Pixar plans to open a 20,000-square-foot satellite studio at the end of the year in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The studio is currently scouting locations in the city for the new facility.
The Vancouver studio will focus only on the production of Pixar’s short films and other non-feature projects based for the most part on “legacy characters”, such as the characters of Toy Story.
“The operation will be small in size and dedicated to producing short-form quality computer animation for theme parks, DVDs, television and theatrical exhibition… for several different divisions of The Walt Disney Company”, Pixar president Ed Catmull tells The Hollywood Reporter. The studio plans to hire between 75 and 100 employees, mostly Canadian, for the job, according to general manager Jim Morris.
Amir Nasrabadi, current vice-president of operations and finance at Disney’s direct-to-video sequel outfit DisneyToon Studios, has been picked to be the general manager of the Vancouver operation. Pixar animator Dylan Brown, supervising animator on Ratatouille and Finding Nemo, will be the local creative director.
Vancouver was chosen for several reasons, including its location and time zone (near to and same as Emeryville, respectively), the tax incentives provided by the Province of British Columbia, and other factors, such as the abundant talent located in the area.
The new Pixar film Up is about to open in the USA, and then next year, 2010 brings the highly anticipated return of Buzz and Woody in the Disney Digital 3D summer release of Pixar’s Toy Story 3 directed by Lee Unkrich (Finding Nemo, Monsters, Inc.).
In the summer of 2011, Pixar will then release newt marking the directing debut of multiple Oscar winning sound designer Gary Rydstrom. Christmas 2011 will see Pixar’s first fairy tale, The Bear and the Bow, from acclaimed filmmaker/writer Brenda Chapman (The Prince of Egypt), with voice performances from Reese Witherspoon and Billy Connolly and Emma Thompson. The year 2012 will mark the return of Lightning McQueen, Mater the tow truck, and an international cast of favorite and new car characters in Pixar’s Cars 2, directed by Brad Lewis (producer of Ratatouille).
Source: PixarBlog, confirmed by Pixar.
i understand ther will be a monsters inc 2 coming in the near future. when will it be announced that its coming. my grandson is exstided about toy story 3. my favorite is still monsters inc.