Tom Holland And Chris Pratt Re-Team For Pixar's Onward With Julia Louis-Dreyfus And Octavia Spencer

Pixar has announced its next film, a suburban fantasy called ‘Onward’.  Dan Scanlon will direct and Kori Rae will produce.  Scanlon previously directed ‘Monster’s University’, which Rae produced.  In addition, Rae produced ‘Monsters, Inc.’, ‘The Incredibles’, and ‘Up’.  The story takes place in a suburban fantasy world, where two teenage elf brothers go on a quest to discover whether there is any magic left in the world.

Scanlon, who also co-wrote ‘Monsters University’ appears to have also handled scripting duties for ‘Onward’, as he stated:

“At Pixar we try to create stories that come from some kind of personal truth.  This film was inspired by my own relationship with my brother.”

‘Onward’ reunites Marvel’s Chris Pratt and Tom Holland.  It wasn’t revealed what their roles are, but it’s possible they will be playing the two brothers.  Pratt and Holland appeared onscreen together as Spider-Man and Star-Lord, respectively, in this year’s ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ and both may… or may not re-team in ‘Avengers: Endgame’.  Holland recently wrapped ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’, which is the first Marvel movie to come after ‘Endgame’ and opens on July 5, 2019.  Pratt’s future with Marvel is more uncertain.  Even if Star-Lord returns in ‘Endgame’, ‘Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3’ is on indefinite hold as Marvel/Disney attempt to find a director to take over after they canned James Gunn in July of this year.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus
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Also part of the cast are Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Octavia Spencer.  Louis-Dreyfus’ award-winning HBO series ‘Veep’ returns for its seventh and final season in the spring of next year.  Prior to that, she headlined her own CBS sitcom ‘The New Adventures of Old Christine’ for five seasons.  (And if we’re playing six degrees of Marvel, Agent Coulson himself, Clark Gregg played her ex-husband on that show.)  Of course, she will forever be known as Elaine Benes from ‘Seinfeld’.

Octavia Spencer
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Spencer won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2012 for her role in ‘The Help’.  She has been nominated twice since then for ‘Hidden Figures‘ and last year’s ‘The Shape of Water’.  She can currently be seen in the comedy ‘Instant Family’.  Both she and Holland lent their voices to ‘The Voyage of Doctor Dolittle’, which stars Robert Downey, Jr. in the title role.  (Another Marvel connection!)

This summer, Pixar’s ‘Incredibles 2’ became its highest-grossing picture of all time, topping $1.2 billion worldwide.  That could very possibly be topped next summer, when ‘Toy Story 4’ arrives in June.

‘Onward’ already has a release date of March 6, 2020.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter