In William Shakespeare’s tragic romance “Romeo & Juliet,” one of the key points of the plot is that Friar Lawrence gives Ms. Capulet a potion which will allow the play’s heroine to briefly simulate death. Well, could it be that the Walt Disney Company has begun serving this very same brew in the Burbank cafeteria?
To explain: Back on January 27th, JimHillMedia.com ran an article (written by yours truly) which stated that Disney Feature Animation had officially shut down production of “Gnomeo & Juliet” during the first week of December 2003.
What was my source on this story? Well, I got my first inkling that something might be up with “Gnomeo” back on January 22nd, when I received this e-mail from a former Feature Animation employee. Which read:
Hi, Jim.
I’m a great fan of your site. As a former FA employee in Burbank, I’ve been following events quite closely and with great sadness. I love the insight that you and your guest columnists contribute. And it’s always a pleasure to read anything by Floyd Norman, a wonderful guy.
You may have missed an important topic, namely the shutting down of production on “Gnomeo and Juliet,” the CG animated feature that Disney was producing with Elton John’s Rocket Pictures. Elton John and Tim Rice were set to write the score, and while the film was still only in the pre-production stage, it had hired a large number of production and artistic staff, including two directors. I believe that production was shut down sometime during the week of December 8.
Sorry I don’t know more details, but I’m curious if I missed a column on your site, or if you were unaware of this development.
Regards,
Sad Former FA Employee
So — right after I received this note — I made a few calls to some friends at WDFA. And — sure enough — production of “Gnomeo & Juliet” HAD officially been shut down during the first week of December 2003. The artists who had been working in development on this project had quickly scrambled & found jobs elsewhere at Feature Animation. The production’s two new directors had moved on to other projects.
So — for all intents and purposes — “Gnomeo” was dead in the water. Which was why I reported what I did back on January 27th.
But what I forgot to take into account was Don Hahn.
“Who’s Don Hahn?” you say. Well — for those of you who don’t know — Don is one of WDFA’s veteran producers. Name a truly great Disney animated film that was produced over the past 15 years (EX: “The Lion King, “Beauty & the Beast” & “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”), and Hahn has had a hand in getting these projects up on the big screen.
Well, Don really liked “Gnomeo & Juliet.” By that I mean: He alone among WDFA’s enormous cadre of executives got what this film was really supposed to be about. That “Gnomeo” was this distinctly English piece, long on whimsy & charm. And that it would take a extremely gentle but firm hand to guide this delicate project through the various twists & turns of Feature Animation’s production process. To make sure this slightly twee piece of material got all the love & support that it needed in order to become a truly entertaining Disney animated feature in the end.
On the other hand, Disney CEO Michael Eisner & WDFA President David Stainton just DIDN’T get the point of “Gnomeo & Juliet.” They failed to see the humorous potential of restaging “Romeo & Juliet” — W. Shakespeare’s hot-blooded romantic tragedy — inside a quaint English garden. How funny it would be to see a concrete garden gnome riding through this tranquil terrain atop his trusty steed … Which would be a plastic lawn flamingo.
But Hahn (Who spent a couple of years in the U.K. back in the late 1980s, when he was riding herd on “Roger Rabbit.” So he GETS English humor) immediately saw all the humor inherent in this premise. More importantly, Don remembered what happened the last time that Disney Feature Animation combined a Shakespearean tragedy with the music of Elton John. After an equally troubled pre-production period, the Mouse ended up with this colossal hit film. Maybe you’ve heard of it? “The Lion King.”
Anyway … last December, when WDFA management announced that it was officially shutting down pre-production on “Gnomeo & Juliet,” Don just nodded and smiled … then quietly set about work, trying to get this project revived.
When I spoke with Hahn last week in Manhattan (Don was one of the guest speakers at Buena Vista Home Entertainment’s “The Lion King 1½” preview event last Thursday night in NYC. Nancy and I were lucky enough to get a chance to chat with the veteran producer right before we began our long ride back to the woods of New Hampshire), he spoke about how he was trying to get the project “relit.” TRANSLATION: Eisner and Stainton may have shut “Gnomeo & Juliet” down. But Hahn knows a good film when I see it. So Don’s going to his damnedest to bring this discarded WDFA project back from the dead.
Which is perhaps why Don has begun aggressively talking up “Gnomeo & Juliet” just a couple of days later. In an interview that Sci Fi Wire ran this past Tuesday, Hahn — when he was asked about “Gnomeo”‘s status — was quoted as saying:
“[We have] great songs by Elton John and Tim Rice,” Hahn said in an interview. “Early on, Ewan McGregor was attached to it [to voice Gnomeo] and still is, so I think as with any movie, it’s about story and trying to get the story on its feet. So we’re trying to keep our ducks in a row and do that first before we bring in the big guns.”
Hahn added, “The writers have it, and they’re trying to launch it to see if we can get a solid story before we take off and make it.”
TRANSLATION: Hahn has reportedly hired a newset of writers to rework the film’s screenplay. Don’s goal supposedly is — while protecting the unique English charm of the piece — to give “Gnomeo & Juliet” enough Americanized humor that Eisner & Stainton will finally “get” the project. Which will allow this film to move from its current officially-dead-in-the-water status back into preproduction.
Of course, with David Stainton still deciding what gets greenlit at Disney Feature Animation, Hahn may really have his work cut out for him. As one WDFA insider explained it to me yesterday:
“David likes to play it safe, Jim. I mean, look at the handful of projects that he’s actually put in Feature Animation’s production pipeline since he took over for Schumacher in November of 2002. ‘The Three Little Pigs,’ ‘A Day with Wilbur Robinson.’ These projects are all based on award winning books.”
“Stainton doesn’t trust the homegrown stuff. Movie ideas like ‘Gnomeo’, films that WDFA’s own story artists develop right from the get-go, make David nervous. He’d prefer a pre-sold name. Something that will already have some name recognition with audiences. That will hopefully make the finished film that much easier for the Mouse to market & sell.”
“You wanna know the really sad part of his attitude? If Stainton had been calling the shots back in the early 1990s, he probably would have taken a pass on ‘The Lion King’ as well. I mean, “Gnomeo’ has virtually the same ingredients as that film. It’s based on a famous Shakespearean tragedy. It has a score by Tim Rice & Elton John … But David just doesn’t see the potential in that project.”
But — luckily for us — Don Hahn DOES actually see the potential in “Gnomeo & Juliet.” Which is why he’s refusing to let this project shrivel up & die.
You wanna know the really ironic part of this story: Guess where the writer for Sci Fi Wire got that Don Hahn quote about “Gnomeo & Juliet”? They attended the West Coast version of Buena Vista Home Entertainment’s “The Lion King 1 ½” promotional event. Which was held in Hollywood this past Monday night.
So — somewhere between last Thursday night (When Don was using cautious terms like “I hope to get this project relit”) to this past Monday night (Where Hahn was talking as if “Gnomeo & Juliet” really was once again a greenlit project) — something happened. Maybe the veteran producer had a talk with Stainton about the project. Or perhaps David had a sudden change of heart.
Whatever the case … To borrow a quote from Mark Twain : The reports of “Gnomeo & Juliet”‘s death appear to be greatly exaggerated. And — to be honest (Given what a huge fan I am of this project’s premise) — I really couldn’t be happier to hear this.
Just one final word of caution, though: “Gnomeo & Juliet”‘s future still seems to depend on the film’s screenplay being rewritten to a point that the movie’s central story seems viable to both Michael Eisner and David Stainton. And — given that Eisner has already publicly stated (As part of a May 2003 “Newsweek” article) that “I’ve been nervous about these gnomes since day one.” And that one of Michael’s main fears about this proposed film — given that the movie’s title characters are made of concrete & porcelain respectively — is that G & J may end up looking “klutzy and tacky” … Well, this project still has a ways to go before we can all breath a sigh of relief and official say that “Gnomeo & Juliet” is back from the dead.
But let’s not obsess about the potential bad news in this story, okay? Let’s just be happy that “Gnomeo & Juliet” seem to have Don Hahn solidly in their corner. Which (to my way of thinking, anyway) gives these two star-crossed lovers a better-than-average chance of making it up onto the big screen.
Your thoughts?