Disney Scrapping Multiple Fox Films In Development

The Disney Fox deal brought plenty of new projects to the House of Mouse, but some of those projects are finding themselves on the chopping block. Disney purchased Fox’s assets for $71.3 billion and got a slew of properties and projects as a result, but not all of those projects were going to make the cut. Since the acquisition, Alan Horn has already cut four projects from the studio’s slate, and there are probably more cuts to come.

So far Disney has closed down development on Mouse Guard, News of the World, On the Come Up, and Fruit Loops and three of those movies came from Fox 2000, the division run by Elizabeth Gabler (via THR). Mouse Guard, which is based on the David Peterson graphic novel series about guardian Mice who defend the realm, was shut down before it started production in May. As for the reasoning why, insiders are saying that Disney thought it was too expensive for a movie they didn’t see a franchise in, though the project is also being shopped around to other studios, so we still might see it.

Another surprising cut is On the Come Up, especially after all the praise The Hate U Give received. Unfortunately, a source indicates that The Hate You Give might have been critically successful but was not commercially so, losing $30 to $40 million for the studio despite its small budget of $23 million, most likely due to its extensive marketing budget.

Fruit Loops is technically still part of Disney, though will likely find a new home eventually.

Disney isn’t shuttering everything though, as several projects started by former Fox Film President Emma Watts are moving forward, like The Great Game (the Kingsman prequel), Fear Street, and Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story. Other films coming up from Fox are Free Guy, Death on the Nile (the sequel to Murder on the Orient Express), and Avatar 2. We imagine the other Avatar sequels will also have no issues getting through.

“We are now just only beginning to see how all this consolidation will change how movies get greenlit and made,” says a producer involved with a Fox-developed movie. “They are looking at everything.”

Did your favorite project make the cut? Let us know in the comments!

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