When your film is in the top 10 worst wide openings of all-time, there is reason to panic. Mars Needs Moms, with a $150 million budget, debuted to a disastrous $6.88 million dollars at the box office last weekend, and now Walt Disney Company is rethinking their investments. THR reports that the company has canned Mars producer Robert Zemeckis‘ motion capture remake of the Beatles film Yellow Submarine.
Zemeckis, after directing such classics as Back to the Future and Forrest Gump, has been on a motion capture binge, directing The Polar Express, A Christmas Carol, and Beowulf. He was prepping Submarine for a 2012 release and had Cary Elwes, Dean Lennox Kelly, Peter Serafinowicz and Adam Campbell attached as our Beatles. Zemeckis even acquired the rights to use 16 of their songs.
Geoff Boucher at LA Times insists that this decision to cancel the production was made “weeks before” Mars Needs Moms hit theaters, but I’d be repressed if they weren’t connected. Disney must have at least seen the poor tracking for the fillm. THR’s sources also say the uncanny valley look of the human characters with motion capture is a worry, something noticeable in Mars and all of Zemeckis’ previous motion capture features.
Zemeckis now has to decide if he wants to shop around Submarine at other studios or pursue one of his live-action projects. He has been attached to a time-travel action flick Timeless, as well as the ocean fantasy Dark Life.
Would you like to see Submarine picked up by another studio or Zemeckis purse one of his live-action projects?