Shattered Dreams: Is Oriental DreamWorks Being Phased Out?

DreamWorks' Shanghai unit apparently is the next casualty of the Comcast acquisition of the company...

The moon boy studio, according to Variety, is going to give up their 45% stake in the overseas unit.

The Shanghai unit, which is called Oriental DreamWorks, has actually had it kind of rough. Attempts to jumpstart live-action pictures fell through. It took a while for their homegrown Everest (set for fall 2019) to get off the ground, and now that picture (according to this) has apparently been ported back to Glendale.

Variety also mentions that Kung Fu Panda 3, despite grossing a strong $521 million against a $140 million budget, was seen as something of a disappointment. Though Kung Fu Panda 3 took in over $150 million at the Chinese box office, I can see why they could've been disappointed with the results. The film was pretty much localized, a whole other version of it was made specifically for China with some alterations here and there. It doesn't help that Zootopia blew past it with ease a few weeks later. A film that wasn't an entry in a pre-existing franchise, and one that wasn't either overtly American or Chinese. No one predicted how huge it was going to be.

Not too long ago, the Shanghai unit laid off 40 animators. The staff number was 250 in 2014, now it's less than 100. Universal has their own Chinese distribution firm, and supposedly they see Oriental DreamWorks as extra weight. A source told Variety, "It’s not because it’s not an important or successful business, it just duplicates what they already have in China."

It's yet another Jenga peg being pulled out from the tower, the tower that is the old DreamWorks. After Comcast's acquisition of the company, the now 23-year-old animation studio is changing quickly. Many layoffs ensued, ties with the India-based unit were broken, the new executives pulled the plug on movies like The Croods 2 and Larrikins, and the film slate was reshuffled. While Everest was on DreamWorks' docket long before the acquisition, the only film given the go-head under Comcast/Universal so far is Trolls 2. A film that did far better in the merchandise department than at the box office.

What DreamWorks gets mutated into by the end of the decade, I have no idea. My brutally honest opinion? I don't think things are looking too good right now. The one project of theirs that I was interested in is now dead, and I kind of fear that the new executives may just turn DreamWorks into an Illumination-lite hit-house. Maybe, maybe not. If Edgar Wright's Shadows gets the greenlight, maybe I'll have a little faith.

What say you?

East to West: 'Everest' No Longer an Oriental DreamWorks Film?

When DreamWorks set up an animation studio in China, big plans were put into place.

The studio, called Oriental DreamWorks, was always set to make their own animated features in addition to live-action productions. They co-produced Kung Fu Panda 3, for starters. A certain mystery production, which turned out to be a yeti tale called Everest, was set to be the first animated feature that they would make on their own. Or so it seemed...

It appears that the film is no longer going to be done up at DreamWorks' Shanghai unit, so I was told...

@DeLuxODonnell92 Everest is no longer an ODW production. It's been brought back to glendale & will be released as a normal DWA film

— Jonathan Hernandez (@jhun88) March 2, 2017

Hernandez's bio says he works for DreamWorks, so yes, there you have it.

Perhaps that explains the director change as well. Originally, the film was going to be written and directed by Jill Culton, but by the time the film was officially slated (which was this past December), she was off the project. I wonder why it has been taken back. Early rumors suggested that DreamWorks was going to scale down and make just one Glendale movie every year, which lead me to believe that they would outsource certain films in order to still get two out there in certain years. Captain Underpants, opening this summer, was outsourced to Mikros.

I was wondering if that would continue. It was similar to the way Disney Feature Animation used to do it in the 90s and early 2000s. Some smaller-budgeted features - such as Lilo & Stitch, Brother Bear, and the aborted A Few Good Ghosts - were made/to be made at the now-defunct Florida unit, while Burbank handled goliath-budget heavies like Tarzan and Treasure Planet. If Everest is not an ODW production, will ODW make something else then? Or will they collaborate on certain movies?

Does DreamWorks still plan to send some movies overseas so that they don't cost anywhere near $125 million to make? Or better yet, to another state? I'm not sure what Chris DeFaria's game plan is here, I've heard many different stories here and there. It's all a bit convoluted, but whatever direction DreamWorks goes, we shall see.

What say you?

ChangeWorks: New Universal/DreamWorks Slate Unveiled

Well, it has finally happened...

DreamWorks' slate has been reconfigured. It was only a matter weeks, after we heard about layoffs and Universal's desire to restructure the studio. The shuttering of The Croods 2 came first, then the reports about DreamWorks cutting ties with the Indian unit (DDI), and then the talk of the slate being changed up...

Exhibitor Relations broke the news...

DreamWorks Animation's HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 3 has been pushed back--March 1, 2019 instead of May 18, 2018.

— Exhibitor Relations (@ERCboxoffice) December 5, 2016

Oriental DreamWorks' animated film, EVEREST, climbs into theaters September 27, 2019. Tim Johnson (HOME, OVER THE HEDGE) directs.

— Exhibitor Relations (@ERCboxoffice) December 5, 2016

How To Train Your Dragon 3 has been delayed yet again...

At this point, I say "Whatever it takes, that's all that matters." Better that than cancellation, because one could argue that it could've been on the chopping block following the acquisition. The same goes for Larrikins, which curiously hasn't gotten a new date...

Yet? Is it keeping the current February 16, 2018 slot? Or is that going somewhere else?

Now we know what Oriental DreamWorks' mystery feature is, the "young girl and a yeti" story that Jill Culton (formerly of Pixar, director of Sony Animation's Open Season) pitched a while back. It will be that very Oriental DreamWorks project that was teased back at the beginning of 2015, that very mystery project. It now has a concrete release date: September 27, 2019. Culton, shockingly, isn't directing. Tim Johnson - director of DreamWorks' own Antz, Over the Hedge, and Home - will direct instead.

Some takeaways...

What's going on with Larrikins? Does that stay in 2018? Why the hush-hush? I thought that film was being "pulled back into story".

Everest was a project that I suspected would be the ODW mystery film, given the setting and the fact that it was announced rather close to all the ODW news. I assume ODW will make significantly smaller films, films that won't require $100 million+ budgets, so I can only imagine how this will look and feel.

Nothing on Shadows and Shrek 5, films that were eying 2019.

It looks like Universal will keep it down. One new Glendale-made movie will be released every calendar year. Oriental DreamWorks will probably make one every other year, so DreamWorks can still have their cake and eat it too, similar to how they outsourced Captain Underpants to Mikros. I wonder if they'll outsource to them again if that movie does well next summer.

So now from the looks of it...

Larrikins - February 16, 2018?
How To Train Your Dragon 3 - March 1, 2019
Everest - September 27, 2019
Shrek 5 - 2020?
Shadows - ??

Perhaps we'll get some more concrete info soon...

Add-on: Focus Features, being part of Comcast, moved the untitled LAIKA film previously set for 4/4/2018 to Dragon 3's old date. Good move on their part, the older date would've pitted it against Disney's A Wrinkle in Time...