Rumour: Are Pixar Developing a Star Wars Film?

This is a rumour, so treat it with a grain of salt, - or a vat of it - but Latino Review claims that Pixar is currently in development of its own Star Wars film! The inevitability of these sort of rumours has been abound since Disney bought Lucasfilm back in October 2012, so it's not a shock to see this pop up, but Latino Review have been proven right with some rumours in the past (although they've also been egregiously untrustworthy with others...), so it's worth considering.

"We’ve heard that Pixar has been given their own Star Wars movie," says the site, offering no further details. One would assume it would be a film set in the Star Wars universe, but reasonably original, rather than a canonical entry featuring the series's main characters.

It's conceivable. Walt Disney Animation Studios are releasing a Marvel adaptation this year; although, that film (Big Hero 6) is an adaptation of an obscure Marvel property, and WDAS have been adapting existing stories for their films ever since the start. Pixar, however, have produced all of their films so far based on their own original ideas.

Pixar head honcho John Lasseter with Star Wars creator George Lucas.

Also, Disney and Pixar Animation creative chief John Lasseter spoke to EW just before D23 last year, and when asked about whether or not he could see any possibilities for a Star Wars or Lucasfilm-related animated film coming from Disney's animation branches, he responded:

"Not really, other than Pixar has always used Skywalker Sound for all of our productions. They’re the best so we’ll always continue using them and we’re very good friends. And we always have been with [special effects house Industrial Light and Magic] as well. But other than being friends we have never needed to do anything with them. But we’re also massive Star Wars fans so we’re all very excited, as is everybody around the world, for new Star Wars films."

So, there you have it from the man at the head of all Disney and Pixar animation. Admittedly, plans may have changed since August, but it would be strange for Lasseter to do a U-turn on such a public statement.

Credit: Andrew Chesworth

That said, it would kind of bring Pixar - a studio that started life as the Lucasfilm Graphics Group back in 1979 - full circle to be working on a Lucasfilm property... All the same, I really hope it's not true.

How about you? What sort of stuff do you think a Pixar Star Wars film would entail? Would you be interested in seeing one?