Disney. Alice in the wonderland boycotté. Disney to close Bob Zemeckis' digital film studio, laying off hu. In a cost-savings move, Walt Disney Studios is shutting down director and producer Robert Zemeckis' ImageMovers Digital studio in Marin County, which employs 450 people.
Those employees will be phased out over the course of the year until the facility closes by January 2011. Zemeckis' San Rafel-based company, which Disney has been bankrolling, produces motion-capture animation technology that was used in the filmmaker's 2009 big-budget holiday movie, "A Christmas Carol. " "Given today's economic realities, we need to find alternative ways to bring creative content to audiences and IMD no longer fits into our business model," Disney Studios President Alan Bergman said in a statement. Ever since ousting Disney Studios Chairman Dick Cook and overhauling the movie operation under his successor, Rich Ross, the Burbank studio has been aggressively cutting costs by consolidating operations, slashing overhead and reigning in production and marketing budgets.
--Claudia Eller and Dawn C. But When Will Local Production Pay Off? With Disney’s announcement on Thursday that it was pushing deeper into the Indian market, the studio joins a list of Hollywood players that have taken big bets on local-language productions.
But so far the bet has not shown the kind of payoff that Hollywood expects. Germany, France and Russia have proven to be profitable foreign excursions. But India, the largest producer of films in the world, has been more problematic. "All of the studios have initiatives, all of them have now made it a point to say that they are getting into Indian language films," Ashok Amritraj, CEO of Hyde Park Entertainment, told TheWrap.
"So far, they’ve only done OK. " "For the last 50 years, Hollywood has failed to distribute its films in India," said William Keenan, co-president of the east-west studio consulting firm Nuclear Mango, to TheWrap. Corpses in Hollywood’s India efforts far outweigh the healthy specimens. An earlier Disney effort, "Roadside Romeo," an animated film, grossed a feeble $1.9 million. Disney Reopens Miramax Talks With Rival Bidder to the Weinsteins. Linda R. Chen/Miramax FilmsJohn Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson in “Pulp Fiction,” one of the biggest hits for Miramax Films, currently up for sale by the Walt Disney Company. LOS ANGELES — After the collapse on Friday of Bob and Harvey Weinstein’s bid to win back Miramax Films, the Walt Disney Company, which owns the boutique label, has resumed casual talks with a competing bidder.
Despite assertions from the Weinsteins and their principal backer, Ron Burkle, that their talks with Disney were continuing, those negotiations actually ended last week with Disney’s withdrawal, according to three people who were briefed on the move but spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks were private. Now Disney has resumed talks about a possible sale of Miramax to the billionaires Tom and Alec Gores, albeit with no urgency. Spokesmen for the Gores brothers, Yucaipa, and the Weinsteins did not respond to requests for comment.
Under the contemplated deal, Mr.