Keane taken off Rapunzel

[Rapunzel]

I heard from a friend who heard from a friend but I could find it on the boards

Glen Keane, animator and Rapunzel director, was taken off the project on Tuesday. He will be replaced by the team that took control of Bolt after Chris Sanders. Keane had been developing the project for 7 years.

[Coheteboy]

Ouch... is he still with Disney or is he off the lot now?

[ALIASd]

Emeryville or the highway, again.

If this is the case the WDAS website should be updated, Glen Keane and Dean Wellins are listed as the directors of record.

[EHH123]

Hold it. I think we should wait until we hear from other sources.

[nathan detroit]

Keane is one of the best people at Disney (if not the best) since the golden age of the Nine Old Men. There better be a damned good reason for this.

[EHH123]

Rumor Central: Lasseter Knocks Keane Off Rapunzel? | Cartoon Brew: Leading the Animation Conversation So it is just a rumor. We will have to see if this is true or not.

Edit: Floyd Norman says it is true. However, Keane may have steped down for personal reason.

[ALIASd]

Reportedly a copy of an in-house WDAS memo:

For nearly two years, Glen Keane and Dean Wellins have been
directing partners on Rapunzel. As Glen lessens his directorial
responsibilities to attend to some non-life threatening health
issues, their involvement on the project will shift. Glen will step
back as a Director but stay attached to Rapunzel as an Executive
Producer and Directing Animator. At the same time, Dean will move
into development to pitch three new ideas for one of our future
feature projects and focus on directing one of his CG shorts.
We are happy to announce that Nathan Greno and Byron Howard have
accepted to partner as directors on Rapunzel as we continue to hone
the story in anticipation of our Holiday 2010 release.
We want to welcome Nathan and Byron to the project and thank Glen
and Dean for their great contributions to date on Rapunzel.
Thanks
Ed

Glen Keane leaving Disney's RAPUNZEL. Who's stepping up? -- Ain't It Cool News: The best in movie, TV, DVD, and comic book news.

[Coheteboy]

Well, that's an entirely different type of story that we were expecting! Glad that it has nothing to do with anyone being fired and I hope Glen gets his health back in top form soon.

[NatdRat]

Hmm, interesting. Glad to hear Glen is still associated with the project. So actually it was, in fact, Dean Wellins who has left Rapunzel. Still, it kind of makes one wonder why BOTH directors would decide to "step back" from the project and make room for two new ones. It sounds to me like, maybe, Keane and Wellins may have had a disagreement or falling out of sorts.

[Kuzcochik]

Poor Rapunzel! I feel like she's never going to get out of that tower and into movie theaters. I'm glad it doesn't seem to have turned into a bad blood situation (like w/ Chris Sanders & American Dog). Kind of a mess though

[ALIASd]

Curious.

At the same time, Dean will move into development to pitch three new ideas for one of our future feature projects and focus on directing one of his CG shorts.

Keane's contract obviously provided for his retaining name control and recognition. Here's hoping the health-related issue is positively resolved.

Wellins' contract doesn't appear to have nearly the same cushions.

The bolded (mine) portion above usually means we're throwing you a bone with the opportunity to pitch us on a possible future project which may or maybe not "go". The WDAS shorts program as we've seen with Goofy has received new life so that's an easy gimme for him to focus on.

The replacements also seem to sell the message that the studio has nothing but belief that 'Bolt' will be more than successful.

[royaldisneyfan]

Hope Glen's heath will be okay. One of the best animators in Disney history and I'm glad that he's still associated with the project.

[ALIASd]

In fact, this maturation will serve Howard well on his next project, the equally painterly Rapunzel which he is co-directing with Nathan Greno (head of story Bolt). They have replaced Glen Keane and Dean Wellins. Keane suffered a "personal, non-threatening health issue," but will stay on as exec producer.

"It's been going very good so far -- the same kind of schedule that we faced with Bolt, maybe a little longer," Howard offers. "There's been a lot of development work done already. It's exciting for us because we're given an opportunity to work on a fairy tale. Again, John is here and he loves Disney more than anything else and you want to raise the bar every time and live up to expectations for a Disney fairy tale: it has to sit next to those other classic films. When I was being trained in CG animation, it's so different from drawing. And I gravitated toward story because I wanted to stay as a hand-drawn artist. I miss that immediacy of pencil and paper even though I use a tablet now. But with Glen's help, I think we can make the toolset more user- friendly.

"There are masters that now exist in CG animation: people that have become so facile, so fluid with their style and their command of the tools and it's great to see. So there are stars out there at Pixar and Disney and DreamWorks as well. I see stuff that feels like a great drawing; it feels well composed and it feels like a controlled performance, and it's great to see that kind of maturity happening."

Animation World Magazine