Andrew Stanton, director of A Bug’s Life, Finding Nemo, and Wall-E is taking a break from making animated movies. At least that’s what he told us when we spoke on the phone earlier this week about the home video release of his newest movie, Finding Dory.
Before getting doom and gloom about it, let’s clarify that Stanton isn’t stepping away from directing all together, he just wants to focus on doing them in the real world. “Definitely what I’m going to do next is some live-action projects. How big they are, how small they are, depends on what rises to the surface first. But I am taking a break from animation,” Stanton told us.
This by no means implies that Stanton is stepping away from animation powerhouse Pixar, though. It is his home after all, and we asked Stanton what his day-to-day duties are like when he isn’t directing a film of his own:
“My day is the same as when I’m working on a film. Half my week is always spent looking at other films being made here. I’m also a vice president under creative, and I have been since 2003, so I spend a third to half of my week watching other people’s films and giving feedback if they need it. it was the same during [John] Carter. It’s just me going to other people. All my meetings are several hours. I’m either hearing a pitch for a movie, or I’m being shown the reels of a movie, or watching a screening of a movie and giving notes and suggestions. Sometimes we’re in a working session where you’re really trying to figure something out, other times you’re just giving thoughts for a couple minutes. That’s it. It’s a lot of brain power. It’s like taking the SATs all day.”
As for what those big, or small, live-action movies could be, Stanton, whose only live-action movie so far is John Carter, isn’t saying yet. Either way, they’re a priority, with Stanton stressing that he wanted to, “do four things in one year instead of one thing in four years. I’m not getting any younger.”
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Finding Dory is available now on DigitalHD. It’ll be on Blu-ray and DVD on November 15, 2016.