Disney takes $50 million write-down on canceled animation project
Walt Disney Co. will take a $50 million write-down in the current fiscal quarter for a stop-motion animation project it canceled in August.
The untitled movie was to be directed by Henry Selick, the well respected filmmaker behind “Coraline” and “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” Previously set to be released in October 2013, the picture had been in production for about a year when new Walt Disney Studios Chairman Alan Horn halted work.
News of the write-down came in a presentation that Disney chief financial officer Jay Rasulo made to investors at the Bank of America/Merrill Lynch Media, Communications and Entertainment Conference in Beverly Hills on Thursday.
Rasulo did not specify the reasons for the write-down, stating only that the move in its fourth fiscal quarter, which will cost the company two cents per share, was for “some work we discontinued after looking at it.”
A knowledgeable person not authorized to discuss the matter publicly confirmed that the write-down was for the Selick movie.
-- Ben Fritz, Los Angeles Times