The history of Pixar is a tale that has been told often because of its incredible story. The studio was on the brink of failure for a number of years before the release of Toy Story catapulted the company into a serious player in Hollywood. Now, as a result of an incredible number of hits in its short history, there is no other studio that is held to higher standards than Pixar. There have been a few excellent books written on Pixar (e.g. The Pixar Touch
), but they have always been authored by outside sources. Random House has announced that studio co-founder Ed Catmull has penned a book about the studio and it will be arriving in bookstores next year!
Creativity, Inc., written by Catmull and co-written by Amy Wallace, has been listed on Amazon for some time, but publishing company Random House just announced today, via The Hollywood Reporter, that it has picked up the book and will be managing its publishing. Although the book appears to be written from a business perspective, it will offer a first-hand account of the launch and rise of the industry’s most respected film studio. Pixar is covered in the news often, but there is definitely more to be learned because the studio remains wildly secretive. Aside from promotion of its films, the animation powerhouse does not often participate in the conversation about itself, so this is quite the unique opportunity for the general public to learn more about Pixar’s origins and practices.
Here is a blurb from THR’s article about the perspective that the book will offer:
Creativity will provide an inside account of Pixar’s rise “from a small, money-losing hardware company to a movie studio with 1,200 employees and a streak of fourteen #1 movies in a row that has garnered 30 Academy Awards and earned more than $7 billion worldwide.” Catmull will use the story of Pixar’s rise to offer lessons on leadership, management and balancing art and commerce.
Creativity, Inc. (a play on the title of Pixar’s fourth film, Monsters, Inc.) clocks in at 368 pages and is scheduled for release on April 8, 2014. For those who are still getting over the fact that Pixar will have no feature film to release next year, the book should serve as a small replacement. You can pre-order it from Amazon now.
