He also brought in Katzenberg, who had previously been at Paramount.ĭufus isn’t the first film to never see the light of day, there was a Terry Pratchett adaptation of Mort that also was binned, Where the Wild Things Are even had tests done but never made it either. And he said, ‘Well, let’s just do that kind of story, that kind of growing up, coming of age story.’ So it was that.”Įisner was the CEO and chairman of the Walt Disney Company who had been brought in just a few years before.
Hahn told Collider: “Michael loved Catcher in the Rye and he said, ‘We ought to do Catcher in the Rye.’ And we told him the truth, which is Salinger‘s never going to do Catcher in the Rye for anybody. It turns out Dufus was “Catcher in the Rye with German shepherds” – and given Ashman was being offered it we’d assume the dogs would have sung too. “The Little Mermaid ‘five or six songs’, Dufus – another animated film, Mary Poppins – a period sequel.” He then follows it with a list of what they’d like.
“The combination of Ashman’s talent and Disney name is a home run waiting to happen.” “The prospect that you and Disney will be able to co-conspire on some projects is exciting to all of us. “I’m glad we had a chance to get together,” he writes. It’s so fast you barely see the films listed, but there’s The Little Mermaid, which Ashman went on to win an Oscar for Under the Sea for, a Mary Poppins period sequel and a new addition, Dufus. Sign up to Disney+ to watch Howard for £5.99 a month or £59.99 a year.
Howard, director Don Hahn’s film about lyricist Howard Ashman, has a moment where we see a flash of a letter Jeffery Katzenberg sent detailing projects they could work on together.