Hey folks Harry here.... You all know my undying love of TOY STORY and TOY STORY 2... Well the new PREMIERE magazine (fantastic issue... it has the Fall movie guide, a great feature on Elijah Wood & LORD OF THE RINGS and a cool Kevin Smith interview!) which has the scoop on TOY STORY 3, so... to give us the lowdown, Oliver from AnimatedMovies sent in the following... While I dearly love the two TOY STORY films, I would prefer to see that happen after Jobs and crew decide not to sign back up with Disney and form their own company. After all, PIXAR's been carrying Disney long enough... TIme to rule on their own!

Hey Harry! I'll save you the thank-you-so-much-for-your-site part: the September 2001 issue of Premiere features an article entitled "It's Too Small A World, After All" that gives interesting details about the status of "Toy Story 3". Should you publish this, please refer to me as "Olivier" and if possible include a link to my animation site (AnimatedMovies). Okay, I can't resist... Thank you so much for your site!!

Disney and Pixar are bound to a 1997 contract for five movies -a deal that both Steve Jobs and Michael Eisner intend to follow to the letter. But Eisner wants five movies plus Toy Story 3 -under the same deal. And it seems that Jobs is balking at it.

When the deal was signed, Disney's policy dictated that all sequels go straight to video, so to not include a videobound Toy Story 2 inthe deal made sense. But when Pixar recognized that Toy Story 2 had theatrical legs, they convinced a reluctant Disney to back a full theatrical release. They couldn't have been more right -but as far as Michael Eisner is concerned, it didn't count as one of the five pictures.

So is Toy Story 3 in the offing? According to Eisner, "definitely." John Lasseter hedges/ he's still noodling with story issues, but he would "never say never" to another sequel. Pixar's President and chief technology officer Edwin Catmull says that he hopes that Pixar makes Toy Story 3 "sometime." Both companies agree that the sequel isn't in the pipeline. The next four Pixar-Disney pictures will be fulfilled by Monsters, Inc, Stanton's Finding Nemo, Lasseter's next original movie, and a film by Brad Bird.

Eisner makes it sound as though putting off Toy Story 3 was his idea. He says that after Toy Story 2 and A Bug's Life, Pixar had a good idea for Toy Story 3, but he insisted that they pursue Lasseter's next original film. "Either choice would have been right," Eisner says, "but I didn't want to wait until 2008 for John's original idea. We have the right to do a sequel irrespective of the two deals. I don't need a new deal to make Toy Story 3. I can get five movies plus Toy Story 3."

Finally, Pixar can't take any Toy Story sequel to another studio. Says one source close to both companies, "Jobs only would agree to do Toy Story 3 to get out of this contract faster." Jobs insists that Toy Story 3 is neither on the current slate nor in production. "Leave it at that," he says. Will it happen later, then? Leaning back in his chair with a mischievous grin, Job says, "Life is long."

If Monsters, Inc. and Finding Nemo meet expectations, could the two companies renegotiate the deal? After all, Lasseter is close to both Eisner and Schumacher. Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group president Dick Cook sounds conciliatory. "I'm sure there will be room to expand the deal and that both sides will want to," he says. He doesn't see Toy Story 3 as a sticking point: "Audiences will almost demand that it be made."

All in Pixar's sweet time. "Pixar has no current plans to create Toy Story 3 and is under no obligation to do so," says a company spokesperson. "Under the current deal, John picks his own projects, and no one insists on what he should do. With more than $250 million in cash in the bank and no debt, Pixar has the financial resources to finance and market its own films. Given Pixar's track record, several studios would likely be willing to finance everything in exchange for a chance to work with Pixar."