Zemeckis Wants to Motion Capture 'The Nutcracker'?

Robert Zemeckis is keeping Christmas on the brain, if a new report from Pajiba is correct. The Christmas Carol director - who is working on a Roger Rabbit sequel and a remake of Yellow Submarine, both performance capture experiments - will make a new version of The Nutcracker. It won't be based on the Tchaikovsky ballet but rather the novel The Nutcracker and the Mouse King by E.T.A. Hoffman. According to the report, this new film will be set in 19th century Russia, so that oughta pack 'em in. I'm skeptical on this point, though: Who's making it with him? Disney? Pajiba doesn't say, but that's the first place your mind goes. However, Disney loves making tons of money more than just about anything else and since this would logically follow the same kind of approach A Christmas Carol is, it's way too early to say audiences are clamoring for more of the same. Yeah, it's only been five days, but A Christmas Carol has only drawn $34 million worth of business, and under most circumstances for Disney, that'd be OK. But this isn't Beverly Hills Chihuahua or Escape from Witch Mountain: Christmas Carol is a $200 million movie, and it sure won't get there in the US. Maybe when you roll in the international dollars, this will be successful, but it's not overwhelming proof that audiences want their holiday favorites served up with creepy animated eyes. So while it's an interesting prospect, I don't put a lot of stock into anyone sealing a deal with Zemeckis on a movie like this less than a week after a more popular holiday story failed to blow up at the box office.

Comments

[Lillian James]

OMFG ZEMECKIS! STOP IT! Please start making real-life movies again. You're so good at it. And you have yet to make anything motion capture that I enjoy. *cries*