News

James Bobin is going from singing green frogs to fire-breathing green dragons.

The director of Disney’s The Muppets and Muppets Most Wanted is in talks to tackle Dragon’s Lair, Netflix’s adaptation of one of the most iconic arcade games from the early 1980s, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.

Ryan Reynolds is attached to star as well as produce the feature, which was first set up in 2020. Also producing are Roy Lee, via his Vertigo Entertainment, with Trevor Engelson of Underground Films. Don Bluth, Gary Goldman and Jon Pomeroy are also producing.

Dragon’s Lair was, at one point, the most popular game in America. It hit the scene in 1983 and promised to revolutionize the arcade industry with its movie-style animation that hailed from Bluth, who would later go on to direct the animated movies An American Tail and All Dogs Go to Heaven, and its envelope-pushing technology that...

Director Don Bluth began his career working on several productions for Disney's animation department, notably as animation director on "The Rescuers" and on "Pete's Dragon," but also as a character animator on films like "Robin Hood" (1973) and "Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too." It was when he was working on the 1981 flick "The Fox and the Hound" that Bluth's career at Disney began to sour. Arguing with the Disney brass as to how to train new animators, and who should retain artistic control on a project, Bluth ended up quitting the studio...

The post How Disney Successfully Prevented Anastasia's Success appeared first on /Film.

Before Netflix launched a gaming platform, they experimented with interactive specials such as “Black Mirror: Bandersnatch” and “The Boss Baby: Get That Baby!” But its new interactive gaming special, “Cat Burglar,” offers a new wrinkle: a nostalgic Tex Avery–inspired cartoon complete with a full orchestra, which plays like an extended Looney Tunes short.

“It’s about an hour and a half, which we treated as basically a feature-length Tex Avery cartoon,” said director and co-creator Mike Hollingsworth, a producer on “BoJack Horseman.” The result is just like what you’d find in a “Tom and Jerry” or a Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner cartoon. It follows a cat named Rowdy (James Adomian), who tries to steal a priceless piece of art from a museum while attempting to evade a security guard dog named Peanut (Alan Lee).

Each playthrough is the length of a classic theatrical cartoon short,...

Harriet Halpern Beck, an entertainment attorney who specialized in children’s programming during her long career, died Friday, Nov. 26 after a long ilnness.

As the VP of business affairs at Ruby Spears Productions in the 1980s, she played a pivotal role in shaping the Saturday morning children’s television universe, helping to build the company into one of the main suppliers of network animated content, including Alvin and the Chipmunks, Mr. T, Rambo, Punky Brewster, Dragon’s Lair and Rubik, the Amazing Cube.

Beck began her career in show business in 1975 as a legal secretary for producer Dino DeLaurentis. She enrolled in law school at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, attending at night while working and raising her son as a single mother.

During her time as a legal secretary and student, she worked for various firms that specialized in the music business, handling clients that included Fleetwood Mac. She...

Harriet Halpern Beck, a veteran attorney and TV executive who represented Laugh-In producer George Schlatter and worked on deals for Saturday morning kids shows, died Friday in Los Angeles after a long illness, a publicist announced. She was 80.

Upon graduation from Loyola Marymount University law school in 1980, Beck landed a job as a business affairs attorney for Filmways, then moved into children’s television as vp business affairs for Ruby-Spears Productions.

There, she helped shape Saturday morning TV as the company supplied such shows as Alvin and the Chipmunks, Mister T, Rambo, Punky Brewster, Dragon’s Lair and Rubik, the Amazing Cube to networks.

She later worked ...

Harriet Halpern Beck, a veteran attorney and TV executive who represented Laugh-In producer George Schlatter and worked on deals for Saturday morning kids shows, died Friday in Los Angeles after a long illness, a publicist announced. She was 80.

Upon graduation from Loyola Marymount University law school in 1980, Beck landed a job as a business affairs attorney for Filmways, then moved into children’s television as vp business affairs for Ruby Spears Productions.

There, she helped shape Saturday morning TV as the company supplied such shows as Alvin and the Chipmunks, Mister T, Rambo, Punky Brewster, Dragon’s Lair and Rubik, the Amazing Cube to networks.

She later ...

Fans of “All Dogs Go to Heaven” might not recall a scene in which one of the gone-too-soon pooches descends into the fiery belly of hell and narrowly escapes taking up permanent residence among the other condemned souls. And that’s apparently for good reason, as the full sequence in question was cut. It’s made its way online, as all such things eventually do, and is now available to retroactively ruin your childhood on YouTube. Watch the entire uncut scene below if you dare.

Read MoreDon Bluth Goes Kickstarter for “Dragon’s Lair: The Movie”

The film was directed by the underrated Don Bluth, who provided a darker alternative to Disney fare throughout the 1980s and ’90s: “The Secret of Nimh,” “An American Tail,” “The Land Before Time,” “Rock-a-Doodle,” “Anastasia.” This chthonic sequence, although found in low quality, finds canine hero Charlie B. Barkin (voiced by Burt Reynolds) sucked...