from new players and established studios (DreamWorks, Blue Sky), Pixar has remained ahead of the curve. By most accounts, the studio is now 10 for 10 at obtaining box office and critical success. Since the Best Animated Feature Oscar was debuted in 2002, four of Pixar's six eligible entries have won the prize and Up is an early favorite to add to that tradition, even amidst heavy duty challengers.

When the Walt Disney Company purchased Pixar in 2006, they put this project back in the hands of the people who created the 1995 masterpiece and its blockbuster 1999 sequel. Disney had earlier announced plans (i.e., threatened) to move forth with a Toy Story 3 using its newly-formed Circle 7 Animation division, a script by Meet the Fockers writer James Herzfeld, and director Darrell Rooney (who helmed Lady and the Tramp, The Lion King, and Mulan...sequels). After the acquisition, Pixar executive John Lasseter, given new power at Disney Feature Animation, saw to it that Circle 7 was closed and the ball was back in the creators' court. Though many assumed the busy Lasseter would step back into the director's chair he claimed on the first two Toy Story films, in February 2007, it was announced that longtime Pixar editor and Toy Story 2 co-director Lee Unkrich would single-handedly be helming the film, from a script by Michael Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine). To date, few other specifics have been issued by Disney-Pixar, which isn't too surprising since Pixar has long been mum on upcoming projects while pushing ahead at a proposed one-film-per-summer rate and moving towards a semiannual schedule. We won't see the Buzz-is-recalled-to-Asia plotline that Disney was not long ago touting as its core. In February of 2008, the Wall Street Journal revealed that Pixar's storyline will find Woody and his toy-box friends dumped in a day-care center after their owner Andy leaves for college.

Longtime Disney regular Tim Allen will reprise his role of once-deluded space ranger action figure Buzz Lightyear alongside Oscar winner Tom Hanks as pullstring cowboy Woody. Other confirmed returning cast members include Joan Cusack as the energetic cowgirl Jessie, John Ratzenberger as know-it-all piggy bank Hamm, Wallace Shawn as nervous dinosaur Rex, Don Rickles and Estelle Harris as Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, and Jodi Benson as Barbie, who this time is joined by Ken (voiced by Michael Keaton). Also expected back but not yet confirmed are Annie Potts as the porcelain Bo Peep, R. Lee Ermey as the authoritative Sarge, and Laurie Metcalf as Andy's Mom. Meanwhile, septuagenarian Ned Beatty has joined the cast in a role not yet established. At least two parts will need to either be written out or recast in light of the premature deaths of Jim Varney (Slinky Dog) and Joe Ranft (Wheezy the Penguin).

While Pixar's usual four-year-production period could have been shortened due with all existing characters already modeled and in the computers, the release remains distant. The release date has been set as June 18, 2010, less than a month after DreamWorks' next big sequel, Shrek Forever After, opens. In anticipation of TS3, Toy Story and Toy Story 2 will be re-released to theaters in a two-week Disney Digital 3-D engagement beginning October 2, 2009. (Originally, only Toy Story was to open then. Toy Story 2's scheduled February 12, 2010 return has been re-assigned to a 3-D rendering of Beauty and the Beast.) The film's teaser trailer, featuring two attempts to create a title logo, appeared before 3-D screenings of Up.

Related Reviews: Toy Story: 10th Anniversary DVD • Toy Story 2: 2-Disc Special Edition DVD

The Sorcerer's Apprentice - Originally the producer who gave Touchstone and Hollywood Pictures high-voltage guy-oriented action flicks, Jerry Bruckheimer has come to be a major player in Disney-branded family films without really changing the way he operates. On the heels of the lucrative Pirates of the Caribbean and National Treasure franchises (a class that the video game-spawned Prince of Persia is expected to join), Bruckheimer and Disney are also moving forward with another potentially edgy family adventure, this one with less sequel potential. A live-action feature filming adapted from Mickey Mouse's memorable Fantasia segment (in turn inspired by Goethe's 1797 poem and Paul Dukas' 1897 musical composition), The Sorcerer's Apprentice reteams Treasure director Jon Turteltaub and star Nicolas Cage before they film that series' third installment. Jay Baruchel (the lead of Judd Apatow's short-lived sitcom "Undeclared" and a supporting player in films like Tropic Thunder and Knocked Up) holds the title role, playing a college student who is learning under Cage's magician in contemporary New York. The cast also includes Bedtime Stories' Teresa Palmer as a love interest, Spider-Man 2 baddie Alfred Molina as evil sorcerer Horvath, and The Passion of The Christ's Monica Bellucci as sorceress Veronica (Cage's long-lost love). Bedtime's Matt Lopez rewrote the script, originally credited to Mighty Joe Young team Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal. Cameras began rolling in the spring of 2009, with July 16, 2010 standing as the intended release date. That will make Sorcerer next summer's third hopeful tentpole for Disney, following Persia and Toy Story 3.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - After the second Narnia film, Prince Caspian, fell way short of financial expectations in 2008, Disney jumped ship on C.S. Lewis's beloved series of best-selling fantasy novels. Walden Media intends to move forward, following the published order with new partner 20th Century Fox. This third book, first printed in 1952, comes fifth chronologically and sees the two youngest Pevensie children, Lucy (Georgie Henley) and Edmund (Skandar Keynes) joining nerdy cousin Eustace Scrubb (Will Poulter, Son of Rambow) for a holiday. The three of them are pulled into Narnia through a painting, ending up on the ship Dawn Treader with Lucy and Edmund's royal pal Caspian (Ben Barnes). The four of them embark on a series of adventures in travelling to a number of Narnian islands. Michael Apted (Gorillas in the Mist, The World is Not Enough, and television's renowned "Up" documentaries) will direct, taking over from Andrew Adamson, who will stay on as a producer. William Moseley and Anna Popplewell won't return as the two elder Pevensie children, who do not appear in the Voyage book. Shooting is scheduled to begin in Australia July 2009. At Disney, the film was scheduled to open in May of 2010, but Prince Caspian's underperformance has wisely prompted Fox to reconsider. They now intend to bow this on December 10, 2010, five years after The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe's potent opening.

Rapunzel - Certain films attract buzz from an early stage. Often these projects hold a best-selling book as a source or carry a world famous superhero in the title. This computer-animated project doesn't quite fit either of those requirements, but Disney fans have been excited by it for years, while it has been repeatedly bumped and always off in the distance. Longtime A-list Disney animator Glen Keane (supervising animator of such protagonists as Ariel, Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, and Tarzan) was to simulatenously make his directorial and CGI debuts in this new take on the classic fairy tale of a long-haired princess and her valiant prince. Instead, in 2008, Keane and his assigned co-director stepped down, turning the reins over to Bolt co-director Byron Howard and writer/story artist Nathan Greno.

Here, a frustrated witch brings two romantically-challenged teenagers from the real world into that of the story, casting them as Rapunzel and her prince. Broadway veteran Kristin Chenoweth (who starred in the Wonderful World of Disney musicals Annie and The Music Man) will voice Rapunzel, while another stage actor (Dan Fogler) will lend his vocals to the prince. Although estimated releases have seemingly changed with the years, the most recent and firm documents pin this for a Christmastime 2010 release.

Disney Films for 2011 and beyond

Cars 2 - It's not just life but the entire world that's a highway in this somewhat surprising project marking Pixar's third sequel and first outside the Toy Story universe. Brad Lewis will direct this follow-up to the 2006 blockbuster, which finds hotshot race car Lighting McQueen and rusty, trusty pal Mater going overseas to compete in a major race. This is scheduled to reach theaters on June 24, 2011. Leading up to then, Pixar has been producing a series of animated shorts starring Mater and friends, for Disney Channel airings and pre-feature theatrical screenings. Upon the passing of Paul Newman, it was revealed that the screen legend hadn't recorded dialogue for this sequel, leaving the presence of Doc Hudson in question.

The Bear and the Bow - 2011 is a year of firsts for Pixar. It's the first year the studio will put out two feature films. The latter of these represents Pixar's first period fantasy. Set in a "rugged and mythic Scotland", the movie tells of Merida (Reese Witherspoon), a royal daughter and archer whose reckless choice has dire consequences for her father's (Billy Connolly) kingdom and her mother (Emma Thompson). "Nature, magic, and an ancient curse" all figure here in this "action-adventure" piece, which marks the biggest Pixar credit for Brenda Chapman, the veteran Disney story writer and story supervisor who co-directed The Prince of Egypt at DreamWorks. Writing credits have yet to be settled. Expect to see this in theaters around November 2011.

newt - Pixar's fourteenth feature film centers on Newt and Brooke, the last two blue-footed newts on Earth. They're supposed to save the species for science, but they can't stand each other. The romantic comedy's premise does sound one-note, which was true but forgivable of writer-director Gary Rydstrom's debut, the 2006 short Lifted. Voice actors haven't yet been announced for the pampered Newt and streetwise Brooke, but the film will open in the summer of 2012, having swapped years with Cars 2.

King of the Elves - Based on a fantastical short story by late sci-fi icon Phillip K. Dick, Disney Feature Animation's CG-animated film centers on an average man in the Mississippi Delta whose reluctant help leads a desperate band of elves to name him king. The man and his elf compadres attempt to elude an evil, menacing troll. Aaron Blaise and Robert Walker, the co-directors of Brother Bear, are in the helm for this movie, scheduled for a holiday 2012 release.

Swiss Family Robinson (remake) - Mandeville Films had hoped to start shooting this new adaptation of Johann Wyss's classic book early in 2006 after wrapping production on The Shaggy Dog remake. Then, hired director Jonathan Mostow (Terminator 3, U-571) pushed things back for Hancock, a superhero mid-life crisis movie starring Will Smith. Mostow has since left that Sony project, giving Swiss the go-ahead to proceed. While attempts were made to modernize the story (perhaps like the Wonderful World of Disney's 1998 telemovie Beverly Hills Family Robinson?), the script by Greg Poirier ultimately kept the 19th century period setting as it was employed for Disney's popular 1960 filming of the same text. Mostow is also to rework Poirier's script with writing partner Sam Montgomery. No casting has been announced, but news in July 2005 stated that Lindsay Lohan was reportedly in talks to unite with Disney for a sixth time presumably to play "Bertie", the cute castaway who catches the eyes of two Robinson brothers. That seems pretty certain not to happen at the present. A release date has yet to be set and filming schedules have been repeatedly pushed back, leaving this in production limbo.

Jungle Cruise - On the heels of big screen adventures Pirates of the Caribbean and The Haunted Mansion comes this latest film inspired by a Disneyland attraction. Described as a family version of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, this comedy/adventure will follow a group which travels upriver to find a cure. Originally said to have a screenplay written by Josh Goldstein and John Norville (Tin Cup), this Disney/Mandeville production is now reportedly going forth with a script commissioned of Al Gough and Miles Millar, the executive producers of TV's "Smallville". The only plot specific released is that the film will be set sometime in the 20th century. Originally slated to start shooting early in 2006, this has since been delayed again and again, with even 2010 release looking unlikely.

Kiki's Delivery Service - A live action English language adaptation of Eiko Kadani's book series, which was previously brought to the screen in Hayao Miyazaki's popular late-'80s anime film of the same name. Jeff Stockwell (Bridge to Terabithia, The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys) is said to be developing a screenplay, but news has been sparse.

The Banshee and Fin Magee (Originally titled The Banshee) - Dean DeBlois, co-writer and co-director of Lilo & Stitch, tries his hand at live action with this period ghost story set in Ireland. In writer-director-producer DeBlois's own words, "It's the story of a little boy who is ignored by the world and pretends to be a ghost, who (then) comes into contact with a real ghost." DeBlois claims this "story of friendship, love and loss" is aimed at the Harry Potter audience; he hopes older kids will enjoy this supernatural mystery. Production was supposed to begin spring 2005, but as of now, nothing has been shot and there is no firm release date yet set. In February 2006, it was reported that Robert Nelson Jacobs has been hired to rewrite DeBlois' script. Jacobs was Oscar-nominated for his Chocolat screenplay, but got fewer raves for his work on Dinosaur, Out to Sea, and The Shipping News.

Frankenweenie - After tackling Alice in Wonderland, Tim Burton's second 3-D film for Disney will be a feature-length version of his 1984 live-action short starring Barret Oliver, Shelley Duvall, and Daniel Stern. Ironically, that half-hour short got Burton fired for wasting company resources and it was shelved for years. Twenty-five years later, Burton is considered a genius and his Nightmare Before Christmas (whose DVD releases house the original Frankenweenie) is treated to annual 3-D theatrical re-releases. The short centered on a boy named Victor who brings his movie subject dog Sparky back to life with help from lightning. This feature probably won't be done any sooner than 2011.