Word: katzenberg
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...Kilmer, in black sweats and no shoes, sits in a darkened sound studio. On the other side of the glass, Jeffrey Katzenberg watches nervously, clutching a toy red-and-yellow football. Today Kilmer is recording the voice of Moses, and Katzenberg is unflaggingly attentive as the famously temperamental actor dubs dialogue for the most personal high-stakes film that Katzenberg--former chairman of the Disney studio and a founder of DreamWorks SKG--has ever been involved in making, the eagerly anticipated animated epic The Prince of Egypt. Kilmer is not in the upbeat mood that the scene requires. He started...
...Katzenberg repeats. "I'm trying to enjoy myself," Kilmer answers moodily. The toys that Katzenberg brought to amuse the actor are not working. "You may want to stand up and get in the physical thing of it," Katzenberg says to Kilmer. "He ain't going to stand up," someone in the booth observes. Things go downhill from there, in a session that is something of a metaphor for the gargantuan struggle to make The Prince of Egypt...
...larger web of Hollywood intrigue involving all sorts of moves, countermoves and, well, bites and stings. Antz was originally supposed to open in March 1999. Meanwhile, DreamWorks planned to make its animated debut in November with The Prince of Egypt--the story of Moses, a project very dear to Katzenberg's heart. Katzenberg is hoping his Bible epic will be enough of a critical and commercial success to prove he actually did play a crucial role in the making of such Disney animated hits as Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King--all released while...
Disney, however, buzzed into Katzenberg's plans by slotting A Bug's Life for November, directly against Prince of Egypt. Disney had completely underestimated the phenomenon Toy Story would be, but it was expecting great things from A Bug's Life. It had its McDonald's meals and its merchandise deals all lined up. Pixar has alleged that Katzenberg was so intimidated that he offered to cancel Antz if Disney would move A Bug's Life away from Prince of Egypt. DreamWorks denies that, but Katzenberg eventually shifted Prince of Egypt to what he thought would be a safer date...
Months earlier, though, Katzenberg had decided to give Disney a taste of its own medicine. He put Antz on a rush schedule to get it out five months early--beating A Bug's Life by several weeks. Katzenberg insists that he has "not a scintilla" of interest in tweaking Disney by upstaging Bugs but that he hurried his film merely because "the movie's great, and we could get it done...