According to Jon Favreau, the world will have to wait for Magic Kingdom, and that’s a good thing. In an interview with Crave, the director noted that his past three films (Iron Man, Iron Man 2 and Cowboys & Aliens) have all been made under the gun of a release date and preliminary poster art. It’s arguable that that rush had an effect on overall quality. By “arguable,” we mean, “almost assured.”
Of course, Pixar is happy to help with the methodical, only-when-the-story-is-ready approach.
“What we’ve been doing is writing a script, going up to Pixar, meeting with the brain trust, coming back down, bringing on artists, story editors and putting it together as though it were an animated film so that by the time we actually film it, we’ll have a rock solid story,” Favreau said. Of course, it’s in no way an official Pixar film, but Disney seems keen to use them and John Lasseter as a valuable creative resource.
That’s definitely a strong move. It’s also encouraging to see someone at a major studio talk about working hard to get the story right over working hard to ensure it’s out by Christmas.
The rest of the interview is a must-read when it comes to how the story is coming along, Favreau’s approach and how he sees the tones of his past films finding their way into this exploration of a family adventuring through the happiest place on Earth. We might have to wait for this one, but it sounds like it might be worth it.