Movie Make-out

I’m not sure I ever talked about this before, but back when I was living in Southern California, I had the pleasure of being at official Disney-sponsored press events as both a reporter for Sequential Tart.com and as a press liaison as a Disney Cast Member.

As such, I think I can definitely envision how D23, the first Disney “fan convention”—and allegedly, its answer to the San Diego Comic Con—kicked off on Friday and how almost all the presentations were run. Thankfully, the Associated Press was also there to cover the first day, and here’s a rundown of the crunchy news bits:

• The title of the new Pirates of the Carribbean movie is Pirates of the Carribbean: On Stranger Tides, and it will be released in Summer 2011. Incidentally, it goes without saying that Johnny Depp was on hand and was dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow while Walt Disney Studios chairman Dick Cook gave this announcement and arrived on stage at the Anaheim Convention Center in a pirate ship, yes? (Source: AP)
• Guillermo del Toro appeared via video from New Zealand to discuss the deal he has with Disney to produce “scarier” animated features via the new brand “Disney Double Dare You.” The first movie will be called Trollhunters, based on an original story by del Toro (Source: AP)
• Robert Zemeckis was also on-hand to show off footage from the upcoming 3-D version of A Christmas Carol, the one that has Jim Carrey playing eight different parts. His next project with Disney will be a 3-D adaptation of the Beatles’ 1968 classic animated film Yellow Submarine. (Source: AP)

I’d be surprised if there was more news to come this weekend because it’d be hard to follow Johnny Depp and a pirate ship, right?