Starting off as a visual effects animator for Disney's Mulan, could Paul Briggs become one of Disney's top directors? Author - Alex Zaslavsky Many pieces of evidence point to this conclusion and I will be breaking them all down in this post. Firstly, Paul Briggs has been the Head of Story on several Walt Disney Animation films from Frozen to Big Hero 6. This title is very prestigious and isn't a job that you can just apply for. As Head of Story you work with the directors, writers, and the rest of the story team to produce amazing adventures. And you know what Disney says, story is key. Since Paul Briggs strives in his role of Head of Story, John Lasseter added him to an elite group of lead creators known as Creative Leadership (Story Trust). Check out the full list of members right here. Notice how Paul Briggs is the only one out of 16 members to have not directed a Disney film in some sorts. This furthermore points to my speculation of Paul Briggs becoming a Disney Director. Paul Briggs Frozen concept to reality (source: Paul Briggs Tumbler) Need more evidence? Don't worry, I got plenty! Looking at Paul Briggs official verified Twitter account, you'll become as convinced as I am. On April 20 2017 Paul Briggs tweeted this... For Paul Briggs to get a meeting with the Disney CEO must mean this was about a high caliber topic. At first maybe I thought he would direct a short film, but since he met with Bog Iger that tells me that this is on a bigger level, an new feature! Digging deeper into his twitter account I came across his bio, especially the last sentence... "now i'm in a land called Development" text could mean so much towards my theory. In the movie making process Development is the earliest stage. This is where you develop an idea and write the screenplay. This would make a lot of sense when relating back to his first tweet. Maybe Paul pitched his story idea to Bob Iger looking for further approval or even possibly heading into pre-production soon. I also assume this will be a new original film and not a sequel since he had to pitch it to Bob Iger. Take this with a major grain of salt as I am not claiming 100% that Paul Briggs will direct a Disney animated feature, this is just my pure speculation but I do think it is a very likely possibility. Lastly, as it is my dream to one day become a Disney director I always find these stories very interesting, it's not my intention to ruin some future Disney announcement in anyway but it's just me having fun with the subject matter. Do you think Paul Briggs will become a Disney director? Could his film be announced at D23 Expo? Or do you think all this speculation is crazy? Make sure to let us know! Make sure to stay up to date with everything going on in Disney news, right here at Magic Mania! We hope to see you real soon! Oh, and one more thing... have a Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Doh Day Update #1: August 10 2017 As I was casually reading old Disney news last night I came across some interesting information. On Paul Briggs Tumblr page he has a post from at least 2 years ago which has a intriguing bit of text. Towards the end of the post he wrote saying "Actually, I’m very lucky to be working on a film with Dean Wellins right now who not only worked on The Iron Giant but is insanely talented too." (The post was about some Iron Giant 2 art he made which is why he referenced that movie at the end). That line of text got me thinking that Paul Briggs and Dean Wellins could possible be directing an original movie together! Dean Wellins hasn't directed a feature yet but it is destine to happen as he was one of the original directors on Tangled. Plus he was developing a 'teen space race' movie that was aiming for a Winter 2018 release according to rumors. For more information on that just google it. But clearly that film didn't work out and it would make sense that if he were to develop another, he wouldn't do it solo like the last time. Which is where Paul comes in. Besides the obvious factor of putting two great minds together to make a great film, Paul and Dean are very good friends. A quick google search will prove that to you but it is also apparent on Paul's twitter as he posted this on Halloween of 2015. It would be very interesting to see two highly acclaimed story board artist come together to direct an upcoming feature. Us Disney fans can only hope that more amazing content is in the works at the mouse house. Update #2: September 7 2017 The official Walt Disney Animation Studios Twitter account just dropped a huge bomb that no one noticed! While promoting Paul Brigg's new book they had this to say, Did you catch that? They gave Paul Briggs the title of director/story artist! Meaning my super in-depth speculation was true? At first maybe I thought he directed something small on the side, but when I checked his IMDB, it said otherwise. So, not-to my surprise, Disney just basically announced that Paul Briggs will be directing a film for Walt Disney Animation Studios! If this does fully come to fruition then big congratulations to Paul and I'm super excited to see what he creates!
1 Comment
Elizabeth Conaway
2/8/2019 07:14:22 am
Hi Paul I'm so excited for you and I came across your book from a San Diego elementary school student. I was your girlfriend at Woodridge elementary in 5th grade.
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