Research Guru / Moderator
Posted:
Mar 12, 2010, 6:16 PM
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450 to lose jobs as Disney closes Zemeckis' studio
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Some 450 employees of producer-director Robert Zemeckis' ImageMovers Digital studio in Marin County, California will lose their jobs, thanks to Walt Disney Studios closing the studio in a cost-saving move.
ImageMovers Digital was responsible for the motion-capture animation used in Zemeckis' 2009 holiday movie A Christmas Carol. Disney has been supporting the San Rafael studio financially.
Its employees will be phased out gradually until the facility closes by next January. The layoffs amount to over 5% of Disney's movie studio division.
"Given today's economic realities, we need to find alternative ways to bring creative content to audiences and IMD no longer fits into our business model," Disney Studios president Alan Bergman said in a statement Friday.
Disney spent hundreds of millions of dollars to make and promote A Christmas Carol. The gamble paid off, as a $175 million investment in production resulted in $324 million in global ticket sales. Disney's extensive marketing campaign included a luxurious whistle-stop train tour.
ImageMovers is completing production on Mars Needs Moms, slated for a March 2011 release by Disney. Zemeckis is developing a 3-D adaptation of the 1968 Beatles animated feature Yellow Submarine as well.
Disney said that the studio is "hoping to create a long-term production deal" with Zemeckis and his partners at ImageMovers Digital, Jack Rapke and Steve Starkey. Although no arrangement has been completed, this would include continuing development of the Yellow Submarine project.
Disney has partnered with Zemeckis and IMD for the last four years. However, the Mouse House and the producer-director have worked together since 1988, when its Buena Vista arm distributed his comedy Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which combined live action and animation.
Zemeckis' use of motion-capture technology has extended to other studios. He made The Polar Express (2004) for Warner Bros. and Beowulf (2007) for both WB and Paramount.
(via Los Angeles Times [latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2010/03/]
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Supervising Animator / Contributor
Posted:
Mar 15, 2010, 9:56 AM
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Re: 450 to lose jobs as Disney closes Zemeckis' studio
[In reply to]
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I don't get it. If they made a ton of money on Carol, why are they closing the studio? Is this anything like when they shut down the cel animation branch?
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 "... when you're good and crazy, oooh, oooh, oooh, the sky is the limit."
"Because in this business reality can be *pretty* hard to come by."
- the Tick
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