Latest in Walt Disney Pictures

Walt Disney Pictures has moved up the release of DreamWorks’ feature adaptation of Japanese manga comic Ghost In The Shell from Easter weekend — April 14, 2017 — to March 31, 2017. The pic will be released in 3D. The film, directed by Rupert Sanders and starring Scarlett Johansson will go up against Sony’s untitled Sm…

2ND UPDATE, MONDAY, 2:20 PM: Disney’s eye-candy version of Cinderella opened to $2.3M less than estimated yesterday with a final box office tally of $67.8M. However the princess movie went over initial tracking estimates going into the weekend. You can’t beat Disney’s marketing prowess. Second to none but come on…

This weekend, Walt Disney Pictures is looking to charm every mother and tot daughter, not just Stateside, but across the globe with its live-action adaptation of Cinderella. With the U.S. box office in a slump over the last two weeks amid a dearth of fresh PG and PG-13 fare, exhibitors’ cash registers are expected to…

Disney dropped a trailer for its 2015 Pixar film Inside Out, but before you get excited, close to 90% of the minute 14 second running time is a “best of” sizzle reel of such faves as Toy Story, Up, Monsters, etc. before the pic’s set-up kicks in.  Inside Out follows the emotions — Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness…

Chosen from thousands of auditions, 10-year old Neel Sethi will be playing the part of Mowgli in Jon Favreau‘s version of Disney‘s The Jungle Book. Sethi was discovered after an extensive search ranging from New York to New Zealand, London to Canada, and India.  It’s Sethi’s first time up on the bigscreen and he’ll be…

A seasoned assistant film editor has filed a complaint of harassment, gender discrimination and wrongful termination against Walt Disney Pictures and Muppets movie editor James Thomas. "Defendants retaliated against Plaintiff, created a hostile work environment and treated Plaintiff differently because she was an…

EXCLUSIVE: A former Senior Financial Analyst at Walt Disney Pictures today launched a class action suit against the company over overtime pay and Labor Code violations. However, this lawsuit (read it here), filed in LA Superior Court this afternoon, could all be over very soon according to one of the plaintiffs…

EXCLUSIVE: Walt Disney Pictures has set up a remake of the 1984 film The Flamingo Kid, and it will be produced by Brett Ratner's Rat Entertainment and Michael Phillips' Lighthouse Productions. Nzingha Stewart, who has directed videos by Jay-Z and 50 Cent and whose film credits include For Colored Girls, has been set…

Disney sent a message to thousands of financial analysts and Wall Street types aimed at drawing their attention to about-to-bomb $250M-budget John Carter even though it’s looking like a $100 million writeoff. Talk about tone deaf. “The best part is the subject line of the email. Disney obviously hasn't noticed that The…

EXCLUSIVE: Former EVP Music/Creative Marketing Glen Lajeski filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court today alleging breach of contract. It claims that he was terminated without warning or explanation by Walt Disney Pictures 2 years before his employment pact was due to expire and without providing him any…

EXCLUSIVE: Walt Disney Pictures has acquired The Runner, a pitch for a futuristic science fiction film that will be written by Dave Andron as a potential directing vehicle for Marc Forster.  Imagine Entertainment’s Brian Grazer is producing with Forster’s Apparatus Entertainment partner Brad Simpson. Andron hatched…

Walt Disney Pictures has tapped Ken Caldwell as SVP of theatrical sales for North America and Jeff Forman as SVP of theatrical sales for international, upping the pair to be key members of new distribution boss David Hollis’ team. In July, Hollis, EVP of theatrical exhibition sales and distribution, takes over the…