Dusk and Dawn (original Universal/Amblin version)

Dusk and Dawn was a film that went through numerous changes before finally being released on December 19, 2003. This version, originally known as Dusk & Dawn, would have originally been a traditionally hand-drawn animated feature directed by Phil Nibbelink and William Jennings and produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment through its UK-based Amblimation animation studio and later Universal Feature Animation alongside Geo G.'s Glass Ball Productions for Universal Pictures with the intent to make the film an epic-oriented comedy-drama. It was originally slated to be released in Summer 1999. The plot was more akin to the William Shakespeare play Romeo and Juliet with mystical elements and a musical. Funny, considering that Nibbelink is responsible for his independent animated feature Romeo & Juliet: Sealed with a Kiss, which was released years later in 2006.

Following Multimedia's merger with Universal's then-parent company MCA and the closure of Amblimation, the film was halted and drastically overhauled by Universal before DreamWorks Animation (which was co-founded by Steven Spielberg and employed by former Amblimation members under Spielberg's direction) picked up the film as a computer-animated feature with co-production by Pacific Data Images of Antz and Shrek fame and made it a success which would spawn a franchise. Ironically, Universal would later purchase the final version of the film through their acquisition of DreamWorks Animation in 2016.

Plot
Dusk and Dawn was to have been a tale of a clumsy, outlawed dusk who encounters a beautiful dawn who acts and looks just like him; the two begin to fall in love against the wishes of their warring families, much as in William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet. However, the villainous sun goddess has plans to destroy the dusk people so that her daughter and other dawn people can finally have peace. Together, the dawn and the dusk set out to stop the sun goddess from hurting the dusk people. In the end, the dusk and dawn people begin to live in harmony, and Louie and Mina got married and lived happily ever after.

Cast

 * Dan Aykroyd as Louie the Dusk
 * Meg Ryan as Mina the Dawn
 * Michelle Pfeiffer as Ligera
 * Steve Martin as Al
 * George Hearn as Gloom

Production
Early in development at Amblimation in 1992 during the production of We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story, Balto, The Imps of Nature and the now-cancelled Cats, the film was titled Dusk & Dawn, later Dusk and Dawn, with Phil Nibbelink (who created the original pitch the film was based on in the early 1990s while working on An American Tail: Fievel Goes West at the studio) as the film's director and Steve Hickner as producer while Steven Spielberg would serve as executive producer. Geo G., creator of Gabriel Garza and founder of Glass Ball Productions, shortly became involved in the project where he had been assigned to work on the story development as well as the character designs, including the titular protagonists.

The story was intended as a Romeo and Juliet-style story about a representation of dusk till dawn, conceived by Nibbelink. After creating the bible for a franchise of several films, television series, video games, books, merchandising, hotel chain, and theme parks, he later participated in development during the early stages of the production and took the package unsolicited to Universal Pictures where he became the first of several screenwriters on the project.

Troubled production
Development suffered from several attempts at trying to make the plot more original, and also from a general lack of direction. Upper management felt the plot was too similar to any number of other "Romeo and Juliet" stories (including Multimedia's own 1994 animated adaptation), and test screenings of the work-in-progress generated poor feedback.

In July 1993, when Universal Feature Animation opened its doors, founder Michael Wildshill (who was coincidentally directing his own animated adaptation of Romeo and Juliet via Multimedia Animation) became interested in the Dusk and Dawn project and decided to make it an in-house animated feature from Universal (even though Amblimation was still involved), in hopes that Wildshill would be able to punch-up Nibbelink's epic, yet uninvolving, story. In October 1994, Universal Feature Animation announced the project was being directed by Nibbelink and William Jennings with John Cohen and Melissa Hester serving as producers while Wildshill would executive produce.

Following Multimedia's merger with Universal's then-parent company MCA in 1996, it became apparent that Dusk and Dawn was not far along enough in production to be released in the summer of 1999 as planned. At this time, many of Amblimation's animators and artists went on to join DreamWorks Animation, co-founded by Spielberg, leaving Universal to have full control on the film's production. Cohen approached Nibbelink, and informed him of the need to finish the film on time for its summer 1999 release as crucial promotional deals with Burger King and other companies were already established and depended upon meeting that release date. Shortly after Amblimation's closure in 1997, Wildshill, Cohen and Jennings passed on the project due to "creative difficulties", thus putting it in a turnaround while Paint World assumed the summer 1999 release date originally scheduled for Dusk.

Move to DreamWorks

 * Further information: Dusk and Dawn § Move to DreamWorks and changes

Gallery
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Trivia
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