Brad Bird Talks about his 1906 project
When I heard that Brad Bird was going to direct a live-action feature based on the great San Francisco earthquake that hit April 18th 1906, I got extremely stoked about it. First of All Brad Bird is a great animated feature director some of my favorite animated films are 'The Iron Giant', 'The Incredibles', and 'Ratatouille' it is going to be very cool to see what he can pull off with a live-action film. Secondly, I love history and for some odd reason I have always been fascinated with the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906. If you have seen those old vintage photos of the aftermath it looks like an atomic bomb went off because that whole city was destroyed. Thanks to our friends over at latinoreview we have some insight in what is currently going on with Bird's next film.
So what's going on with 1906?
Bird: We're looking at places to shoot it. The script I'm still working. it's a really hard script to write. And mostly because there are so many interesting things going on in that place and that particular period of time that anytime you're going towards something, you're going away from 5 other cool things. So it's been really hard for me to write. but I think it's going to be great. and we'll see if they have the courage to make it.
One of Brad Bird's strongest talents is his ability to write and to create a solid and sound story. I have complete faith he will pull off something amazing. What is the story about?
What is the story about?
Bird: The simple way to sum it up would be to say it's a romantic, epic mystery with lots of action in it, based around events leading up to and through the earthquake of San Francisco of 1906.
So it will be like Titanic in a way. That was kind of a romantic epic mystery and at the end was complete destruction and chaos.
Do you have casting in mind?
Bird: I do, but I can't say because it'll jinx it. There are some wonderful people who are interested and I hope they're still interested when I finish the script.
It's all going to be live action?
Bird: It's live action. But obviously San Francisco doesn't exist anymore the way that it was so that would all be special effects, much like New York was special effects in Kong.
That should look really cool.
Are you anxious about going from animation to live action?
Bird: I've been wanting to do it a long time. When I was in development hell, which was a really long period of time, half the projects I had in development were live action and half were animated, and animation they gave me an opportunity and once I had that opportunity, I got more opportunities so I'm taking advantage of the chance to do live action, but I'm interested in both. To me it's all film making.
I have a feeling '1906' will turn out to be a great story and visually stunning.
They go on to talk a little about 'John Carter of Mars' and 'Toy Story 3' but nothing really too interesting with that part of the conversation, but you can read the rest of the article here if you want. And one more little nugget of information that is pretty cool...
Did you say there was an outside chance of an Iron Giant theatrical re-release?
Bird: An outside chance, yes. This year will mark its tenth anniversary, so there might be a small release.
That would be pretty freakin awesome! 'The Iron Giant' never got the love it deserved when it hit theaters back in 1999, it is one of the best 2D animated films to hit theaters and no one went and saw it. Thats because Warner Bros did not market it at all for some odd reason. Anyway I hope it does get a short re-release.