Disney Announces Plans for New Gargoyles Movie! (well, not really)

[AlgeaX]

Disney scares up gargoyles pic
Zoe Green in talks to pen screenplay

By MARC GRASER

Disney wants to breathe new life into gargoyles.


Zoe Green is in final negotiations with the Mouse House to pen a screenplay based on an original idea she developed with the studio, which Lauren Shuler Donner will produce as a live-action film. The project is not tied to "Gargoyles," the popular animated TV series that Disney produced in the 1990s, or a comicbook that was later produced by series creator Greg Weisman.

Instead, it centers around a world and mythology that the studio was keen to explore, sources said. Green hatched the idea with Disney exec LouAnne Brickhouse, who is shepherding the project at the studio, and set it up at the Donners' Co., which Shuler Donner runs with her husband Richard Donner.
Project would fit in well with the high-profile projects Disney is looking to produce these days -- films that can become franchises at the megaplex and spin off popular videogames, merchandise, TV shows and theme park rides.

In addition to new installments of "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "National Treasure," studio also is developing a take on "The Wizard of Oz" with Sam Raimi directing, and fable "The Odd Life of Timothy Green," with Peter Hedges helming. It also has a new film set to star the Muppets, a remake of "The Black Hole," and is revisiting "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" with David Fincher, in addition to Tim Burton's "Maleficent," a live-action feature on the sorceress from "Sleeping Beauty" with Angelina Jolie circling.

A bigscreen version of the "Gargoyles" series was being developed in 1996 with Weisman, show producer Frank Paur and Dean Devlin. But the right take never received a greenlight.

Green has a penchant for penning fantasy fare. She's written "Tigress" for Stan Lee's POW! Entertainment, based on the Disney lot. Pic follows a woman who starts getting tiger-like instincts. Robert Teitel and George Tillman Jr. of State Street Pictures are producers on the project.

Scribe is also tackling the script for Syfy miniseries "The Diamond Age," and an adaptation of Neal Stephenson's 1995 novel "The Diamond Age: Or a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer," that George Clooney and Grant Heslov are producing. She has also written for the animated series "Wolverine and the X-Men." Meanwhile, bringing gargoyles to life wouldn't be all that strange for Shuler Donner. She's been heading Fox's "X-Men" franchise, whose pics have been packed with powerful mutants, since the first film bowed in 2000. She's currently overseeing "X-Men: First Class," that Matthew Vaughn is directing, "Deadpool," set to star Ryan Reynolds, and "X-Men Origins: Magneto."

I'll post my own thoughts later, when I'm less likely to say something that would get me permanently banned.


http://www.variety.com/article/VR111...goryid=13&cs=1

[launchpad20]

Sooooooooo. Disney wants to make a 'Gargoyles' movie, huh? Interesting. Maybe if this actually gets made, and succeeds at the box office we'll finally get 'Season 2 Vol. 2' released on DVD after all this time.

[Desensitized]

I... don't know what to make of this...

[AlgeaX]

Sooooooooo. Disney wants to make a 'Gargoyles' movie, huh? Interesting. Maybe if this actually gets made, and succeeds at the box office we'll finally get 'Season 2 Vol. 2' released on DVD after all this time.

Read again, this movie has nothing to do with Greg Weisman's Gargoyles. It's a totally different and "original" from the same cinematic geniuses that brought us X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Darn it, where's that RollsEyes smiley?

[Tobias]

:chowder:

Sooooooooo. Disney wants to make a 'Gargoyles' movie, huh? Interesting. Maybe if this actually gets made, and succeeds at the box office we'll finally get 'Season 2 Vol. 2' released on DVD after all this time.

Read tha article. This so called *project* has nothing to do with the Gargoyles franchise we all know and love. It sounds like it's an all together new project, just with the Gargoyles name slapped on it. Although at this point, it'd be like Warner Bros making a movie called 'Looney Tunes' and then having it be a movie about Beethoven's life.

[W.C.Reaf]

Sooooooooo. Disney wants to make a 'Gargoyles' movie, huh? Interesting. Maybe if this actually gets made, and succeeds at the box office we'll finally get 'Season 2 Vol. 2' released on DVD after all this time.

That's what I'm thinking as well. If this film is not based on Gargoyles then maybe Greg and the loyal fans can use Disney's interest in anything related to gargoyles to get more Gargoyles products out there. Possibly to continue the comic series or at least get the entire series out on DVD.

We'll see what happens with this. I'm always wary of film announcements as anything can happen to them that can stall or kill the process. I'm not going to waste any hopes or anger until production actually starts and they're filming. At least then we'll know more about it and that it's going to happen and not get stuck in development hell.

[Ducard]

The project is not tied to "Gargoyles," the popular animated TV series that Disney produced in the 1990s, or a comicbook that was later produced by series creator Greg Weisman. Instead, it centers around a world and mythology that the studio was keen to explore, sources said.

Were the world and mythology of the TV show not interesting enough?

in addition to Tim Burton's "Maleficent," a live-action feature on the sorceress from "Sleeping Beauty" with Angelina Jolie circling.

.......

[Shawn Hopkins]

Well ain't that a kick in the junk. Seriously, there are people out here in cartoon fandom who just went from elated to depressed in five seconds.

[launchpad20]

Yeah, that doesn't sound too good. While I admit that my first remark on this was a bit sarcastic, I'm not to thrilled about this 'gargoyles in name only' project. It's a shame that this couldn't be based on the series.

Darn it, where's that RollsEyes smiley?

You mean this?

[DisneyFan]

So this is more like the Little Mermaid Live action movie I read about here?

[Beat]

You'd think it would be a good idea to distance this project from the award winning cartoon. But what do I know?

[Gonzales]

I can just guess what GregX is going to say about this.

[MonkeyFunk]

Dangnabbit, I was hoping it'd be a remake of the classic 1972 made-for-TV movie.

[GWOtaku]

You'd think it would be a good idea to distance this project from the award winning cartoon. But what do I know?

Not to mention that the vague possibility of more "Gargoyles" stuff getting created might be helped if something gets created that, you know, gets more people to like Gargoyles, fantasy, etc.

Or will someone suggest that a live-action adaptation of the cartoon is a great idea? Not to me, certainly not compared to the new ideas that Mr. Weisman still has. Or will I be told that since Greg Weisman wrote an awesome story about Gargoyles, no one else is allowed to touch the subject sixteen years after the cartoon premiered?

So no, I'm not outraged. Which is not at all inconsistent with wanting Disney to do more with Mr. Weisman's Gargoyles.

[Ducard]

There's also the vague possibility that Disney would downplay the earlier Gargoyles to avoid brand confusion.

This film might be decent in its own right, and of course I'll have to hear more information about it before I can judge it. But for a film that shares the same basic premise as the older show, I dunno. Until I hear more about what this new version has to offer, my basic impression is that Disney may be unnecessarily reinventing the wheel here.

[Sparticus]

Not to mention that the vague possibility of more "Gargoyles" stuff getting created might be helped if something gets created that, you know, gets more people to like Gargoyles, fantasy, etc.

Or will someone suggest that a live-action adaptation of the cartoon is a great idea? Not to me, certainly not compared to the new ideas that Mr. Weisman still has. Or will I be told that since Greg Weisman wrote an awesome story about Gargoyles, no one else is allowed to touch the subject sixteen years after the cartoon premiered?

So no, I'm not outraged. Which is not at all inconsistent with wanting Disney to do more with Mr. Weisman's Gargoyles.

Oh good, I'm not the only one who thought a lot of his unused ideas for the series were kinda... um... convoluted and uninteresting. X) I still find the Goliath Chronicles to be horrendous, but it was so bad it could be declared non-cannon. Gregs ideas...

[Ducard]

To be honest, I'm not a fan of some of Weisman's ideas either.

[GWOtaku]

Oh good, I'm not the only one who thought a lot of his unused ideas for the series were kinda... um... convoluted and uninteresting. X) I still find the Goliath Chronicles to be horrendous, but it was so bad it could be declared non-cannon. Gregs ideas...

Er, what I was attempting to convey is that I'd rather see more of Mr. Weisman's ideas fulfilled than see any sort of retread of the animated series (in particular, I have a soft spot for the "Pendragon" spin-off). As we've sadly witnessed in recent years, adapting a cartoon for a live-action movie too often results in disappointed expectations.

[Michael24]

Speaking as a non-Gargoyles viewer, this sounds like an interesting project, and I'm curious to see what they do with it. The general public probably doesn't even know of the cartoon, so I'm sure Disney is aware of that.

studio also is developing a take on "The Wizard of Oz" with Sam Raimi directing

The horror!

a remake of "The Black Hole,"

If ever a movie could benefit from a remake, it's The Black Hole. That was just one, bad, movie.

Dangnabbit, I was hoping it'd be a remake of the classic 1972 made-for-TV movie.

LOL!!

[AlgeaX]

Er, what I was attempting to convey is that I'd rather see more of Mr. Weisman's ideas fulfilled than see any sort of retread of the animated series (in particular, I have a soft spot for the "Pendragon" spin-off). As we've sadly witnessed in recent years, adapting a cartoon for a live-action movie too often results in disappointed expectations.

Totally agree which why it's sad that Disney is so eager to throw hundreds of millions of dollars at this thing but Greg doesn't even get enough to keep a bi-monthly black and white comic going.