Strange events in Astro Boy land today! It appears the current director has been fired and replaced! We get the scoop from our friends at first showing:
We’ve been covering Imagi Animation’s AstroBoy CGI flick for quite a while, posting the first official concept art photo and an interview with the director at the time, Colin Brady. The budding filmmaker has been a long-time visual effects artist and character developer for Imagi. However, in a very odd move, Imagi announced today that Flushed Away director David Bowers would be replacing Brady.
AstroBoy is the $50 million CGI project from Imagi Animation studios. The film is a revamp of the beloved Japanese manga series and has been described as an “epic sci-fi fantasy” movie with a “deep dark human struggle” that they’re going to explore.
I wonder what the hell happened to get Colin Brady canned. This was to be his directorial debut, I wonder if people started to panic at his lack of experience; or if the project was more than he could chew. At any rate, unless we hear further news from people involved in the situation – the best we can do is guess.
I never got into Astro Boy, but I know the character is beloved by many. I am all for stories about robots and will certainly be there to check the film out when it is done. Astro Boy always looks so friendly so it amuses me when they have him in stories that involve a “deep, dark human struggle”; it’s like seeing a clown at a funeral.
Astro Boy is scheduled for a 2009 release, so the change in directors should not have a drastic effect on the project. Any changes that need to be made are able to happen; time is on their side with this one. I am hard pressed to think of another director that has been removed from a project during production, if any of you can remember another time this has happened – please share.
