"Walt: The Man Behind the Myth," a fascinating
new film on Walt Disney based on all-new interviews with friends,
family and collaborators, and featuring excerpts from Walt's never
before seen home movies will air on SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 16 on the
ABC Television Network. The film was initiated by Diane Disney
Miller, daughter of Walt Disney, to commemorate the 100th anniversary
of Walt Disney's birth in 2001.
"Walt," narrated by Dick van Dyke, star
of Disney's "Mary Poppins," offers a new and revealing
look at Walt Disney both inside and outside the studio. To present
Walt's life and legacy as accurately as possible, the producers
shot more than 70 new interviews with colleagues, friends and
family of Walt Disney, including animation legends Joe Grant,
Ward Kimball, John Hench, Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston and Marc
Davis (who died 6 weeks after his interview). Diane Disney Miller
and Roy E. Disney, Vice-Chairman of Walt Disney Studios, are also
featured.
The film also draws on leading historians including
Leonard Maltin, Bob Thomas, John Canemaker, Charles Solomon, Brian
Sibley and J.B. Kaufman, as well as celebrities including Art
Linkletter, Dick van Dyke, Chuck Jones, Ray Bradbury, John Lasseter,
Dean Jones, Robert Stack and Buddy Ebsen.
The two-hour film relates the many Disney innovations,
including the first Disney cartoon with sound (Steamboat Willie),
the first cartoon in color (Flowers and Trees) and most importantly,
the story behind 'Disney's Folly,' the mammoth project to produce
the first feature-length animated cartoon, Snow White.
The film also reveals the lesser-known saga of how
the studio faced near-bankruptcy in the wake of a strike and World
War II; how Walt skimped and saved, and even cashed in his family's
life insurance, in order to finance the early development of Disneyland;
how the Disney Studio broke the Hollywood taboo of early television,
and how, in his final days, Walt was fully devoted to building
a city of the future near what is today Walt Disney World in Orlando,
Florida.
The film is produced by Pantheon Productions in
Los Angeles. Walt's grandson Walter Elias Disney Miller is executive
producer of the film. The film is written by two nationally known
journalists, Katherine and Richard Greene, and award-winning writer/filmmaker
Jean-Pierre Isbouts. Katherine and Richard Greene are authors
of numerous articles and books including "Walt Disney: The
Man Behind the Magic" and the upcoming book "Inside
the Dream". Isbouts, the writer/producer of Oracles of the
Future, Terror on the Titanic, The Women of Manet and David Frost's
Inside the Cold War, also directed the film.
Pantheon Productions (www.pantheonTV.com),
based in Culver City, CA, was founded in 1993 by Jean-Pierre Isbouts,
a Golden Eagle Award winning filmmaker with doctoral degrees in
art and music. Pantheon quickly developed a reputation for high-quality
documentary programming featuring cultural or a historical subject
matter. The producer of over 22 programs, Pantheon also produced
the highly acclaimed multimedia project Charlton Heston's Voyage
Through the Bible in association with Jones InterCable and Agamemnon
Films, and Hamlet: A Murder Mystery, a co-production of Pantheon
with Castle Rock Entertainment.
Contact:
ABC Media Relations: Alison Lazar (212) 456-7819
Photography: Media Web Site: www.abcmedianet.com
Photo hotline: (818) 460-6611