Prior to the release of Toy Story and even the formation of the actual DreamWorks company itself, the animation studio PDI was shopping around many pitches for a computer-animated film in 1991.[1][2] One of the pitches was a film called Bugs: Lights Out about microscopic insect-like robots who were responsible for the entropy of electronics and machinery. Despite a developed script and some test animations made to pitch the film, the idea was scrapped when the studio was picked up by DreamWorks to make Antz, which said film shares many aspects.[3][4]
A direct-to-video sequel to Antz was in development at DreamWorks at the time of its release. Like the first film, it was planned to be produced by Pacific Data Images.[5] By early 1999, when DreamWorks closed its television animation unit and merged the direct-to-video unit with the feature animation, the sequel was still planned, but eventually the project was cancelled.[6][7]
Feature film
Rockumentary
In 1998, DreamWorks and PDI started development on a film parodying The Beatles, which featured a Beatles-esquepenguinrock band. The idea was scrapped, but after production on Madagascar started, director Eric Darnell decided to revive the penguins and make them a commando unit instead of a rock band.[8]
Feature film
Tusker
In December 1998, DreamWorks and PDI announced their third computer-animated project titled Tusker, which was meant to follow Shrek. It would have been an original story chronicling a herd of elephants crossing southeast Asia. In their travels, they encounter a wide variety of dangers, including a band of marauding poachers. Tim Johnson and Brad Lewis, the co-directors and producers of Antz respectively, were slated to direct and produce the project, and Morgan Freeman, Jodie Foster, Garry Shandling, Dana Carvey, Bruno Kirby and Don Knotts were part of the cast.[9]
An animated series based on the 1997 film The Lost World: Jurassic Park was commissioned by Steven Spielberg himself, and was to be developed by DreamWorks under the supervision of Steve Lyons. The series would have been released after the film with the same name and would have involved hybrid dinosaurs similar to Jurassic World, but was eventually shelved due to a variety of internal conflicts.[10]
A film based on The Nome Trilogy books was in the works from 2001 to 2011. They acquired the film rights in 2001,[16] and announced plans to combine all three books into a single film. It was to be directed by Andrew Adamson.[17] In late 2008, Danny Boyle was attached to direct Truckers,[18] but the project fell apart due to financial problems.[19] The following year, the Slumdog Millionaire's Oscar-winning screenwriter Simon Beaufoy was hired to work on the project.[20] Plans to move forward with DreamWorks' adaptation resurfaced in 2010 with the announcement that Legend of the Guardians screenwriter John Orloff would pen the script for director Anand Tucker.[21] Tucker was later announced to direct another DWA film Trolls,[22] which was planned to be partially based on a Pratchett novel,[23] before he was replaced by Mike Mitchell.[24]
The origin story of VeggieTales hosts Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber reveals how they met, how they got their own show, and answers the question how vegetables and fruit talk. This was the first film in the series to feature humans. According to Phil Vischer, Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie was their The Ten Commandments, while The Bob and Larry Movie was to be their Toy Story.[25]The Bob and Larry Movie was originally planned to be the second VeggieTales movie with a released date in late 2005. It was placed into production in early 2002, toward the end of production of Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie (2002).[26] However, Big Idea Productions fell into bankruptcy in late 2002 and the film was placed on hiatus, deemed too expensive. Phil Vischer then wrote The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: A VeggieTales Movie to replace this film. In 2008, it was considered to be the sequel to The Pirates who Don't Do Anything: A VeggieTales Movie, but talks stalled after the bankruptcy of VeggieTales owners Entertainment Rights and Classic Media. Phil Vischer said in 2018 that his copy of The Bob and Larry script exists, but does not want to release it because it is owned by Universal and DreamWorks.[26]
After the release of the debut album Gorillaz, Jamie Hewlett announced a film adaptation titled Celebrity Harvest. The film was further teased in the 2003 album Think Tank, which had the words "Celebrity Harvest" printed on a corner of the booklet. The film was described as a "very dark film" with "cannibals and zombies". The script stated that it revolves around the theme of the world being trapped in an endless night and the sickness of celebrity culture.[27] The project was canceled as DreamWorks thought it was too dark.[28]
An adaptation of The White Seal, one of the stories featured in The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. Composer Eric Whitacre recounted being contacted by the studio to write music for the movie after the presentation of Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings at the ASCAP Musical Theater Workshop in spring 2004. He had submitted a musical rendition of "The Seal Lullaby", a poem featured in the story, only to find weeks later that the film had been canceled in favor of producing Kung Fu Panda.[29][30] Whitacre would later go on to serve as the conductor for vocal arrangements for the soundtrack of Kung Fu Panda 3.[31]
In September 2005, DreamWorks announced an original film, with Mulligan, a giant golf ball statue standing on a side of Route 66 who goes on a journey to save a giant blueberry statue named Betty when she gets taken away. The concept came from comedian Harland Williams, alongside Conrad Vernon and Rej Bourdages. Williams and Vernon were slated to pen the screenplay.[32] In 2009, Williams revealed in an email inquiry that the film had been shelved.[33]
Feature film
It Came From Earth!
In September 2005, DreamWorks announced they were developing an original film with Sheira & Loli's Dittydoodle Works creator Cory Rosenberg. The film would have been an alien invasion spoof revolving around a planet of Martians who are visited by human astronauts. Josh Lobis and Darin Moiselle were attached to write the script.[32][34]
While it was never announced by the studio (although Jeffrey Katzenberg briefly joked about one in 2007[38]), comedian Jerry Seinfeld, the producer, writer, and star of 2007's Bee Movie, said that he has no interest in making a sequel. During a Reddit AMA in June 2016, a fan asked about the possibility for Bee Movie 2. Seinfeld responded:
I considered it this spring for a solid six hours. There's a fantastic energy now for some reason, on the internet particularly. Tumblr, people brought my attention to. I actually did consider it, but then I realized it would make Bee Movie 1 less iconic. But my kids want me to do it, a lot of people want me to do it. A lot of people that don't know what animation is want me to do it. If you have any idea what animation is, you'd never do it.[39]
Feature film
Gullible's Travels
In January 2007, DreamWorks bought a spec script titled Gullible's Travels which would have been about a man who travels through time via a porta potty to find the woman he loves. Steve Bencich and Ron J. Friedman were slated to write and produce the project.[40]
In May 2007, DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg said that 2006's Over the Hedge, which was based on the titular comic strip, would not receive a sequel due to its box office performance. He claimed that "It was close. An almost."[41] In October 2010, an article explaining the possibility of a sequel was posted on the official Over the Hedge blog, saying that if a sequel failed to perform as well financially as the first film, DreamWorks could lose money on the project.[42]
In June 2007, author Neil Gaiman reported in his journal that he had pitched the idea of InterWorld to DreamWorks back in 1996, but the executives were confused on the concept. Along with Michael Raeves, they later published their work into the novel, in which DreamWorks Animation had optioned into producing an animated film.[43]
Feature film
The Book of Life
DreamWorks initially optioned to make The Book of Life back in 2007, but production was cancelled due to "creative differences" with director Jorge Gutierrez.[44] The film was eventually made at 20th Century Fox Animation and Reel FX Creative Studios and was released by 20th Century Fox (which also had a distribution deal with DreamWorks Animation at that time) in 2014 to critical praise and was nominated for a Golden Globe for best animated feature.
DreamWorks Animation acquired the film rights to Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians in June 2008.[45] By January 2011, Brandon Sanderson, the author of the novel, revealed that DreamWorks did not renew the rights.[46]
In March 2009, studio had rights to the children's book Dinotrux, originally planned as a computer-animated film. It was not until 2015 when the studio produced an animated series based on the books for Netflix. The series ended up lasting for eight seasons from 2015 to 2018.[47]
Feature film
Gil's All Fright Diner
By December 2009, the studio had set screenwriters Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris (Kung Fu Panda) to write a film adaptation of the book, Gil's All Fright Diner, with Barry Sonnenfeld attached to direct the feature.[48] In 2011, the book's author A. Lee Martinez was working with DreamWorks on a project based on an original idea, and not on Gil's All Fright Diner.[49] In March 2013, Martinez expressed uncertainty for any film adaptation: "Your guess is as good as mine. It's all a matter of convincing someone with the clout necessary to make it happen".[50]
Despite its success in the United States market, DreamWorks Animation's CEO, Jeffrey Katzenberg was quoted in the Los Angeles Times that a sequel would not be made because of the film's weak performance in some key international markets. "There was enough of a consensus from our distribution and marketing folks in certain parts of the world that 'doing a sequel' would be pushing a boulder up a hill."[51]
In the 2010s, several films were announced to be made that were to be released in the next 3–4 years following their announcements. Some of these films were eventually cancelled while others are claimed to be in development and waiting for a release. Most of these films were cancelled due to massive layoffs, creative differences, management changes, no updates on the features, and Comcast eventually buying DreamWorks in 2016.[citation needed]
By October 2010, a film adaptation of the animated short Alma was in development with the short's director Rodrigo Blaas slated to direct and Guillermo del Toro was to serve as executive producer.[52] The studio later hired Megan Holley, a writer of Sunshine Cleaning, to write a script.[53] Del Toro, who was also helping with the story and the design work, said in June 2012 that the film was in visual development.[54]
Feature film
Imaginary Enemies
In August 2010, DreamWorks Animation announced their first live-action animated project. The project was to be told from the point of view of the imaginary friends who had long been used as scapegoats by unscrupulous children looking for someone else to blame for their misdeeds. Eventually fed up, the imaginary people would come looking for revenge when the kids are grown up. Screenwriters Joe Syracuse and Lisa Addario were attached to write the script.[55]
Feature film
Maintenance
In December 2010, DreamWorks bought the film rights to the comic book series Maintenance from Oni Press. The film rights were first acquired by Warner Bros. as a potential project for director McG, but DreamWorks then got rights after Warner Bros. dropped out.[56]
Feature film
Me and My Shadow / Edgar Wright's Shadows
In December 2010, DreamWorks Animation announced a project titled Me and My Shadow, scheduled for a March 2013 release date. The plot involved Shadow Stan who serves as a shadow to Stanley Grubb, the world's most boring human. Wanting to live a more exciting life, he escapes the "Shadow World" and takes control of Stanley. With Mark Dindal slated as the film's director (who also developed the film's concept and story), the film was meant to combine traditional and CGI animation.[57] In January 2012, Bill Hader, Kate Hudson, and Josh Gad had joined the voice cast. Additionally, Alessandro Carloni replaced Dindal as director and the release date was pushed back to November 2013.[58] Its release date was pushed back to March 14, 2014, with Mr. Peabody & Sherman taking its November 2013 release.[59] By February 2013, Me and My Shadow went back into development with Mr. Peabody & Sherman re-assuming its original March 2014 release.[60] In 2012, there was a press screening of Me and My Shadow where Jeffrey Katzenberg fell asleep. The crew working on the film knew "he wasn't in to [sic] it". After the screening he said it was not a $200 million film, which is what he "needed".[61] In 2015, Edgar Wright signed to direct and co-write an animated feature for DreamWorks, in which the story was described as a "new take on a previously developed concept about shadows".[62] In an interview with Collider published in June 2017, Wright explained that he and David Walliams had written three drafts, but the project is in limbo due to management changes at DreamWorks Animation.[63] Even with the project being in limbo, the public attention has risen high of the unreleased film a whole decade after it was announced; though many are eager to see it, the status of Me and My Shadow is uncertain.[64]
In May 2010, DreamWorks acquired the rights to a film adaptation of the game.[65] The studio approached Tim Burton for the project[66] and Burton was attached to direct in July,[67] but the film went unproduced partly due to being similar to another Kaiju film called Pacific Rim directed by Guillermo del Toro. In 2016, Warner Bros. won the bidding war over film rights of the game, with Fede Álvarez co-writing and directing the film.[68]
Feature film
The Pig Scrolls
By April 2010, the studio was developing an animated feature film based on The Pig Scrolls. As a possible directing job, Barry Sonnenfeld was tasked to develop the film, while Kirk DeMicco wrote the most recent script revision.[69]
In 2010, DreamWorks Animation began production on Vivo, an animated musical film which was based on an idea by Lin-Manuel Miranda and a concept by Peter Barsocchini. The film was to have centered on a kinkajou obsessed with music and adventure who embarks on a treacherous journey from Havana, Cuba, to Miami, Florida in pursuit of his dreams to fulfil his destiny.[72][73] The film was eventually cancelled by DreamWorks Animation due to a restructuring, but in 2016, the film was later revived and eventually fast-tracked by Sony Pictures Animation with Kirk DeMicco as the director, and Brandon Jeffords as co-director, and Lisa Stewart and Rich Moore as producers, Laurence Mark as executive producer, and Quiara Alegría Hudes as screenwriter, and Peter Barsocchini as story writer, and Roger Deakins as visual consultant, and Yong Duk Jhun as cinematographer. The film was released on August 6, 2021, on Netflix, after being delayed multiple times from its original theatrical release date due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[74]
By February 2011, DreamWorks optioned the rights of Berkeley Breathed's book Flawed Dogs.[75] By September 2013, it was revealed that Noah Baumbach had been secretly writing and directing the project.[76]
Feature film
Lidsville
In January 2011, a computer-animated musical film adaptation of the Lidsville TV series was announced to be in development with Conrad Vernon slated to direct while Alan Menken was to compose the songs with Glenn Slater.[77] Menken said that the songs were to be a homage to 1960s psychedelic concept-album rock,[78] but in June 2016, Lidsville creator Sid Krofft told to The Wall Street Journal that it was going to be like Hair or Tommy, a full-blown musical, but they went in a "strange" direction and it did not work.[79]
Feature film
Monkeys of Mumbai
By January 2011, DreamWorks was fast-tracking a Bollywood-styled musical adaptation of The Ramayana, but told through the point of view of its monkeys. It would have follow two common monkeys who become unlikely heroes in a last ditch effort to stop an ancient, thought-to-be-mythical demon from conquering the world. Gurinder Chadha and Paul Mayeda Berges were set to write the film, while Stephen Schwartz and A. R. Rahman were attached to compose the songs and score.[80] The project underwent a series of working titles: Monkeys of Bollywood, Monkeys of Mumbai, Mumbai Musical, and Bollywood Superstar Monkey. That June, Kevin Lima signed on to direct the project.[81]Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Kal Penn, Lea Michele and Rohan Chand were in talks to join the cast in 2014.[82] The film was originally scheduled to be released on December 18, 2015,[83] but its release date was pushed back to March 18, 2016, and March 10, 2017.[84][85] In December 2017, Lima revealed that DreamWorks quietly cancelled the film in an interview with Den of Geeks UK:
It came very close. We were just going into production, we were just starting animation. I'd been working on it for two and a half years. All the songs were written. Stephen Schwartz and A.R. Rahman. We were just ready to start. I have to say that it's one of the great disappointments of my film career not seeing that one move forward. It had nothing to do with the movie, and everything to do with the politics of selling the studio. Seven of us I think lost movies at that moment in time. With the studio having written it off on their taxes, it means the only way to get it back would be to invest that kind of money again. And it's tens of millions of dollars. I tried. I really tried. Stephen Schwartz and I took it around town, but when the price tag was revealed, everyone gasped. Ultimately, we couldn't find a buyer.[86]
Feature film
Rumblewick
In March 2011, DreamWorks announced an animated adaptation of the book My Unwilling Witch (The Rumblewick Letters) and was to be titled Rumblewick. Tim Johnson and Jim Herzfeld were slated to write and direct the project.[87] In 2016, Brenda Chapman stated she had worked on the project.[88]
Then-DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg stated in December 2010 that there was likely to be a fourth installment in the Madagascar franchise, in which would have been set in New York.[92] In June 2012, DreamWorks Animation's head of worldwide marketing, Anne Globe, said that it was too early to talk about the project.[93] A month later, Eric Darnell, who co-directed all three films, spoke of the possibility of the fourth film, saying that if the audience wants a new film, then Eric and his crew would have an idea that is different from the previous films.[94] The film was scheduled to be released on May 18, 2018,[95] but was removed from the release schedule following a corporate restructuring and DreamWorks Animation's new policy to release two films a year.[96][97] In April 2017, Tom McGrath said that the project was in the works, but nothing officially was announced.[98]
Rise of the Guardians
—
Following the release of Rise of the Guardians, the creators expressed hope that the strong A− Cinemascore average for the film and an enthusiastic word-of-mouth would gather support for the "chance to make a sequel or two".[99]William Joyce, the film's co-producer and author of the book The Guardians of Childhood, stated he was in talks with the studio to make a sequel.[100]
Feature film
Giants: Forces of Nature
In 2012, DreamWorks filed a trademark for an unannounced film titled Giants: Forces of Nature.[101][102] Peter Zaslav, an art director and visual development artist, posted concept art for the film (albeit password-protected).[103]
By June 2013, Tim Minchin was attached to compose the songs and score for Larrikins, which was based on an original concept by Harry Cripps.[104] The project was about a desert-dwelling bilby named Perry who leaves his home under a rock to go on a road trip with a music band in Australia. Three years later, Minchin and Chris Miller were attached to direct the film while Margot Robbie, Hugh Jackman, Naomi Watts, Rose Byrne, Ben Mendelsohn, Jacki Weaver, Josh Lawson, Damon Herriman, and Ewen Leslie were to voice characters for the film. The film was slated to be released on February 16, 2018.[105] In 2017, Minchin announced on his personal blog that the project had been cancelled. Minchin wrote on his blog:
I've recently been working in 3 different continents, missing my kids a lot, sleeping too little and not playing piano enough. And then a couple of days ago, the animated film to which I've dedicated the last 4 years of my life was shut down by the new studio execs. The only way I know how to deal with my impotent fury and sadness is to subject members of the public to the spectacle of me getting drunk and playing ballads.[106][107]
Shortly after the film's cancellation, Peter de Sève revealed some concept art for the film via Twitter.[108][109] Certain characters from the cancelled project later appeared in the 2018 animated short film Bilby.[110] The cancelation inspired the "ReviveDreamWorksLarrikins" movement on Twitter.[111] Minchin spoke more about the film's cancellation on Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast in March 2020, saying how the film was 75% completed with 110 people working on the film, with songs completed. Hans Zimmer was also composing the score. After DreamWorks was bought by Universal Pictures in 2016, the film was cancelled and written off for the acquisition expenses, at the expense of DreamWorks. Illumination's Chris Meledandri was also consulted by Universal executives before the cancellation. He also explained how he tried to shop it to other studios, with Netflix and Animal Logic wanting to buy it, but the film's price tag was exorbitant, making it non-viable for other studios to acquire it. Overall, the film cost $90 million.[112][113]
Feature film
The Tibet Code
When DreamWorks Animation announced its then-newest division called Oriental DreamWorks in China, a film adaptation of The Tibet Code was in development.[114] Its production was shut down due to problems at Oriental DreamWorks and the company could not come to terms with the producer who owned the rights to the book.[115]
Feature film
—
In September 2013, DreamWorks announced an animated film about blue-footed booby birds. Writer-director Karey Kirkpatrick was slated to direct and co-write alongside his writing partner Chris Poche. The project was to be about a dim-witted blue-footed booby who learns that it "isn't the size of your brain, but the size of your heart that counts".[116]
In April 2014, DreamWorks Animation was developing a live-action/CGI film based on the Harvey Comics character Hot Stuff the Little Devil, with Lizzie and Wendy Molyneux (Bob's Burgers) set to write the film's script.[117] It was going to be the second attempt for a DreamWorks Animation film to use live-action and computer animation and the second DreamWorks animated film to feature characters from the Classic Media library, the first being Mr. Peabody & Sherman. Since then, there has been no further news on the project, most likely due to the underperformance of Mr. Peabody & Sherman.
Plans to make a feature film with the Rocky and Bullwinkle characters was to be made possible if the Rocky & Bullwinkle short film was successful if shown with Mr. Peabody & Sherman. But for unknown reasons, it was replaced by Almost Home to promote the 2015 film Home. Due to the box office failure of Home, the short was later made a direct-to-video release on the Blu-ray 3D release of Mr. Peabody & Sherman and plans for a feature film was ultimately scrapped.[citation needed]
Feature film
Zodiac
Another animated feature film that was going to be made by Oriental DreamWorks was to be called Zodiac about an anthropomorphic kitty in a modern society with anthropomorphic animals trying to make sure he becomes the first cat on the Chinese zodiac while also discovering a sinister conspiracy, set to be released in 2014. While the film's storyboards were released online, the film's production was canceled due to some problems at Oriental DreamWorks.[118]
In November 2014, Berkeley Breathed announced another film for DreamWorks Animation called Hitpig. The film would have been a loose adaptation of his 2008 children's book Pete & Pickles, set within a cyberpunk world, with Pete the pig being reimagined into a futuristic bounty hunter.[119][120] The film was quietly scrapped not long after but in October 2020, British companies Aniventure and Cinesite revived the project, with Dave Rosenbaum and Tyler Werrin penning the screenplay alongside Breathed and Cinzia Angelini and David Feiss directing. The now completed film was released on November 1, 2024, by Viva Pictures in the United States.[121][122][123]
In 2017, DreamWorks announced an original feature called Spooky Jack, with a planned release date of September 17, 2021. Jason Blum was to serve as executive producer, and would have been a co-production with Blumhouse Productions.[125] The premise would have been about three siblings who moved into an eerie new home and discover that all the creatures that have been told do not exist. By October 2019, Spooky Jack was removed from the schedule, with its original release date replaced by The Bad Guys, based on the Scholastic book series by Aaron Blabey.[126] Concept art for the film have been released.
Concept art for an unproduced computer-animated reboot film based on the cartoon was posted by animator Danny Williams in 2023, stating that a film was pitched but had never went anywhere.[127]
Feature film
Another Me
In 2023, the website Cartoon Brew reported that a Bollywood-themed film project titled Another Me had been shelved due in part to "significant reductions in staffing".[128]
^Sanderson, Brandon (June 2, 2008). "Two Super Huge Announcements!". Brandon Sanderson. Retrieved November 16, 2012. The book I mentioned last week is ALCATRAZ VERSUS THE EVIL LIBRARIANS. It has been optioned by Dreamworks Animation, though I can't go into details about who is working on the project at the moment, I've been very impressed with the work of the director and producer involved.
