In what has to be the news story of the day, word is that Finding Nemo will finally be given the sequel treatment over at Pixar. Reports are surfacing that Andrew Stanton is set to direct another installment to the underwater adventure film as his follow-up to Disney’s John Carter. This could be what he needs to get back on top of the world as the live-action epic starring Taylor Kitsch pretty much destroyed all that goodwill Stanton received for the Academy Award-winner’s work on Nemo and Wall-E.
The understanding of course with the public is that there is a natural animated versus live-action category divide where something gets lost in translation; however, Disney possibly sees it another way. According to Deadline, they are 100% on board with the idea of giving Stanton another shot at leading a non-animated picture although details remain scarce on the project’s identity. For the time being, that little fragment of news will be pushed aside though because making a second edition of Finding Nemo is a fairly big deal in itself that should not be overshadowed.
The original came out to critical praise and box office success to the tune of $868 million worldwide. Minus the presence of 3D and higher overall ticket prices, Finding Nemo was a much bigger deal than Toy Story 3 was a few years ago. That movie may have been the first Pixar film to $1 billion, but it definitely cost more to produce and market leaving this franchise as the studio’s most profitable property.
That said, before Disney got wind that Stanton ‘had an idea,’ the studio announced a 3D re-release for the animated feature that is actually due out in September. While tracking for that film is yet to go online, it is widely presumed that it could be the best performing animated re-release to date–even better than last year’s Lion King 3D which is accredited with beginning the trend.
Ultimately, it does not look like Finding Nemo 2 will find its way to theaters until 2016 at the earliest. The process is really just beginning at this time as the ‘idea’ has yet to be committed to paper. That task falls to Black List writer Victory Strouse has been tasked with building the script.