MELEDANDRI: What we have found is that working chronologically is always the best. We put through all these incredibly dark nighttime scenes, which are great in the movie, but they are worthless in terms of marketing the film. You want to be smart about what comes out of the other end of that pipeline sooner. KRISTINE BELSON: I made a newbie mistake on The Croods: I didn’t think about which scenes we put through first in terms of marketing. WEDGE: The day you know you’ve got a date is when you feel like, “Oh, we’re making this movie.” So I guess it was more of a creative green light among all of us when we sort of found the heart of the film.īut at a certain point in the process, you are locked in to a release date. But for us, with Monsters University, we got together as a group to talk about what another film might be but with the thought that if we can’t think of a great story, we won’t do it.
I mean, when it’s done and it’s out in theaters, you can sort of sigh a breath of relief and realize that it’s out there. And then we did the actual lighting of the greenlight ceremony, which I’ll never forget.ĭan, when did you know you were actually making Monsters University ?ĭAN SCANLON: There is no real moment. We’re going to have a little ceremony.” So had taken a lamp, and he had put some green cellophane around the bulb. Well, we’re going to have a little meeting. So on one of my trips back to Blue Sky Studios, I said: “OK. On our first movie, Ice Age, Chris was focused on this notion of this mythical green light. A green light? You’re making the movie.”ĬHRIS MELEDANDRI: We call that a rolling green light - it just sort of evolves.
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When do they actually get a green light?ĬHRIS WEDGE: Can I tell you something? I don’t know what movie Chris and I were working on, but I said, “When are they going to give us a green light on this thing?” And he said: “You’re working on the movie. The development process for animated movies takes so long. It’s practically an animated film itself. Animation isn’t just about making kids movies, they agreed - after all, look at Gravity. Taking part in the conversation were Chris Buck, 53, who directed Frozen with Jennifer Lee Dan Scanlon, 37, director of Monsters University Chris Wedge, 56, director of Fox and Blue Sky Studios’ Epic Kristine Belson, 49, a producer on Croods and Chris Meledandri, 54, Illumination CEO and a producer on Despicable Me 2 - having previously headed Fox Animation for eight years, he and Wedge are past collaborators. But while animation is a hugely competitive business, when THR invited some of the producers and directors behind the year’s toon hits to sit down together, the mood couldn’t have been more congenial. Animated movies are big business: Universal and Illumination Entertainment’s Despicable Me 2, the highest-grossing toon of 2013, has taken in nearly $920 million worldwide DreamWorks Animation found a new distributor in 20th Century Fox, beginning with its release of The Croods and critics’ cheers for Frozen underscored the resurgence of Walt Disney Animation Studios.
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