Ratatouille producer and Cars 2 co-director Brad Lewis is leaving Pixar to join Digital Domain's new animation group in Florida, Tradition Studios, reports Variety."I am excited to join a company with Digital Domain's talent and expertise and to have an opportunity to be a part of its team in creating family-friendly stories and adventures," Lewis said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter.
Before joining Pixar in 2001, Lewis spent eleven years at PDI and DreamWorks Animation SKG, where he worked on the notorious Antz.
(Photo by Deborah Coleman/Pixar)
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27 comments:
Digital Domain could do great things with Lewis if they use him right, let’s hope he isn’t helming another Antz over there.
Perhaps something to do with Cars 2's reception?
Just another reason why Cars 2 wasn't good...
Another one bite the dust?
It seems all the co-directors (or effectively, ousted main directors) decide to leave Pixar, one by one. Who next?
Another nail in the Pixar coffin
Brad Lewis announced as director of Cars 2.
John Lasseter announced as new director of Cars 2, with Brad Lewis reduced to co-director.
Brad Lewis leaves Pixar.
Am I the only who sees this as a chain of events?
i don't think it was a "Jan Pinkava type "I was removed and i'm angry"" John Lasseter was originally reluctant to take over but when it became clear that producer come director Brad Lewis had to make a movie in three and a half years (an almost impossible task to do well) John came in to try his darndest to save the movie. If Brad Lewis had been given his four plus years i think the movie would have worked out, maybe with some extremely critical advice from the brain trust but it would have worked out. I think this is more of a "David Silverman, Jill Culton, Doug Sweetland, Ash Brannon, Rodrigo Blaas effect where "whoa i am a pixar employee who knows how to make movies (in the case of David Silverman and Ash Brannon, co-directors)and now this start up company (Simpsons,sony, Tradition Studios) is going to pay me a c***load of money to make movies for them"" I don't think there's animosity between John and Brad. While i'd prefer to see him at Pixar directing movies, Digital Domain, if their lucky and find really talented people, may have pixar like success. And to be frank i think jan Pinkava, the others i mentioned, and possibly Brenda Chapman, were far more grievous losses than Brad Lewis. I don't know why they gave Brad the Directors chair in the first place but what's done is done. I'm not really worried. lets wish him good luck. to make a completely original movie, let alone at a startup animation company....he's going to need it! Besides, for every person who leaves the company theres about one-hundred trying to come in. Furthermore i was actually wondering how pixar was going to have enough production capacity for all their director's. there's John, Andrew, Pete, Lee, Bob, Dan Scanlon, Gary Rydstrom, Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman, Brad Lewis. that's twelve people who have or are directing movies at Pixar. 12 people. to lose one or two won't kill pixar in fact i argue that, so long as they don't lose a ton of directors, losing a director or two might actually help a little because story teams can focus on a few projects instead of being torn between numerous projects. Besides you need some people at other studios to make movies so Pixar can out do them. :-)
I never really liked the guy anyway, not sure why. Sorry Brad.
How exactly is Antz "nototrious"?
Oh yeah, it's not.
'Notorious Antz'?
It was a great film
lee unkrich was a co-director...look how successful he is with ts3
Not all co-directors necessarily leave Pixar....Lee Unkrich?
Antz was NOT notorious!
Antz wasn't that bad.
Antz may have been a good movie, but they ripped off Pixar and that's why I hate it.
Ripping off Pixar is what great artists do.
Antz is a terrible film, but terrible and notorious are not synonymous. Notorious imputes a bad reputation and Antz does not justify the use of such a term. Perhaps some bloggers should look up big words before using them.
but antz came out before a bug's life...
Read the Pixar Touch Bradley.
"but antz came out before a bug's life..."
Bugs Life was in production before Antz
So.. ONLY Pixar have a right to make an animation about ants.
Nope, Pixar isn't the only studio that has the right to make an ANIMATED FILM, but it does have the right to come across as an innovative studio for having the idea first.
Also, I think 'notorious' is a rather neutral word (it doesn't say notorious for what) but even neutral words seem to be too much for some people nowadays. Shame on you.
And last, (taken from Anonymous 3's comment) He/She's right. In my opinion it was the short amount of time what made Cars 2 feel a bit loose in terms of story. They should've stuck with newt ): (I had been dying to write that)
http://blog.navone.org/2011/04/thursday-inspiration.html#links
"Animation on Cars 2 officially wrapped a couple of weeks ago, and I'm just peeking my head out into the sunlight now. We still have some fixes to cleanup up, but for the most part we're really done, and now the lighting department is holding the bag. It's been a challenging year; we had about 10 weeks to animate half the film, but we were able to do it because a) Pixar animators rock and b) let's face it, animating cars is a lot easier than animating humans! The film looks great and I can't wait to share it with the world. I'm also looking forward to taking a nice long vacation this summer, and then going on to pre-pro on an as-yet-unannounced film."
Could of this been a last ditch effort to save the film? Were there problems with Brad Lewis on the film and ten weeks before the films deadline Lasseter came on to try to fix it and redid half of it? If this is true, damn!
The origin of "Antz" actually dates back to a brainstorming session within PDI's Character Animation Group in 1991. Tim Johnson and his fellow animators had an idea for a completely computer animated film featuring insect characters in a miniature world. Over the next few years, Johnson developed the project, which went through various incarnations under the title 'Lights Out."
Where was the Pixar brain trust? Why did Pixar give this guy the directors chair? What about promoting some of the story artists we see on the dvd special features they seem to be the guys coming up with the great ideas only to lose their credits to screenwriters? Also why is Pixar selling/creating toys aged2+ for a film that is clearly not aimed at them. But TS3 was brilliant!
Sounds like Lasseter's ego took over and another talented person leaves Pixar.
What I dont get is why Brad Lewis was chosen to direct a feature with no directing experience..and on a rush job!
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