Company mergers get introduced with a variety of optimistic fanfare, as billionaires bellow about all of the “financial savings” and “jobs” created by two huge corporations changing into one, whereas politicians and political representatives heap reward on developments that profit their giant donors. In actuality, these mergers largely erase jobs, restrict alternatives for shoppers, and trigger untold chaos on the worldwide financial stage. The acquisition of twenty first Century Fox and its media entities, similar to twentieth Century Fox and twentieth Century Fox Tv, by Disney was no totally different. It’s staggering to contemplate all of the potential tasks that have been misplaced of this merger, with one of many earliest productions to die at Disney’s hand being a movie adaptation of the comedian sequence Mouse Guard.
The earliest days of the Mouse Guard film
First printed in 2006 by author and illustrator David Peterson, Mouse Guard was, like many fantasy sagas, a medieval-era yarn involving heroes with swords and nice battles between good and evil…solely this time, that story was informed with mice. It is not an unprecedented concept to merge the world of fantasy with cute and cuddly critters (simply ask the Redwall universe), however Mouse Guard garnered a notable sufficient fanbase to make a movie adaptation an inevitability. That manufacturing emerged in 2016 when twentieth Century Fox introduced it might be pursuing a Mouse Guard film.
The timing of this announcement was essential, as Fox, circa. 2016, was extra conscious than ever that it couldn’t simply depend on its ongoing Marvel Comics films as its sole supply of comedian e book diversifications. The studio wanted to embrace additional Deadpool and X-Males films whereas additionally ensuring it was procuring properties it wasn’t continuously at risk of dropping the movie rights to. Thus, bringing the Mouse Guard comics to the massive display screen sounded additional interesting at this second. A 12 months later, Fox would reinforce its dedication to new comedian e book film diversifications by signing a multi-year cope with Growth! Studios, a pact that resulted within the 2020 horror movie The Empty Man.
Company objectives performed a key function in getting Mouse Guard on the radar of twentieth Century Fox executives, however a director obsessed with this film and all it may very well be was wanted to convey it to life. That is the place filmmaker Wes Ball enters the equation. Ball is most well-known for his work on the trilogy of Maze Runner films, which became a really worthwhile enterprise for twentieth Century Fox. It’s no marvel the studio was eager on preserving him round at Fox even earlier than The Maze Runner: The Loss of life Remedy, the ultimate installment in that trilogy, hit theaters. 4 months earlier than the movie premiered, Ball was being eyeballed to direct Mouse Guard.
How do you make mice sword-fight?
It was within the information of Ball’s connection to the venture that phrase lastly emerged on how Mouse Guard can be delivered to life. The plan at this stage was for it to be a live-action/CGI hybrid characteristic, with the mice being delivered to life by way of motion-capture animation. It’s price noting that Matt Reeves was hooked up to the venture as a producer, with this filmmaker garnering an unimaginable quantity of goodwill from Fox for helming Daybreak of the Planet of the Apes and Struggle for the Planet of the Apes.
Mouse Guard wasn’t going to be directed by Reeves, but it surely was considered as a technique to additional refine and make the most of the motion-capture know-how that made these Apes films Reeves delivered so spectacular. Between Ball and Reeves, Fox was turning to a variety of trendy style film veterans to get this adaptation off the bottom. Moreover, the movie represented one other stab by twentieth Century Fox at solidifying the studio because the place the place audiences may count on to see unique visible effects-driven films.
Granted, each Hollywood studio is concentrated on VFX-heavy options within the twenty first century, however Fox had a particular angle to work right here. After releasing Avatar, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and Lifetime of Pi, Fox had a little bit of clout within the trade in utilizing groundbreaking visible results on tasks that didn’t simply really feel like hole rehashes of the previous or, within the case of Lifetime of Pi and The Martian, weren’t squarely targeted on delivering motion sequences. A number of Fox films greenlit from 2016 to the day the Disney acquisition was finalized appear to have been made within the hopes of constant this observe report. Mouse Guard was an apparent instance of this, as have been Alita: Battle Angel and The Name of the Wild.
The Mouse Home threatens the Mouse Guard
Two months after Wes Ball signed on to helm Mouse Guard, earth-shattering information broke that Disney was eyeballing a purchase order of the varied media corporations by twenty first Century Fox. This meant that twentieth Century Fox and all its tasks would now fall below the identical banner chargeable for all the pieces from The Avengers to Frozen to Wild Hogs. It was a momentous event and one of many greatest cases of media consolidation within the historical past of America. It additionally meant that each venture in growth at Fox was going to be below an unimaginable stage of scrutiny by their new house owners at Disney.
Nonetheless, even with all this chaos, Mouse Guard marched on. As soon as Maze Runner: The Loss of life Remedy was launched in January 2018, Ball turned his complete sights on this fantasy epic. By the point March 2019 rolled round, Mouse Guard was aiming to begin taking pictures that summer time and was assembling a rock-solid solid. Ball recruited Maze Runner veteran Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Andy Serkis, and Idris Elba, amongst others, to offer motion-capture and vocal performances for varied mice within the story. The presence of Serkis was particularly noteworthy because it gave the movie a motion-capture legend to work with and confirmed how the movie was making an attempt to be a non secular successor to the latest Planet of the Apes films.
On paper, one may think Disney can be open to Mouse Guard greater than different Fox tasks it inherited. The Mouse Home doesn’t have a lot trendy expertise with advertising and releasing Fox titles like Stuber or Underwater, however a PG-13 motion film tentpole can be proper up the studio’s alley. Plus, Mouse Guard employed many actors that had labored on iconic Disney properties within the submit. Brodie-Sangster is the voice of Ferb in Phineas & Ferb, for goodness’ sake!
Tragically, that wasn’t sufficient to save lots of Mouse Guard. Disney killed the venture in April 2019, making it one of many first Fox movement footage to be publicly dismantled within the wake of this acquisition. Disney has by no means formally revealed what led to Mouse Guard getting shut down regardless of the venture being simply weeks away from the beginning of principal images. Nonetheless, reviews have steered that the movie’s alleged $170 million price ticket was an excessive amount of for Disney in addition to the idea of an motion movie starring CG animals was too much like different productions on the Mouse Home.
The legacy of the Mouse Guard film
Within the wake of this growth, Disney allowed the filmmakers behind Mouse Guard to buy the venture at different studios. Reeves and others concerned on this proposed blockbuster have varied offers throughout Hollywood, so there was initially hope that Netflix or Paramount Photos would possibly decide it up. Tragically, that by no means occurred. Whether or not the price range was seen as too excessive for different corporations or if the artistic staff opted to give attention to different endeavors, Disney’s dismissal of Mouse Guard was the tip of this blockbuster.
A couple of months after this tragic information, Ball shared a visible results demo reel on-line that gave audiences an opportunity to see what Mouse Guard would appear like. The visible results work (presumably by WETA Digital, which was alleged to ship the VFX for the ultimate film) is beautiful, particularly within the ultra-realistic lighting. Simply from this dialogue-free assortment of footage, Mouse Guard appears atmospheric and like it might’ve been one thing distinctive from the world of feature-length animation.
Sadly, the film was by no means meant to be, although Ball a minimum of obtained to maneuver on to a compelling venture. Seven months after Disney canceled Mouse Guard, the studio employed him to direct a brand new Planet of the Apes film. This venture would additionally see Ball dealing with a variety of motion-capture animated performances to convey to life a set of digital critters. Ball has a keenness for the world of movement seize and even when he by no means obtained to understand Mouse Guard, dealing with the film now often called Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes will get him up shut and private with this know-how.
Whereas that’s a pleasant ending for Wes Ball, Mouse Guard signaled an unlucky trajectory in how Disney dealt with the Fox films it inherited. Within the years that adopted Disney canceled a slew of promising-sounding Fox tasks, together with different comedian diversifications like Lumberjanes and Nimona (the latter of which might be later revived at Netflix.) Each Fox property that wasn’t named both Free Man or Avatar would expertise extermination below Disney possession. Mouse Guard established a horrific pattern for a way Disney dealt with Fox properties, although it’s additionally a tragically predictable flip of occasions given how so many company mergers end up.
