The Walt Disney Co. has pulled the plug on director Robert Zameckis' plans to produce a remake of the Beatles' Yellow Submarine. The movie was to include 16 Beatles songs and the same motion-capture technology Zemeckis has used in Beowulf, A Christmas Carol and Mars Needs Moms, but when the latter picture only gross $6.9 million in its first week with a budget of $150 million, Disney backed out of its Yellow Submarine commitment due to budget concerns.
Zemeckis is now free to shop the Yellow Submarine remake to other studios, but it may be too expensive to produce. Part of the problem, at least in terms of finding financial support, is that Zemeckis' motion-capture animated style has failed to catch on with audiences. Whereas digital animation from Pixar and DreamWorks have gone over very well at the box office, Zemeckis' movies have been criticized for looking too creepy.
--- Matthew Perpetua
Rollinstone.com
