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April 21, 2008
What Becomes A Studio Most?
Disney had a little shindig on the lot today – its second major event this month – to announce Disneynature, their new distribution label, focusing exclusively on theatrical-release nature films. The label expands on the Disney tradition of nature films that goes back to Uncle Walt himself and his True Life Adventures TV series.
But it’s more than a new distribution arm and more than an aggressive step into a very specialized, but highly profitable area of the film industry that really hasn’t been exploited by the majors very much. It is also another great Disney branding opportunity, much as their animation announcement for the next five years was.
There is no other studio in Hollywood today that is anywhere close to as clear and committed to branding themselves as is Disney these days. One has to give Bob Iger and Dick Cook enormous accolades for making the decision and then using all of the company’s resources – built by Michael Eisner – to make their brand sing.
And it’s not just Disney proper. Iger has to get a lot of credit for branding on other platforms. For instance, the cross-branding of ABC Sports and ESPN is relentless and effective. At first, it just seemed like ESPN was picking up Monday Night Football. But we have seen the growth of the “ESPN on ABC” franchise in the last year and it is rather brilliant. Selling the idea that this one company has a platform that goes across networks and in the case of ESPN, onto multiple channels and platforms is just so smart.
But back to the animals…
Heading things up for Disney is Jean-Francois Camilleri, who has been a Senior VP for Disney Studios in France for years. Disneynature already has seven films in production, a few that have been in production for a while, including their first release, due at year’s end, Crimson Wing: Mystery of The Flamingos. In 2009, there will a theatrical release of a version – with a lot of new footage – of the BBC Planet Earth series, called Earth.
Also on tap are Big Cats, Oceans, Orangutans: One Minute To Midnight, Chimpanzee, and Naked Beauty, a slow-mo micro view of plants and their pollinators.
The plan is to release one film a year, though they may release double dips in 2009 and 2010. Talking to Camilleri, it was clear that he was in no rush. He estimates that there are about 20 serious, top-of-the-line wildlife filmmakers working in the world these days… and Disneynature seems to be working with about half of them right now.
There are no set plans about 3D and these films. They may go that way at some point, but Camilleri seems to be focused exclusively on whatever is the best possible delivery system for these films, which take years to produce, demand lots of innovation in production techniques, and cost less to make that almost anything else on the Disney slate.
I congratulate Disney on a great decision well executed (so far), but I have to wonder whether Disney taking such a strong position in this niche will create a bigger business for everyone or whether, as with the indie and docs businesses, the big company will make it hard for true indies in that arena to operate. We shall see.
Posted by poland at April 21, 2008 10:10 PM
Comments
This is refreshing, especially because it brings us back to the day of kids' movies that aren't all fart jokes and mugging. If Disney is going to help open kids' minds to the wider world around them, it's a great idea and I applaud them.
Posted by: jeffmcm ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.mcnblogs.com/thehotblog/nav-commenters.gif)
at April 21, 2008 11:27 PM
Booooooooooooooooooooring.
Posted by: Wrecktum at April 21, 2008 11:33 PM
Please tell me they get David Attenborough for Earth voiceover. No one else can compare, not even Morgan Freeman...
Posted by: Kambei at April 22, 2008 06:07 AM
Pardon my LexG/IO moment here, but - David Attenborough is GOD!
I grew up watching him in nature documentaries (I was very much into nature/georgraphy/animals growing up - still am). He is the master.
I'm always up for these sort of films getting high profile attention. As Jeff said, I'd rather people go see something like Earth (begging for IMAX treatment, no?) than, like, Are We There Yet?
Posted by: KamikazeCamelV2.0 at April 22, 2008 06:43 AM
Hmmmm.... are they seeing an opening in the Imax market? This could be a tie-in with the Disney Digital 3-D thing, a way to keep DLP projectors tied up with Disney product. It took Hannah Montana to bring Digital to Western Canada, maybe this will crack the market in a few more places.
Posted by: doug r at April 22, 2008 06:57 AM
Disney announced a similar group of movies for IMAX a few years back. Nothing came of it.
Posted by: Wrecktum at April 22, 2008 07:22 AM
Again... they really don't seem to have a plan for bigger screens or 3D set. And Disney was very aggressive about pushing the 3D thing for animation a couple of weeks ago, so I believe them.
Personally, I think differentiation form IMAX is important for this to work the way they want it to... just have the tehatrical experience... it should be enough.
Posted by: David Poland at April 22, 2008 10:47 AM
Disney is going to need it since they milked ESPN for all its worth and are now starting to piss off the fanbase, just as NBCU did with Sci fi.
As for the kiddies and tweens this is an interesting article from Portfolio. More of a piece for Sweeney, supposed heir apparent to Iger but it lays out a good road map of what is happening inbetween those mouse ears.
Posted by: leepe at April 22, 2008 01:25 PM
Disney is going to need it since they milked ESPN for all its worth and are now starting to piss off the fanbase, just as NBCU did with Sci fi.
As for the kiddies and tweens this is an interesting article from Portfolio. More of a piece for Sweeney, supposed heir apparent to Iger but it lays out a good road map of what is happening inbetween those mouse ears.
Posted by: leepe at April 22, 2008 01:25 PM
What??? No wiener dogs?
How can they say they are doing animal docs and have no wieners? Tsk.
Posted by: a1amoeba at April 22, 2008 02:42 PM
For instance, the cross-branding of ABC Sports and ESPN is relentless and effective.
ABC Sports was folded into ESPN 3-4 years ago. All sports telecasts on ABC -- even the Indianapolis 500 and NASCAR -- are produced as "ESPN on ABC".
Posted by: Chucky in Jersey at April 22, 2008 04:35 PM
Pretty cool branding. Can't wait to see the films.
Posted by: Aladdin Sane at April 24, 2008 02:25 AM
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