John Lasseter Confirmed as Last Minute 'Cars 2' Co-Director« FirstShowing.net

And by last minute I mean the final year of production. Today just so happens to be the exact day, one year from now, in whichPixar'sCars 2arrives in theaters (June 24th, 2011). After hearing rumors for months,Jim Hill Media(viaSlashFilm) has confirmed with Disney reps thatJohn Lasseterhas returned to Pixar (after moving to Burbank, CA to become the new Chief Creative Officer of Disney) to work onCars 2. See, it wasreported back in Februarythat Lasseter, who normally spends most of his time in LA working on Disney projects, had returned to Emeryville because"there have been story problems that needed to be addressed."

Before anyone freaks out about this, it's not actually uncommon for Pixar movies to go through some rough spots. As Peter from SlashFilm explains:"Any employee of Pixar will be the first to tell you that every movie they've made has been adisasterat one point, that the key to their sucess {sic} is reworking and reworking a project until it becomes something great."Apparently that's exactly what happened withRatatouille, and that movie turned out fantastic in the end. Word is thatCars 2, which is theonesequel older Pixar fanboys donotwant to see, was having"massive story problems"and that Lasseter, who created and directedCars, returned to fix the issues, helping outBrad Lewis, who is making his directorial debut on this new sequel.

Jim Hill says:"The Disney reps werequite up frontabout the fact that the Chief Creative Officer of Pixar and Disney Animation Studios is now working side-by-side"with Lewis. Concerns aside, Disney"anticipates that this June 2011 release will be aworthy follow-upto that 2006 Pixar release."So apparently Lasseter will indeed receive officialco-directorcredit on the film in the end, which also isn't uncommon.Toy Story 3directorLee Unkrichco-directedToy Story 2,Monsters Inc, andFinding Nemobefore he was given the reigns all by himself onToy Story 3. So for now it doesn't sound like there's anything to be worried about.

In fact, this might begoodnews. I trust Lasseter and I think he's definitely got some creative genius in him, which is why I'm assuming (or maybe justhoping) that he came back to make sure that the sequel would be incredible, not justokay. And maybe this means that they're trying their hardest to make sure thatCars 2doesn't have any story issues like the first one. Although it's debatable, the story and characters are the main reason why so many people consider the originalCarsto be one of their least favorite Pixar movies. It's not bad news, but it's certainly very interesting.Cars 2will still hit theaters next summer, 365 days from today!

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