D23 Expo: The Live Action Panel (Marvel, Star Wars…)

Yesterday was dedicated to animation, but today's big announcements at the D23 Expo were all about live action. Here is our quick recap of the panel, with a list of the more important reveals.

'Thunderbirds Are Go!' Are Go

/Film revealed that the British sci-fi 60s TV show, Thunderbirds, will be back soon under the name Thunderbirds are Go!. The marionettes that made the first run of the show famous will be gone though, as the new version will be a mix of CG and live-action miniatures.

New Plot Synopsis for Disney's Tomorrowland

The first official plot details for Brad Bird's Tomorrowland have been revealed, and the lovely people at /Film have got the low down for us.

Jon Hamm Joins Minions Voice Cast

I've dreamt of the day I'd be able to somehow fit Jon Hamm into an A113Animation post, and now Illumination have answered my prayers. The Universal-owned studio have announced that the Mad Men actor will be lending his voice to the Despicable Me spin-off, alongside Sandra Bullock.

Warner Bros. Release New Logo for The Lego Movie

Warner Bros. are looking to reclaim their stake in the animation industry, first on the agenda The Lego Movie, due early next year (7th February, 2014 in the US/14th in the UK). As part of a competition aiming to get people invested in the film (/Film has the details), the studio have revealed a cool new logo for the film and the teensiest bit of plot details.

Possible Plot For Brad Bird's Tomorrowland Revealed

Brad Bird is churning away on his super-secret project for Disney. Previously titled 1952 and based on a collection of bits-and-bobs stored away in a box within the walls of Disney, the film is being written by Prometheus/Star Trek Into Darkness scribe, Damon Lindelof; Bird and Lindelof are both producing. Towards the end of January, we found out that the film is now officially called Tomorrowland, and speculation ran rampant over what that might entail. Well, provided these new rumours are moderately accurate, the film just became a lot less mysterious...

Mickey Mouse and Roger Rabbit Could Co-Star in Animated Remake of The Stooge

Who Framed Roger Rabbit saw the biggest names in animation come together for a fun-filled cameo-a-thon, and it, ironically, made the titular rabbit rather a big name in animation too. A film recently proposed to Disney looks to take advantage of that, pairing Roger with a certain Mickey Mouse.

UPDATED: J.J. Abrams Set to Direct Star Wars: Episode VII

It's a day, it seems, of loosely-based-to-animation news, but this is too exciting a story to not post about. Months after the galaxy-shaking news that Disney had acquired Lucasfilm and were working on a new Star Wars trilogy, and endless speculation about who would direct the first instalment in said trilogy, we now know that J.J. Abrams is near to reaching a deal to helm Star Wars: Episode VII!

Watch: Super-Awesome Live Action Toy Story

I'm a massive Toy Story fan, but I don't think I've got a patch on these guys. Some crazily cool guys have been working away for a while now on creating (or rather, recreating) Toy Story entirely in live-action, using real toys and real people. The full version was completed and uploaded a couple of days ago, and boy, it's really caught on! Everyone from /Film to MSN to The Huffington Post has covered the story, check out why and watch the great full film above.

Congrats to Jonason Pauley, Jesse Perrotta and the great crew for creating such a labour of fan-love and for getting such great recognition for it. Facebook here, Twitter here.

First Look at Disney's Frozen

Walt Disney Studios UK and Entertainment Weekly bring us our first look at Walt Disney Animated Studios' 53rd animated feature, Frozen (hi-res image via /Film). The loose adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen, Frozen sees Anna, "a fearless optimist", (voiced by Kristen Bell) team up with buff mountain man Kristoff to try and stop the perpetual winter cast by the magic of Anna's sister Elsa (Idina Menzel), better known as the Snow Queen. In the actual film, we'll also meet Kristoff's "sidekick reindeer Sven", as well as "a funny snowman named Olaf", but in this piece of concept art, we just meet our two protagonists.

Check out this close up of Anna and Kristoff.

Above you can see Anna (who bears somewhat of a striking resemblance to Tangled's Rapunzel) and Kristoff; I like the character designs, and one thing's for sure, this is going to be a fantastic looking film! EW also grabbed a few words with directors Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee about the film's themes and production.

Frozen hits cinemas late next year, 27th November, 2013 in the US, and 20th December, 2013 in the UK. Might the trailer screen with Monsters, Inc. 3D (which opens Wednesday in America). Meanwhile, we're still waiting for Wreck-It Ralph over here, which arrives in UK cinemas on 8th February, 2013 (one week earlier than previously planned).

Robert Zemeckis Updates Us On Roger Rabbit Sequel

Who Framed Roger Rabbit is fantastic. There are very few who would argue with that statement. There should be a Roger Rabbit sequel. I'd hazard a guess that there aren't all too many people who would argue with that either, and director Robert Zemeckis clearly wouldn't.

Andy Serkis to Direct Mo-Cap Version of Animal Farm

Serkis at the premiere of Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

The Hollywood Reporter today broke the exciting news that motion-capture actor extraordinaire, Andy Serkis, best known for his role as Gollum in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy (and subsequent The Hobbit trilogy - which he also acted as second-unit director on) is set to make his directorial debut on a motion-capture adaptation of George Orwell's Animal Farm!

First Look At DreamWorks' Mr. Peabody and Sherman

With Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted due for release on 8th June (US release; 19th October here in the UK) and Rise of the Guardians due late November, DreamWorks Animation are setting their sights further forward to begin promoting their huge slab of upcoming films. So, today, Collider gives us our first look (above) and synopsis from their 2014 release (or one of them) Mr. Peabody and Sherman.

The image is pretty much what you'd expect, but it looks pretty good - nice visual style. The official synopsis for the film reads:

Based on Jay Ward’s classic cartoon, Mr. Peabody is the world’s smartest person who happens to be a dog. When his “pet” boy Sherman uses their time traveling WABAC machine without permission, events in history spiral out of control. It’s up to this most unexpected of “father-son” teams to somehow put things back on track before the space-time continuum is irreparably destroyed.

Sounds like the kind of huge romp that we've come to expect from DreamWorks - and the kind that they've recently handled very well. There's a great team behind Mr. Peabody and Sherman as well, it's being directed by Lion King helmer Rob Minkoff, with Ty Burrell (Phil in Modern Family) voicing Mr. Peabody and Max Charles (Young Peter Parker in The Amazing Spiderman) voicing Sherman.

Between this, The Croods, the expected Kung Fu Panda and How to Train Your Dragon sequels, and further away projects like Turbo, Monkeys of Mumbai and, one of my personal most anticipated films, their adaptation of Captain Underpants, DreamWorks have a solid upcoming slate, and I look forward to hearing more about this.

Mr. Peabody and Sherman is currently scheduled for a 14th March, 2014 release.

Via Slashfilm.

John Lasseter Talks About The Good Dinosaur and Pete Docter's Mind Film

Pixar and Disney Animation Chief Creative Officer, Executive Producer and general head honcho, John Lasseter, on a recent promotional tour for Pixar's next film, Brave, spoke about the studio's slate of films beyond that - specifically, Bob Peterson's The Good Dinosaur and Pete Docter's Untitled Pixar Movie That Takes You Inside the Mind!

Normally I would post small excerpts from the quote's here, to give you a flavour of what he's saying, but as this is John Lasseter, and as what he says is so interesting - it's our first real flavour of plot and inspiration for the films - I'm going to post the entirety of John's comments below:

Read what Lasseter said on Up co-director Bob Peterson's directorial debut (and my most anticipated Pixar film) The Good Dinosaur, after the jump break!