Animation wizard John Lasseter has seen the future and it's 3D. All of Disney's future animated features will be in 3D, Lasseter said in New York last week when he introduced footage from the studio's line-up for the next four years.
First up is WALL.E, an adventurous, haunting picture telling the year's most unusual love story, in which a robot, WALL.E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class), falls for Eve, a robot from another planet.
Disney then goes postmodern with Bolt, in which the title character is a dog (voiced by John Travolta) so immersed in his role as the star of a TV action series that he feels removed from the real world.
Edward Asner provides the voice of the lonely, elderly protagonist in Up, which Lasseter describes as "a coming-of-old-age story".
The surprise guest at the New York event was Randy Newman, who performed one of his songs from The Princess and the Frog, a musical marking Disney's return to hand-drawn animation, and a song from Toy Story, which will be released in a 3D version, as will its sequel, before the new Toy Story 3opens.
The remarkably diverse animation line-up also includes the Philip K Dick adaptation King of the Elves; the Scottish-set adventure The Bear and the Bow; and Rapunzel, Disney's first computer-generated feature based on a classic fairytale.
First film for Light House
The first public screening at the new Light House cinema in Dublin will be on May 8th, with the Irish premiere of The Waiting Room. Roger Goldby's British drama stars Anne-Marie Duff as a woman sexually involved with her married neighbour (Rupert Graves) and falling for a caring man (Ralf Little) whose own relationship is disintegrating.
Tickets are €15, and proceeds from the premiere will benefit Threshold. All four screens in the cinema will open for regular business the next day. www.lighthousecinema.ie
Liv leads directors to Dublin
Award-winning actor- director Liv Ullman will preside over the annual general assembly of the Federation of European Film and Television Directors, of which she is president, in Dublin over the weekend beginning May 30th. Film-makers from all over Europe will attend the event, which is hosted by Screen Directors Guild of Ireland. www.ferainfo.org
Big Apple love stories
Following the success of Paris, Je t'Aime, producer Emmanuel Benbihy is planning a series of omnibus films set in different cities. Shooting is now under way on New York, I Love You, which will feature 12 short films telling love stories set in the city. Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson are making their directing debuts on the project. Cast members already confirmed include Kevin Bacon, Orlando Bloom, Julie Christie, James Caan, Hayden Christensen, Shia LaBeouf, Ethan Hawke and Chris Cooper.
Student film about students
Six Semesters, billed as the first feature-length Irish student film, has its premiere in Dublin next Monday and will be screened daily at 7.30pm from April 22nd-24th at Dublin City University, where the cast and crew are in their final year. Written and directed by John McKeown, the micro-budget production is a romantic comedy of college life.
An Irish take on US civil rights
An untitled screenplay for an Irish-US production has been selected for the All Access programme at the Tribeca Film Festival, which opens in New York on Wednesday. Irish barrister Bart Daly scripted the film with Terry McMahon, and it will be directed by US film-maker Valerie Red-Horse.
"The story centres on Chief Standing Bear of the Ponca Nation, who is now recognised as one of the first civil rights leaders in America," Daly says.
The programme organises meetings between producers and writers with potential investors and executives.
Grindhouse comes to the IFI
Completists will welcome the chance to see Grindhousein its original form at its only Irish screenings at 2pm tomorrow and Sunday at Dublin's Irish Film Institute. It will be shown as it was released in the US, as a double bill of Robert Rodrigeuz's Planet Terrorand Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof, and most enticingly, with four fake trailers for B-movies: Machete, Thanksgiving, Don'tand Werewolf Women of the SS. www.irishfilm.ie
There's no end to Austen
Is there no end to the recycling of Austen's six novels? Next up is Emme, a hip-hop musical translating Emmato a present-day inner city US high school. It will include, we are told, "15 song and dance numbers".
Emmawas given a smart contemporary reworking in Clueless(1995), starring Alicia Silverstone. A year later, Gwyneth Paltrow played the title role in Emma, which restored the story to its 19th-century setting.
