And we got the chance to talk to him about about his latest project.
Hes one of the producers of the incomingMaleficent, starring Angelina Jolie.
Why did Maleficent happen?
Why is it live action?
What did you inherit from Brad Bird?
And when did you come on board?
[Laughs]Its a long answer to that question!
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We tried to develop it in animation, but it was too difficult I think.
Thats when it turned into more of a live action approach.
They were just finishing up onAlice In Wonderland.
Linda wrote an amazing script, which is pretty much the movie we have to day.
And thats the short version of how we got to where we are!
Theres something quite old fashioned here about having a big family movie headlined by a movie star.
So would you say that its Angelina Jolie and Linda Woolverton here?
Well, yes, along with others certainly.
And most importantly, to be able to tell a story with a strong female protagonist.
Linda has done that repeatedly, onAlice In WonderlandandBeauty And The Beast.
And then Angelina is arguably one of the most gifted actresses of our time.
They gave it a strong story to begin with.
We knew we had to have fire breathing dragons and all the spectacle ofSleeping Beauty.
But if the relationship didnt work at the core, then we were in trouble.
I think the Hannibal Lecter films are the best example of this.
The more time you spend with a villain, the more you run certain risks.
Was the tightness of the line you had to talk here one of the toughest things about making Maleficent?
The audience could be angry at us if we said shes really not all that bad!
She so needs to have mystery and something explained about her to be an interesting character.
The role could have been broad, operatic and over the top.
She does the opposite.
She holds back, and shows you a tiny bit of information, then a little bit more.
And very slowly doles out information about who she is and why she is.
Theres a great deal of restraint in her performance, in a positive way.
Youve worked with first time directors several times, and you do again on Maleficent.
Youve spoken in the past about your role as a producer being allowing the director to tell the story.
Is there, though, a certain appeal to first time directors to you?
That theres an element of fearlessness to them?
Yeah, I suppose so.
There is a fearlessness in terms of trying things, because there is a hunger to make a mark.
As a director, you want to build this amazing world and then take an audience there.
And he really did.
I think that hunger to show that he could do that is really whats interesting to me.
Ive worked with so many terrific directors, right back to Bob Zemeckis, people who are incredibly experienced.
But theres always something about someone getting an opportunity for the first time.
You dont know if youre going to succeed or fail.
I love working with people like that.
But Robert Strombergs background is extraordinary, not least his experience in matte painting.
But does all this tie back to Roger Rabbit for you?
Its keeping the movie simple and small.
And keeping it focused on those character was the simple task at hand.
To be fair, I was sold on this one as soon as Imelda Staunton was cast.
[Laughs]I think so!
Youve got Sharlto Copley in there too.
The support cast is really impressively fleshed out here, even below the top billed names.
Again, it was a story that offered so many opportunities.
Even something as simple as the raven that accompanies Maleficent.
It was just a sidekick in the originalSleeping Beautyanimated film.
Something as simple as that gave us a whole new window into the story.
Boy, what a great question.
I honestly dont know the answer.
Its distracting sometimes, and its part of the movie business.
We have a studio in Walt Disney Studios that is incredible in terms of how theyve supported this movie.
The publicity, the marketing theyve put behind it is award-winning in my opinion.
Thats the good side of it, you know?
The side that you have to be careful of?
As you say, keeping the innocence, and keeping the simplicity of these stories.
WhenThe Sound Of Musiccame out, nobody knew what the box office was.
It ran for a year, and it was an event that just ran forever, likeMary Poppins.
But the times are different, the audiences are more sophisticated.
People tend to want to know the box office.
I guess the real answer is that I take a stab at forget about all of that.
I cant control it.
If I can do that, then I have a chance of getting something really special.
So is that harder than it was, easier, or just different?
On this movie, like every movie, its really hard to make a movie.
But from a studio side, they really wanted to make this movie.
Its the heart and soul of what we are.
But does the blame for that now lie on this side of this fence?
Despite what we may what you to think, were actually human beings!
And in the end we make ourselves vulnerable to tell these stories.
By vulnerable, nobodys going to get hurt.
We have the best jobs.
And thats the job.
Id rather fail doing something boldly, than trying to do something that I think the audience might like.
I know what I like, I know what my friends and family like.
The people who get to that point in their 20s even.
Yes, I feel so.
but nobody set out to make anything less than a great movie.
But sometimes they dont connect.
Sometimes the chemistry you think you have disappears through your hand.
To make it to the screen with this story and cast is a little bit of a modern miracle.
Well, if were talking modern miracles, we should talk about Frankenweenie.
But it struck me that it needed lots of things just to get it made.
It needed presumably the likes of a John Lasseter high up the chain to protect it.
Someone had the courage to back it in that form.
Theres no easy answer, but almost all of the credit on that movie should go to Tim Burton.
We knew it was a great story.
But Tim had just madeAlice In Wonderland, which was hugely successful at the box office.
And I think that earned him the right to make this other little movie on the side.
This low budget movie, set in black and white with puppets.
And Im so flattered that you liked it, because we loved it into existence.
Its not the kind of movie the studio would greenlight.
But because of Tims charisma and passion for that project, I really believed in it so much.
And he just willed it into existence.
Then animation as an industry went through a drought.
Certainly at Disney it went through a drought there was competition from DreamWorks, Pixar.
And Disney got stuck in old ways, old techniques and old thinking.
So what a great, happy ending to an era of struggle.
Who knows why these things happen.
So is this a story you want to pick up yourself, in a film or maybe a book?
Or would you hand that over to someone else now?
Oh, maybe someday.
I think itll still take some time.
But yeah, its a really interesting story.
Its not only about people in movies, but its about technology, about taking risks once again.
WithMaleficent, its the idea of putting diverse elements together and hoping that they work.
That was very much a part of that era as it is.
Are there any other projects youre actively pursuing yourself?
Are you doing more work on nature films, for instance?
Has anything captured your brain in the way that the story of Hand Held did?
Are there thing youre pursuing or do you wait until you react to something before you press ahead?
There are, and I do have to react with it on a personal level.
That may sound corny, but its true with me.
And youll judge whether we were successful or not.
Im obese and losing hair, but Im still that five year old.
I think every filmmaker is.
Tim Burton, John Lasseter, Angelina to a degree.
She took to this character because she grew up with it, and she lived it.
And so we all gravitate towards a film like this.
And its fun for the audience.
Angie enjoyed this role, and we enjoy watching her.
Where do you stand on that line?
I think Im definitely on the right side!
You need quality in these movies, and quality in the storytelling.
You see it a tremendous amount in movies likeMaleficentandRoger Rabbitand whatnot.
But perfect is an ideal, and getting it right is almost an intangible.
Its a feeling, a sense that the elements have come together in an alchemy that seems to work.
Thats what always amazes me.
Oh, I was a rank beginner!
It was a hard role[for Hoskins]in itself.
It was a very physical role, and a role that required so much imagination.
He was acting opposite nobody.
He had to imagine the characters into existence.
To stop the gaze of his eyeballs in mid-air to create an imaginary rabbit that was later drawn in.
And then to act on top of it all.
He was a miracle guy.
Hed come to the animation studio too.
He was so excited about it.
He was a great actor, and he was also a great guy.
Don Hahn, thank you very much.
Maleficentis in cinemas from May 30th.
