First Cartoon Network started making detours into live-action, now it appears the Disney/Pixar hit machine is doing the same. According to The Hollywood Reporter, director Brad Bird (The Incredibles, Ratatouille) is set to helm a historical crime drama titled 1906, based on a book by James Dalessandro. Disney/Pixar is co-producing the pic with Warner Bros., the studio that released Bird’s 1999 animated feature The Iron Giant.
Bird is reportedly in the process of re-writing 1906 from a script John Logan (Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas). The story is set against a backdrop of the infamous San Francisco earthquake and revolves around a college student who investigates the murder of his father and uncovers a web of corruption and incompetence that has left the city vulnerable to the devastating fire caused the earthquake.
Disney/Pixar is co-financing the film, which is being produced by Paula Weinstein and exec produced by John Walker, Bird’s producing partner. Warner is looking to release it sometime in 2009.
Bird has become a hot commodity since winning Oscars for The Incredibles and Ratatouille, but has yet to prove his chops in the live-action realm. Even his ‘Family Dog’ episode of Steven Spielberg’s 1980’s TV series Amazing Stories was animated.
