'Frozen 2' in the works, Disney announces
Released in 2013, Disney's "Frozen" ($1,276,480,335) won an Oscar for best animated feature film, featuring the voices of Idina Menzel, Kristen Bell and Josh Gad. Credit: AP
Disney officially announced plans for a sequel to its animated hit "Frozen" in a shareholders meeting in San Francisco Thursday that also revealed the release dates for two new "Star Wars" films.
Though the original filmmakers of "Frozen" said as recently as a few days ago that a sequel was not in the works, John Lasseter, chief creative officer of Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios, announced the follow-up along with Josh Gad (the voice of the film's snowman, Olaf). A release date was not given. News of the sequel comes as little surprise, given that "Frozen" earned $1.2 billion worldwide and is now the highest-grossing animated film of all time. A short film, "Frozen Fever," will accompany Disney's live-action "Cinderella," which hits theaters Friday.
According to reports, Disney chief Bob Iger held an information-packed meeting in which he said that "Star Wars: Episode VIII" will be released May 26, 2017, more than a year after the arrival of the long-awaited seventh episode, "Star Wars: The Force Awakens." Iger also revealed that "Star Wars: Rogue One," a stand-alone film set in the same fictional universe, will be released Dec. 16, 2016.
"Rogue One" will be directed by Gareth Edwards (2014's "Godzilla") and will star Felicity Jones, an Oscar nominee for her role in "The Theory of Everything," according to TheWrap.com. The writer is Chris Weitz, whose credits include 2002's "About a Boy" and Disney's forthcoming "Cinderella."
