As you wish! “If I was stuck in front of my TV, I could think of some fun things to watch, like ‘The Princess Bride’ movie we made together,” said Cary Elwes in a video call with Robin Wright. That’s right, “The Princess Bride” is coming to Disney+ on May 1.
The movie was withheld from the recent, all-encompassing list of movies, shows, and original programming coming to the streaming service in May, so it’s actually a surprise release! Will you be watching the 1987 classic while stuck at home? I, for one, am excited to see such a beloved cult classic make its way onto the Disney+ library.
An 18-year-old man was arrested last week by the Anaheim Police Department after attempting to break into Disneyland Resort amidst the resort’s extended closure.
According to ABC7 Eyewitness News, Jeremiah Smith, a transient resident of Anaheim, was seen jumping over a gate into the back lot of Disney California Adventure, according to the Anaheim Police Department.
Officers were called to the scene and found the man wandering through the park April 19th around 11:00 PM, near the Avengers Campus construction site, on the Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: Breakout! side. Police believe the suspect’s motive may have been to steal items or equipment from the construction site.
The Anaheim Police Department proceeded to issue a trespass for Smith before releasing him.
Company-wide furloughs went into place for all U.S. based, non-essential Cast Members and employees (including Disney Parks & Resorts, Walt Disney Imagineering, Disney Cruise Line, Disney Store, and Walt Disney Studios) April 19. Disney has secured full health benefits for their employees during the temporary furlough as well as auto-enrollment for all Florida Cast Members into the unemployment benefits system. With over 100,000 employees no longer getting paid, Disney will be saving up to $500 million a month across its many theme parks and hotels worldwide, which have now been closed for up to five weeks.
Despite leaving nearly half of its workforce without any income beyond unemployment benefits and a $600/week CARES Act bonus (available through July 31), the company remains protecting bonuses for its executives, as well as a $1.5 billion dividend payment going out to its investors in July.
The Walt Disney Company has seen a whirlwind month within the market, getting out-performed by Netflix only to gain advantage shortly after with the White House’s announcement for a phased reopening of businesses to potentially begin in May. The company’s senior executives took pay cuts starting on April 5th, with Executive Chairman Bob Iger forgoing 100% of his salary and current CEO Bob Chapek reducing his salary by 50%. Bob Chapek’s base salary is currently $2.5 million, according to a document filed with the Securities and Exchanges Commission. He is also eligible for a bonus of “not less than 300% of the annual base salary.” Cutting or suspending dividend payments would likely cause further turmoil for Disney within the market, with an increased likelihood of plummeting stock prices in the future. The company currently has accrued $13 billion in debt and credit agreements in order to mitigate the financial effects of closing down its parks and film studios.
Walt Disney World Resort President Josh D’Amaro has been like a ray of sunshine during park closures, consistently visiting the parks and updating his followers on how the parks are looking during this grim time of indefinite closures.
Yesterday, we shared the photo that Josh posted on his Instagram of the Fantasia-themed Sorcerer Mickey topiary in EPCOT and his extremely heartfelt caption.
Well, the prince of park closures is back and this time, he’s sharing photos of some essential Cast Members at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom.
In the picture of Josh and the Cast Members, it’s a bittersweet feeling to see a group standing in front of the “Partners” statue and Cinderella Castle, without any park-goers bustling quickly around them. On a happier note, though, it is heartwarming to know that our beloved Main Street U.S.A. is not alone during this time and is still being looked after until we can return.
In the second photo, you see Cast Members name tags with blue tape across them with short and inspiring messages, such as “Tomorrow”, “Ready”, “Be Alright”.
In the caption for these photos, Josh wrote,
“I made a quick visit to Magic Kingdom to thank a small group of Cast Members who are still taking care of the magic. I love seeing so many of our team wearing messages of courage and optimism on their name tags…until the day we welcome all of our Cast and Guests back to this special place.”
This may come as a surprise, given that the first live-action Mulan hasn’t been released and it’s been pushed back, but there’s reports of a live-action Mulan 2 already in the development stages by Walt Disney Studios.
With COVID-19, the release of scheduled movies has been flipped left, right, and upside down. Mulan has since taken the date originally slated for Jungle Cruise.
According to fullcirclecinema.com, insider Daniel Richtman’s Patreon states that Chris Bender, Jason Reed, and Jake Weiner will return to produce. No confirmation yet if Niki Caro will be returning to direct the possible sequel.
Mulan has already broken barriers of other live-action Disney films, as it greatly deviates from the animated film; there’s no Mushu, Cri-Kee, or Captain Li-Shang and songs have been axed. There’s no storyline provided yet for what could possibly be in Mulan 2. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see if this story pans out and how the numbers for the first live-action version of Mulan look after it’s finally released in theaters this summer.
