"There's more to life than the job you are doing," declares WALL-E writer-director Andrew Stanton, explaining one of the lessons his lonely little robot learns. It's true as well of two of the film's key collaborators: producer Jim Morris and co-producer Lindsey Collins, both of whom toiled tirelessly balancing the realities of family life with the demands of filmmaking.
Morris is an industry veteran who spent 18 years at Lucasfilm Ltd. in a variety of positions, including President of Lucas Digital, where he managed Industrial Light & Magic and other divisions. "I oversaw Skywalker Sound and started up Lucasfilm Animation for George Lucas. We were primarily in the service business, so we were working on portions of films," he says. "Obviously, being on the key creative side here is different. At Lucasfilm, I worked on the pieces that needed digital effects and post-production. Here, I have a more expansive role.
"I came to Pixar to produce WALL-E. I had a great run at Lucasfilm, and George was great to me. But I had been been there a long time, and I originally went there as a producer, so I wanted to get back to producing. I had long been friends with [Pixar's] Ed Catmull, and I mentioned that I was leaving Lucasfilm and going back to production. Ed said, 'Oh, great! I have to talk you about something.' They were looking for a producer for WALL-E, so I interviewed, and Andrew and I hit it off immediately. And they asked me to do it."
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