Despicable Me director Chris Renaud has no interest in a live-action Minions movie.
Despicable Me director Chris Renaud has no plans to make a live-action Minions movie — and he hopes to keep it that way.
The Minions from “Despicable Me” have helped propel the franchise to $5.4 billion and counting at the global box office, making it the highest-grossing animated series in history.
Chris Renaud, who directed the first two “Despicable Me” movies (he was also a producer on 2015’s Minions and 2022’s Minions: The Rise of Gru and returned this year for the fourth sequel), recently spoke to Film Hounds magazine and was asked about Disney’s trend of turning its animated classics into live-action movies. Would he ever want to see the Minions in 3D live-action format?
“God, I hope not. That’s my answer,” Renaud said. “If there had been conversations like that, I wouldn’t have had access to them. But to me, what defines the world is that it’s animated and allows us to do things that don’t affect us. Like locking a henchman in a vending machine, or you know, blowing up Gru when he attacks Vector. Those are very cartoonish ideas, like what would have appeared in a Bugs Bunny cartoon.”
He added, “It becomes something completely different if you do a live-action version. For me personally, it’s not very appealing. But then again, who knows what can happen, but that’s my personal opinion.” Also read – Halle Berry Responds to Criticism Over Catwoman on 20th Anniversary of 2004 Film
Pixar chief creative officer Pete Docter also opposed the live-action Minions concept
Pixar chief creative officer Pete Docter told Time magazine in June, before the release of the record-breaking film Inside Out 2, that he didn’t like the idea either.
“No, and it may bother me to say it, but it bothers me a little bit,” Docter said of live-action. “I like making original, unique movies. Personally, I don’t find it very interesting to do a remake of the movie.” Also read – Love Island Host Ariana Madix’s Brother Jeremy Madix Arrested Over Scheme To Transport 100 Pounds Of Marijuana.
The Pixar exec also referenced 2007’s Ratatouille (there was a fan campaign to get Josh O’Connor involved in a live-action adaptation), adding that a live-action movie about a rat “would be difficult” because “so much of what we create only works because of the rules of the [animated] world.”
“So if you have a human getting on a houseboat, your mind goes, ‘Wait a second. Wait. Houses are super heavy. How do balloons lift the house?’” Docter continued, referring to 2009’s Up. “But if you have a cartoon character and they just stand on top of the house, you go, ‘Okay, I believe in that. ’ The worlds that we’ve built just don’t translate very easily.”