Looks like final negotiations are winding down between the cast of High School Musical and The Walt Disney Company. Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley Tisdale are rumored to be signing deals for substantial increases with the rest of the cast, including Zac Efron, following shortly. Yes, I said Vanessa Hudgens is back for High School Musical… Read More »Disney getting close to signing High School Musical cast for third film
The Orlando Sentinel reports that Castaway Cay survived its brush with Hurricane Noel with only minor damage. The Disney Magic skipped the port because of the storm, but will try and make a stop on its return visit this week. (via My Disney Mania)
This is cool. Someone tracked down the tow-truck that was the inspiration for Tow-Mater in Pixar’s movie Cars and posted it on WayMarking. Turns out ‘Mater’ was sitting in front of a run down gas station in Galena, KS. Well now they’re restored the gas station and fixed up Mater with some ‘cars eyes’ for… Read More »Tow-Mater’s inspiration inspires a bit of small town restoration along Route 66
For some reason, Disney’s normally enthusiastic, extensive publicity machine is keeping quiet on this announcement in a Russian news source: Disneyland will be built in Krasnoyarsk by 2012. It was announced by Krasnoyarsk deputy mayor Anatoly Grigorenko at the news conference on October 30. Grigorenko said it was planned to build the children park in… Read More »Siberia Disneyland?
Another sign of the real world impacting the magical bubble that is the Walt Disney World resort. Early this morning a couple was robbed at gunpoint by a menacing pair, one of whom was wearing a clown mask. Thankfully, no one was injured, but you have to wonder if this will hurt Disney’s reputation as… Read More »Halloween Night Robbery at Downtown Disney, Orlando
Well, it had to happen. There had to be a Pushing Daisies episode that didn’t make me want to sing and dance. OK, that’s an exaggeration. But last night’s episode wasn’t my fave. It felt like, "Hey, our show is going to air on Halloween. Let’s make a Halloween episode. Oh yeah, don’t forget about… Read More »The Halloween Episode (or Pushing Daisies: Girth)
Meanwhile, back at my old haunting ground, the Lloyd Center mall up in Portland, Oregon, John Lasseter and the crew from Pixar held a test-audience screening for the next film to come from the talented studio, Wall-E. With Ratatouille breaking the $500 million mark Pixar’s string of successes is continues, so the pressure is on… Read More »Early Sneak Peak of Pixar’s next film, Wall-E, is quite positive
Update: Four more photos added to series 1/24/08. One more added 4/25/08.
Annie Leibovitz returns with more photos from her Disney Dream Portrait Series. Tennis ace Roger Federer, who has been the #1 ranked men’s tennis player in the world for four consecutive years, portrays King Arthur and pulls a sword from the anvil that holds a magical grip upon it. The gallant scene is reminiscent of Disney’s animated film ‘The Sword in the Stone,’ in which a young King Arthur follows the wizardly teachings of Merlin.
The regal image is one of three unveiled today to celebrate Disney Parks’ ‘Year of a Million Dreams.’ Disneyland Resort in California and Walt Disney World Resort in Florida commissioned Leibovitz to create images featuring international celebrities in fairy tale settings. Two more Leibovitz images that Disney Parks released today feature actress Rachel Weisz as ‘Snow White,’ and actress Julie Andrews portraying the Blue Fairy from Disney’s ‘Pinocchio’ with her ‘apprentice’ fairy, portrayed by starlet Abigail Breslin.
The first three images that Leibovitz created for Disney Parks were released in January 2007. Those images featured actress Scarlett Johansson as Cinderella, singer/actress Beyonce as ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ and international soccer star David Beckham portraying Prince Phillip from Disney’s ‘Sleeping Beauty.’
Update: Find High-Resolution versions of all “Disney Dream Portrait Series” on The Disney Blog Dream Photo Annex.
A few backstage photos and the full Press Release is below the cut:
Read More »Annie Leibovitz returns with more photos for Disney