After a paragraph describing everything thing from the ramping up of DWA's Megamind campaign to hosting a $20 billion hedge fund for lunch, Katzenberg gets down to franchise business (heavy on the sic, alas):
Met with Turbo team to discuss latest script which is very big step forward and is very promising project. Met with Mad3 team to review 60pgs of rewrite done by Noah Bombach that are exc!!! Met with Dragons2 team and Dean pitched out next chapter.... very smart /interesting /ambitious. Guardians showed some costume and character designs and some super animation tests (one of the tests Gabe showed of North was a first for me..... he was animated saying f___ you.) FUNNY. No it won't be in movie. Saw a couple of seqs that had good work but out of context seemed long. Last mtg of the day was 2 hour Franchise mtg where prod/mktg/consumer products all come together to look at long term strategy for managing our 4 franchises and all of the zillion things going on with each of them.
Taken as a whole it's kind of fascinating, starting with "Bombach"'s particiption in Madagascar 3 -- not an especially offbeat or unusual move for the studio that previously brought Charlie Kaufman in to rewrite Kung Fu Panda 2. Still, it would be news. Guardians is the film to which Leonardo DiCaprio was attached last winter but for which no release date is yet set; "Turbo" is new to me. Anyone know about this one? "4 franchises" pretty much confirms you're not getting a Monsters vs. Aliens sequel. One other thing is for sure: Consider Armond White off the Madagascar series bandwagon.