Latest in Walt Disney Studios

In the wake of releasing the fastest grossing movie to a record $1 billion-plus proportions around the globe, Avengers: Endgame, Walt Disney Company Chairman and CEO Robert Iger announced this morning that Disney 23 year vet and Walt Disney Studios President Alan Bergman is being promoted to Co-Chairman of the Studio…

In the competitive world of feature animation, it takes more than an entertaining yarn and a bit of slapstick comedy to cut through the noise. To make an impact at the box office in 2018—and at the Oscars, heading now into its 91st go-round—filmmakers are called upon to pursue a new standard of excellence, going back…

Prior to merging with Fox next quarter in 2019, Walt Disney Studios is celebrating a $7 billion global B.O. win for 2018 YTD. It’s the second time in history any studio has surpassed the $7B mark, after Disney's own industry-record 2016 global gross of $7.6B. Broken down, Disney earned an estimated $4.069B overseas…

The 20th helmer to take on a Pixar short since the mid-1980s, and the the first woman to do so, Bao‘s Domee Shi is now on the path to making her feature debut, with the backing of one of the most impactful animation studios in the world. “We’re just developing the story for it right now,” Shi says. “It’s super early…

Disney has released the first teaser trailer for its live-action retelling of The Lion King. Chief Executive Bob Iger offered an advance look at this stunningly realistic CG tale during the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit, describing the computer-generated process director Jon Favreau is employing to update the…

After working for years on the socially conscious Zootopia and seeing it win the Oscars' Best Animated Feature prize in 2016, Phil Johnston and Rich Moore had no time to rest on their laurels, returning to work on Ralph Breaks the Internet. A sequel to 2012 Disney hit Wreck-It Ralph—a beloved work centering on video…

Spoiler Alert: This interview features discussion of critical plot elements from Pixar's Incredibles 2. When The Incredibles came out in 2004, it was a film ahead of its time. Marking a major paradigm shift in animation as a whole, Brad Bird's family-centric superhero story was so ambitious—in the midst of the…

Black Panther has risen to plenty of challenges, shattering every expectation to far surpass the ticket sales of any film by a Black director, with a cast populated by African and African-American performers, on its way to a $1.3 billion global gross. But there's one challenge remaining: can the film overcome a clear…

Ryan Stankevich and Martha Morrison have been promoted to SVP Marketing at Walt Disney Studios, president of marketing Asad Ayaz said today. In their new and expanded roles, the pair will lead global campaigns and strategy for Disney's entire theatrical slate, working with all areas of the marketing…

A "tale as old as time"—based on an 18th century fairy tale by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont that was previously adapted into a '90s Disney animated classic—Bill Condon's live-action adaptation of Beauty and the Beast marked the sole presentation for Walt Disney Studios on Friday at Deadline's inaugural Contenders…

May the Fourth be with you. Turner’s TBS will air the first sixStar Wars movies on Thursday, May 4, a date known around the world as Star Wars Day. The six Lucasfilm classics will run in series order, back-to-back, with limited commercial interruptions over 16-plus hours. The marathon kicks off at 6:40 AM (ET/PT) with…

An Oscar nominee for Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, composer John Debney found in Jon Favreau's The Jungle Book the fruition of a very personal family legacy. The son of Disney Studios producer Louis Debney, John is among the few who can claim vivid personal memories of Walt Disney himself—not to mention the…