Toy Story 4 is coming to a theater near you in a couple years and none other than the father of Woody and Buzz himself, Disney Creative Officer John Lasseter, will direct the fourth film in the timeless Pixar franchise.
The official Toy Story 4 release date is set for June 16, 2017, assuming the traditional annual spot for Pixar feature films. It will follow another big Pixar sequel, Finding Dory, set for June 2016. While on the topic of release dates, you might as well pencil in Disney Infinity 5 to have a big Toy Story 4 presence when it is likely released later in 2017.
The Toy Story 4 confirmation news broke today during Disney’s Fourth Quarter Earnings Report Conference Call held earlier today. The announcement came from Robert A. Iger, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, The Walt Disney Company, following an earnings report that matched analysts estimates.
“We love these characters [Woody, Buzz, etc.] so much; they are like family to us,” Lasseter told the official Disney Blog. “We don’t want to do anything with them unless it lives up to or surpasses what’s gone before. Toy Story 3 ended Woody and Buzz’s story with Andy so perfectly that for a long time, we never even talked about doing another Toy Story movie. But when Andrew Stanton, Pete Doctor, Lee Unkrich and I came up with this new idea, I just could not stop thinking about it. It was so exciting to me, I knew we had to make this movie — and I wanted to direct it myself.”
Lasseter, who directed Toy Story and Toy Story 2 and most recently Cars 2, also spoke with the L.A. Times and revealed a few more details, including the story breaking while the Toy Story creative quartet were having lunch in Lasseter’s office. The film will be a love story and pick up where Unkrich’s Toy Story 3 left off, with Wood, Buzz, Jessie and the gang being dropped off at a new home where they become the toys of a young girl named Bonnie.
Celeste and Jesse Forever creative masterminds Rashida Jones and Will McCormack were recruited by Lasseter to help with the script. In particular, Jones’ female perspective was highly sought after.
“They [Jones and McCormack] have such a great sense of character and originality,” Lasseter told the L.A. Times. “And I wanted to get a strong female voice in the writing of this.”
Pixar veteran Galyn Susman, who produced ABC’s Toy Story OF TERROR! and Toy Story that Time Forgot, will produce Toy Story 4.
Source: L.A. Times, Disney
