Pixar has a reach that extends far beyond animation. Brad Bird and Andrew Stanton, two members of Pixar royalty, both were able to make the leap from animation to live-action, to varying levels of success; John Lasseter and Ed Catmull basically run Walt Disney Animation Studios, in addition to Pixar; and Pixar’s “brain trust” has been asked to assist in the writing of a variety of other project, such as Jon Favreau’s Magic Kingdom, which they’ve done a treatment of.
The biggest whopper of them all, however, is that Michael Arndt, writer of Little Miss Sunshine and Toy Story 3, is at work on the script for Star Wars: Episode VII. In other words, the man who put a bow on the series that defined my childhood will now seek to add to the legacy of a series that defined everyone’s childhood but my own, or so it seems. That, more than anything, tells you how much trust the industry has in Arndt and the rest of the Pixar staff.
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