Big Frozen and Star Wars News at Disney’s Annual Meeting of Shareholders

” Some big announcements were revealed this morning during Disney’s Annual Meeting of Shareholders in San Francisco.

Frozen 2!
After months of speculation, Bob Iger, John Lasseter and actor Josh Gad (voice of Olaf) announced from the stage that Frozen 2 is officially in development at Walt Disney Animation Studios. The film will reunite the Oscar®-winning filmmaking team behind Frozen, including director Chris Buck, director/writer Jennifer Lee and producer Peter Del Vecho. A release date and production details are yet to be announced.

Star Wars
Bob Iger also announced news regarding the first Star Wars stand-alone movie as well as Star Wars: Episode VIII. Here’s the official recap from StarWars.com:
Rogue One is the title for the first film in a unique series of big-screen adventures that explores the characters and events beyond the core Star Wars saga. Rogue One will be directed by Gareth Edwards (Monsters, Godzilla) and written by Oscar nominee Chris Weitz (Cinderella, About a Boy, Antz). The first actress cast is Felicity Jones, who garnered an Academy Award nomination and critical acclaim for her performance in The Theory of Everything. The idea for the story of Rogue One came from John Knoll, an Academy Award-winning visual effects supervisor and chief creative officer at Industrial Light & Magic. He will executive produce along with Simon Emanuel (The Dark Knight Rises, Fast & Furious 6) and Jason McGatlin (Tintin, War of the Worlds). Kathleen Kennedy and Tony To (Band of Brothers, The Pacific) are on board to produce and John Swartz (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) will co-produce. The film starts shooting this summer in London and is due for release on December 16, 2016.
In addition, Iger confirmed that Rian Johnson will write and direct Star Wars: Episode VIII. The film, which continues the saga after the events of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, is set for release on May 26, 2017” forty years and a day after the release of Star Wars: A New Hope in 1977. Johnson is widely considered one of cinema’s most gifted young filmmakers, having directed the modern sci-fi classic Looper, as well as Brick and The Brothers Bloom. He was also behind the camera for three episodes of the critically-acclaimed TV series Breaking Bad, including “Ozymandias,” which series creator Vince Gilligan named as the best installment of the show. Kathleen Kennedy and Ram Bergman, producer of Looper, Don Jon, Brick, and The Brothers Bloom, are on board to produce.