Tag: Bob Iger

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Disney’s ‘Robin Hood’ live-action remake not moving forward, says Director

Fans of Disney‘s 1970s animated feature Robin Hood aren’t likely to be feeling particularly merry after the latest update about a potential live-action remake.

During a recent Reddit AMA, filmmaker Carlos López Estrada said that the studio was not moving forward with his planned photorealistic musical. The Hollywood Reporter exclusively reported in April 2020 that Estrada was in early development on the movie for streaming service Disney+ after deals were finalized prior to the industry shutting down amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s dead, sadly,” Estrada wrote in response to a question about the project’s status. “I say ‘sadly’ because I actually thought there was something really special (and original!) there. Some truly extraordinary music we had figured out for it.”

The Blindspotting director added, “I keep daydreaming about doing it independently with different characters.”

THR previously reported that Kari Granlund was writing the script for a feature remake that would be a hybrid of live action and CG. Granlund worked on the screenplay for Disney’s 2019 version of Lady and the Tramp, which became the studio’s first remake to debut on a streaming platform.

Disney has continued to prioritize its theatrical remakes of classic animated properties. This includes a live-action take on Tangled, which is back in active development after THR reported last year that the film’s progress had been paused in light of Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot’s live-action Snow White underperforming at the box office. Since then, Disney has had a massive hit with the live-action remake of Lilo & Stitch, while Barry Jenkins’ prequel Mufasa: The Lion King also had a strong showing.

Director Thomas Kail’s live-action remake of Moana hits theaters this summer. Additionally, the studio has been developing a live-action spinoff of Beauty and the Beast villain Gaston and a remake of Hercules from filmmaker Guy Ritchie.

Robin Hood hit theaters in 1973 and used animated anthropomorphic animals to tell the classic story of the heroic outlaw. Robin Hood and Maid Marian were depicted as red foxes, while Little John was a brown bear, and Prince John was a lion. The film surpassed $32 million at the domestic box office ($234 million today) and earned an Oscar nomination for the song “Love.”

Bob Iger, who is soon ending his run as Disney CEO, said during a conference call last year that the studio has focused its efforts on theatrical releases after having previously attempted to ramp up its Disney+ roster.

“We all know that, in our zeal to flood our streaming platform with more content, that we turned to all of our creative engines, including Marvel, and had them produce a lot more,” Iger said. “We’ve also learned over time that quantity does not necessarily beget quality.”

During his Reddit conversation, Estrada also responded to a question about his experience co-directing Disney’s 2021 animated feature Raya and the Last Dragon.

“Disney was so special and so hard,” Estrada said. Noting that he was Disney Animation‘s first director of color, he continued, “Needless to say, I lasted only a few years there. But they were really great years. I wouldn’t trade them for the world. But I do have some proper crazy Disney stories that I should share someday.” (THR)

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Disney names Josh D’Amaro as new chief executive

Walt Disney has named Josh D’Amaro, the head of its amusement park business, as its new chief executive.

D’Amaro, a 28-year veteran of the company, will replace current boss Bob Iger. He is due to start in the new role on 18 March.

In selecting D’Amaro, Disney has turned to the leader of the part of its business that has delivered the most reliable profits in recent years, as the company works to find its way in the world of streaming.

The decision ends a succession puzzle for the entertainment giant, which Iger has led for roughly two decades, except for a brief interlude that ended in 2022 when the board ousted his successor and asked Iger to return.

Iger quickly set about restructuring the firm, aiming to tackle ballooning expenses in the streaming, television and film business, regain momentum for sports-focused ESPN and expand its parks and cruise lines.

In the announcement, Iger said he was “proud to step away at a moment when Disney’s future has never been brighter”.

D’Amaro joined the company in 1998 at Disneyland Resort, before rising to his current position as chairman of the Disney Experiences division, which has 185,000 employees and generated $36bn in revenue last year.

In the role, the 54-year-old oversees 12 theme parks and 54 resorts globally.

He has handled projects such as World of Frozen and Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, as well as managing digital ventures such as Disney’s collaboration with the firm behind Fortnite.

In an interview on CNBC, Disney board chair James Gorman said D’Amaro brought not just financial skills but “great creative touch”.

As chief executive, D’Amaro will be taking on the top role at a moment when media companies in the US are facing increased political pressure.

Disney itself has been a prime target, blasted in recent years by Republicans such as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for promoting “woke” values.

The company most recently drew headlines when it temporarily suspended comedian Jimmy Kimmel, a decision linked to comments over the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

Disney’s parks business in the US has also drawn attention for rising costs faced by visitors, while investors have been frustrated with its share price, which has lagged that of other publicly listed firms.

Shares dipped 1% in early trading after the announcement.

D’Amaro will receive a $2.5m base salary, as well as Disney shares worth at least $26.3m annually, according to company filings. The firm has also granted him a bonus award worth $9.7m this year for the new role.

Disney also named Dana Walden, currently co-chair of its entertainment business, to a new role as chief creative officer, reporting to D’Amaro.

Walden, who is known outside of work for her friendship with former Vice President Kamala Harris, had been seen as D’Amaro’s chief rival for the top job.

Disney is trying to avoid a repeat of 2020’s botched hand-off.

That year, it also elevated the successful head of the theme parks business, Bob Chapek, to chief executive. But within weeks, the Covid-19 pandemic had forced the company to shut its doors.

His tenure was marked by strains on the content side of the business, which saw costs rise, as well as the brand’s involvement in several high-profile public clashes, including with actress Scarlett Johansson.

Analyst Paolo Pescatore warned that, despite the profits delivered by parks, the key to Disney’s success lies in its content.

“Disney can ill afford another messy handover,” he said. “While it is a strong endorsement of D’Amaro’s abilities to elevate Experiences to the fore…. he should not lose sight of Disney’s core capabilities.” (BBC)

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Disney accuses Google of using AI to engage in copyright infringement on ‘massive scale’

As Disney has gone into business with OpenAI, the Mouse House is accusing Google of copyright infringement on a “massive scale” using AI models and services to “commercially exploit and distribute” infringing images and videos.

On Wednesday evening, attorneys for Disney sent a cease-and-desist letter to Google, demanding that Google stop the alleged infringement in its AI systems.

“Google is infringing Disney’s copyrights on a massive scale, by copying a large corpus of Disney’s copyrighted works without authorization to train and develop generative artificial intelligence (‘AI’) models and services, and by using AI models and services to commercially exploit and distribute copies of its protected works to consumers in violation of Disney’s copyrights,” reads the letter to Google’s general counsel from law firm Jenner & Block on behalf of Disney.

The letter continued, “Google operates as a virtual vending machine, capable of reproducing, rendering, and distributing copies of Disney’s valuable library of copyrighted characters and other works on a mass scale. And compounding Google’s blatant infringement, many of the infringing images generated by Google’s AI Services are branded with Google’s Gemini logo, falsely implying that Google’s exploitation of Disney’s intellectual property is authorized and endorsed by Disney.”

According to the letter, which Variety has reviewed, Disney alleges that Google’s AI systems and services infringe Disney characters including those from “Frozen,” “The Lion King,” “Moana,” “The Little Mermaid,” “Deadpool,” “Guardians of the Galaxy,” “Toy Story,” “Brave,” “Ratatouille,” “Monsters Inc.,” “Lilo & Stich,” “Inside Out” and franchises such as Star Wars, the Simpsons, and Marvel’s Avengers and Spider-Man. In its letter, Disney included examples of images it claims were generated by text prompts in Google’s AI apps, including of Darth Vader

The allegations against Google follows cease-and-desist letters that Disney sent earlier to Meta and Character.AI, as well as litigation Disney filed together with NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. Discovery against AI companies Midjourney and Minimax alleging copyright infringement.

Asked for comment, a Google spokesperson said, “We have a longstanding and mutually beneficial relationship with Disney, and will continue to engage with them. More generally, we use public data from the open web to build our AI and have built additional innovative copyright controls like Google-extended and Content ID for YouTube, which give sites and copyright holders control over their content.”

According to Disney, the company has been raising its concerns with Google for months — but says Google hasn’t done anything in response, and that i anything, Google’s infringement has only increased during that time.

Bob Iger, Disney’s CEO, in an interview with CNBC Thursday, said, “Well, we’ve been aggressive at protecting our IP, and we’ve gone after other companies that have not honored our IP, not respected our IP, not valued it. And this is another example of us doing just that.”

Iger said Disney had been in discussions with Google “basically expressing our concerns” about its AI systems’ alleged infringement. “And ultimately, because we didn’t really make any progress, the conversations didn’t bear fruit, we felt we had no choice but to send them a cease-and-desist [letter].”

Disney’s letter to Google demands that Google “immediately cease further copying, publicly displaying, publicly performing, distributing, and creating derivative works of Disney’s copyrighted characters” in “outputs of Google’s AI Services, including through YouTube’s mobile app, YouTube Shorts and YouTube.” (Variety)

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Disney+ has ‘huge opportunity’ in games and will tap into AI-based user generated content, CEO Iger says

Ready to play a game starring Stitch on Disney+? Or maybe create some kind of personalized, AI-animated version of the chaotic but oh-so-adorable alien from “Lilo & Stitch” you can share with your friends?

Disney+, which is in the process of merging with Hulu into a unified platform, is preparing “the biggest and the most significant changes from a product perspective” since the streaming service launched in late 2019, according to CEO Bob Iger, speaking on the media giant’s September quarter earnings call Thursday.

Iger then sketched out Disney+’s future roadmap — which could include games, commerce and AI user generated content. The big vision, he said, “particularly with the deployment of AI,” is to be able to leverage Disney+ “as a portal to all things Disney.”

“There’s an opportunity to use it as an engagement engine for people who want to go to our theme parks, want to stay at our hotels, want to enjoy our cruises, our cruise ships,” said Iger. “And obviously, there’s a huge opportunity for games.” He cited Disney’s $1.5 billion investment in Epic Games, the company behind “Fortnite,” and while the games and experiences developed under the partnership “will largely be on their platform,” the Epic pact “gives us an opportunity to integrate a number of game-like features into Disney+.”

Iger, on a roll, continued, “The other thing that we’re really excited about that AI is going to give us the ability to do is to provide users at Disney+ with a much more engaged experience, including the ability for them to create user generated content and to consume user generated content, mostly short form from others.”

“There are great opportunities in terms of our collection of data and our mining of data,” Iger told analysts. “And I’d say above all else, there’s phenomenal opportunities to deploy AI across our direct-to-consumer platforms, both to provide tools that make the platforms more dynamic and more sticky with consumers, but also give consumers the opportunity to create on our platforms.”

Needless to say, any AI features the Mouse House lights up on Disney+ would likely be confined within a very strict sandbox. Iger said Disney execs have had “some interesting conversations with some of the AI companies, and I would characterize some of them as quite productive conversations as well, seeking to not only protect the value of our IP and of our creative engines, but also to seek opportunities for us to use their technology to create more engagement with consumers. And we feel encouraged by some of the discussions that we’re having.”

Iger didn’t identify which AI companies Disney has spoken to. But, he said, “It’s obviously imperative for us to protect our IP using with this new technology, and we’ve been pretty engaged on that subject with a number of entities, and I’m hopeful that ultimately we’ll be able to reach some agreement with the industry or companies” that would “reflect our need to protect the IP.”

On that front, this year Disney began actively engaged in legal action against AI companies that it alleges had infringed its copyrights. Disney, together with NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. Discovery, has sued Midjourney and Chinese AI company MiniMax, seeking to recover monetary damages and injunctions to block the alleged infringement.

Beyond using AI for content production and for features in products like Disney+, the company sees opportunities in terms of increasing efficiency by deploying AI across the enterprise “as we engage with our cast members and our our employees, but also our guests and our customers.” (Variety)