Gilliam wants to work for Pixar

Post by **Dan** » August 26th, 2009, 3:02 am

SlashFilm.com recently conducted with Terry Gilliam in regards to his current set of projects (Imaginarium, Don Quixote, etc.). During the interview, he talked about wanting to work for Pixar.

Terry Gilliam is as enamored with the powerhouse animation studio as the rest of us. Speaking at a BFI special event career retrospective last Friday night, Gilliam came around to discussing the state of modern animation. After praising Pixar for their films, noting how they are clearly a studio run by “creative people” and not suits, and commenting on how much of the bold political cinema he’s seen recently has been in animated family films, Gilliam also let on that he wants to work for the studio. He revealed that he met Andrew Stanton at the premiere of Wall-E and quite sincerely told him to “hold the door open” for him.

Gilliam went so far as to claim he’d “sweep the floors” at Pixar just to be in such a creative, supportive environment, but also seemed quite serious when he talked about it being somewhere he could move to and make movies once financing in the live-action realm became too difficult.

Here's the video portion of the interview conducted:

Post by **EricJ** » August 26th, 2009, 3:10 am

Uh, yeah, Terry, and people in...er, the Sahara "want" water.

(Gilliam's said in interviews he can't even remember what part of him made those old Python-cutout cartoons anymore, and complained about studios cutting his "vision" for him, and he wants to go a round with Brad Bird and John "Story is everything" Lasseter?--
More training before you can fight the champ, old man.)

Post by **Ben** » August 26th, 2009, 8:07 am

How rude!

Given the Pixar guidance, I would imagine that Terry could come up with something absolutely unique. And he obviously bows to their knowledge of how to structure a movie. I would think, in their attempts to keep stretching themselves, that they would welcome a maverick such as Gilliam into their midst.

GeorgeC · Post by **GeorgeC** » August 29th, 2009, 3:18 am

I'd say a maverick would be welcome.

Doing something different is good!

Gilliam directed/co-directed two of my favorite films --

Time Bandits and Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

He can do general audience films and still be bizarre at the same time!

Bizarre's good for animation. Part of what I don't like about a lot of the general animation now is that it imitates real life a bit too much sometimes.

Surrealism can be good, too.

Post by **Trusted Vizier** » August 29th, 2009, 8:34 am

GeorgeC wrote:Gilliam directed/co-directed two of my favorite films --

Time Bandits and Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Excellent movies, though it's been awhile since I last watched "Time Bandits". Another great movie by Gilliam is "The Adventures of Baron MünchHausen, one of my favorite movies when I was younger.

Personally, I think a Pixar-movie featuring Gilliam's involvement would be very interesting. I'd definitely watch it.

American_dog_2008 · Post by **American_dog_2008** » August 29th, 2009, 1:47 pm

Sounds interesting!

The first R rated movie from Pixar?

Post by **Rodney** » August 29th, 2009, 2:58 pm

Even if I haven't been thrilled with all of Gilliam's work, I would be interested in seeing any collaboration he has with an animation powerhouse like Pixar.

Post by **Neal** » August 29th, 2009, 3:41 pm

His work sure is visually stunning, but it seems the stories cripple his films.

Post by **OriginalGagBonkers** » August 29th, 2009, 10:45 pm

Terry Gilliam working for pixar? Well if this happens it would be a very interesting thing considering that he's one of my favorite directors.

Post by **EricJ** » August 30th, 2009, 2:32 am

Yes, but they weren't asking him, HE was asking them...And a lot of people ask Pixar.

There are CalArts students who could do just as much fanboy-begging, have actual qualifications to show for it, and stand a better chance of getting in the front door.
Robert Zemeckis can "slum" in Neato Animation, George Miller and Wes Anderson can "slum" at other studios, but Pixar has a "No Slumming" sign on their front gate....

(As Chris Sanders found out, you play by Lasseter's Rules, or you don't play at all--Not a name-diva-friendly atmospere.)

Post by **estefan** » August 30th, 2009, 7:46 am

Nonetheless, Brad Bird was an outsider who arrives at Pixar and got immediately the chance to direct a feature.

Then again, he was good friends with Lasseter from way back. I don't know if Lasseter has met with Gilliam outside of, maybe, award shows and premieres.

Post by **EricJ** » August 30th, 2009, 11:43 am

AND, he had an animator following who wanted to give him a second chance and "avenge" the Iron Giant.
Another example of animators asking the director.

Post by **droosan** » August 30th, 2009, 5:40 pm

EricJ wrote:Robert Zemeckis can "slum" in Neato Animation, George Miller and Wes Anderson can "slum" at other studios, but Pixar has a "No Slumming" sign on their front gate....

No, actually, the sign says 'no swimming'. Easy mistake to make ..

Post by **Dan** » August 30th, 2009, 10:23 pm

Darn. I'd bet swimming in the pool out front would be majestic.

Post by **Ben** » September 23rd, 2009, 6:51 am

That's quite funny...we have a "no diving" sign in our downstairs toilet!

Going back to Gilliam/Pixar...now that Up is being promoted over here in the UK ahead of its late October release (as usual, I'll just wait an extra week and get the BD for my home theater), I'm seeing more and more of the images and clips, and the particular image struck me of the house being pulled out of the ground.

Um...I'm surprised no-one else has mentioned this, but didn't a certain Mr Gilliam pull off a basically similar visual idea in his Meaning Of Life pre-feature short film The Crimson Permanent Assurance!?

Hmmm...Gilliam and Pixar...not such strange bedfellows after all...