Disney, Zemeckis rumored to remake Beatles classic

For quite a long time now my dream collaboration in the world of entertainment has been Disney (Pixar in particular) and The Beatles. Up until now, this seemed like my own geeky idea that would never happen in real life. You would not believe me if I told you how many times, and to what length, I considered how cool a Beatles-Disney collaboration would be and what form it could take.

As mentioned in my Disney Blog bio, I’m an enormous Beatles fan —just shelled out $300 bucks to pre-order the limited-edition Beatles mono box set— and to see Disney or Pixar put animated images to the words of the band’s songs would simply be fantastic.

So you can imagine how astounded I was when I read the news today —oh boy:

Disney and Academy Award-winning director Robert Zemeckis are reportedly in the late stages of negotiation on remaking Yellow Submarine, the The Beatles’ 1968 animated film, as a performance-capture digital 3-D spectacular, according to Variety.

The target release date would be Summer 2012 and the new film, complete with sixteen of the Beatles’ original recordings, would be produced by ImageMovers Digital, Zemeckis’s Disney-owned production company. And there are ‘prospects’ for merchandising and even a Broadway musical and new Cirque du Soleil show based on the new film.

Variety reports that “the deal has been months in the making”, with scores of lawyers “sorting out the complicated rights clearances necessary to remake the 1968 psychedelic toon”. The Beatles, of course, already represent one of the most unique and complex  copyright and intellectual property situations ever.

While I’m not particularly a fan of the original film, and Pixar would not be involved in the deal, this is by far one of the most exciting and anticipated project’s coming from Disney period, if it does come to fruition.