Taking the stage to talk at the Disney shareholders meeting, Studio head Dick Cook played up the upcoming releases from Walt Disney Pictures, including such tent-pole pictures as Hildago, The Ladykillers, Home On The Range, The Alamo, King Arthur, M Night Shyamalan’s The Village, The Princess Diaries II and, of course, The Incredibles, to which the gathered crowd were treated to a rough full trailer. Looking ahead to 2005, Cook called Chicken Little an “outrageous comedy”, again presenting rough trailer footage, as well as mentioning the upcoming A Day With Wilbur Robinson, Glen Keane’s Rapunzel Unbraided and American Dog. Commenting on the controlling of the Pixar library of films, Cook announced “new and exciting movies and products based on those wonderful stories, including Toy Story 3, now in development at Walt Disney Feature Animation”.
Future films include Tim Allen in a remake of Disney’s classic The Shaggy Dog, and the just-announced The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe. Cook also revealed plans to film Pirates Of The Caribbean II and III back to back, with a projected release date of 2006 for the second film, with the third – and final – to appear a few months later. The only other major title to be mentioned was the long in development (and many hoped cancelled) sequel to the 1942 animated classic, Bambi, which appears to be back on track as a DTV release.