Brad Bird
Brad Bird’s been quietly prepping his live-action debut since before he took on Ratatouille and things are moving closer to the production stage . The project, 1906, is based on the novel of the same name by James Dalessandro and revolves around a series of characters as the real life April 18th, 1906 earthquake disturbs San Francisco. Bird spoke to MTV at the Coraline premiere and described as 1906 as “a romantic, epic, mystery with lots of action in it.” Preliminary location scouting has begun as the script continues to be ironed out, with Bird saying its challenges lie in how “there are so many things going on in that place in that particular period of time. Any time you’re going toward something, you’re going away from five other cool things…” He adds that he has casting ideas, but won’t share any. Bird also points out that period San Francisco will require a lot of digital recreations and compares it to Peter Jackson’s King Kong‘s New York City. May I recommend ignoring that one and studying the mastery of David Fincher’s period revivals in Zodiac and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button? Now there are some serious case studies for seamless integration of digital backdrops.
1906 is a co-production between Disney and Warner Bros. although Brad Bird continues working out of Pixar. Assuming the film goes forward, expect it in 2010 or 2011.
