Back before Disney purchased Pixar, the two companies were at war.
Pixar, then led by Steve Jobs, was unhappy with the way that the partnership with Disney was playing out – then-CEO and chairman Michael Eisner skirted film commitment parameters by claiming that sequels to Pixar movies “didn’t count” towards the overall film deal, meaning Pixar was on the hook longer despite delivering the agreed-upon number of films. Plus, Disney thought the demands of the studio, including those by John Lasseter, the creative kingpin behind Pixar, were untenable.
As the deal between the two studios reached its end point, Eisner made the radical decision to start a completely separate computer animation studio, dubbed Circle 7 (it was located in a building near the ABC building on Circle 7 in Glendale), and started work producing sequels to movies that Pixar and Disney had made together – including a follow-up to “Monsters, Inc.” with the very good subtitle “Lost in Scaradise.”
Writers Bob Hilgenberg and Rob Muir were assigned two of those projects – a third “Toy Story” film and the “Monsters, Inc.” sequel. Obviously, neither of these were produced. When Pixar was ultimately purchased by Disney, after Eisner’s contentious ouster, “Toy Story 3” became an immediate priority. And when a follow-up to “Monsters, Inc.” was eventually developed, they went the prequel route, resulting in “Monsters University.” Still, both projects remain tantalizing what-ifs, especially if the whispers coming out of Emeryville about a really-for-real sequel to “Monsters, Inc.” are true. (Maybe they could use some of Hilgenberg and Muir’s ideas?)
If you’ve ever wondered what this sequel to “Monsters, Inc.” would have looked like – or cared to learn more about the atmosphere at Disney at the time (as it turns out, Hilgenberg and Muir were the last meeting Eisner ever took at Disney before he left) – well, look no further. In this in-depth interview, Hilgenberg and Muir talk about everything, including the sequel you never saw.
In their version of the script, Mike would be getting married, Sulley would be promoted, Boo would be older and hilarity, of course, would follow. It’s a script that both Hilgenberg and Muir stand by and are anxious to still see produced (or possibly interpolated), especially since Pixar is now a part of Disney and whatever bad blood was between the two has been washed away.
“We stand by that script, we’re very proud of it. It’s one of those things where, when we were writing it, everything was falling into place. It was a labor of love and were very passionate about it,” Muir said. “We wanted to make sure we stuck with the Pixar brand. Our goal was, when somebody read the script, to not know if we were influenced by Pixar or not.”
“It was really important for us to have Pixar read it and say, Wow, that’s where we would have taken it. We stand by it,” Hilgenberg added. “Call Pixar, tell them to make our version. Show up with signs – Bob and Rob’s draft!”
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