Marlin, Dory and Nemo are getting ready for another big screen adventure as Deadline reports that the original Finding Nemo‘s writer and director, Andrew Stanton, is set to return for a sequel based on his own original concept.
Stanton, who earlier this year directed Disney’s John Carter, has up until very recently, been quite reluctant to return to the underwater world of his 2003 film.
“[A sequel has] always kind of put a bad taste in my mouth,” Stanton told ComingSoon.net earlier this year, “because I never planned for that… We have said this at Pixar now. We’ve kind of come to terms with it. We’re not against a sequel being made as long as it’s a story we love so much that we’d be dying just to make it, so we’re just waiting for stories to tell us if it’s worthy of doing. Right now, I’ve never been able to think of anything beyond what ‘Nemo’ was on its own.”
Whatever the idea is that changed his mind, the Nemo sequel will follow in the footsteps of Pixar sequels like Toy Story 2, Toy Story 3, Cars 2 and the upcoming prequel Monsters University. The studio’s original slate, meanwhile, is targeting Bob Peterson’s The Good Dinosaur for May 30, 2014 and Pete Docter’s still-untitled project for June 19, 2015. Lee Unkrich is also working on a Dia de los Muertos-themed film for an unspecified future date as well.
The original Finding Nemo is also set for a return to theaters in 3D on September 14th of this year.
UPDATE: The Hollywood Reporter is now bringing word that newcomer Victoria Strouse is writing the screenplay with Lyndsey Collins producing for a potential 2016 release.
