Pixar CCO Shoots Down Hopes of Josh O'Connor in Live-Action “Ratatouille”: Remakes 'Bother Me'

Live-action remakes of animated movies are “not very interesting to me personally,” said Pixar’s chief creative officer Pete Docter

Disney;Getty 'Ratatouille'; Josh O'Connor

Pixar’s Pete Docter is getting frank about live-action remakes of animated movies.

Addressing the possibility of a live-action version of 2007’s Ratatouille, the company’s chief creative officer, 55, told Time such reimaginings “bother” him.

“This might bite me in the butt for saying it, but it sort of bothers me,” said Docter when asked about an internet fan campaign to get British actor Josh O'Connor, a noted Ratatouille fan, cast as its main human character Alfredo Linguini.

Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic Pete Docter

“I like making movies that are original and unique to themselves,” said the Oscar-winning animator, who has directed such original Pixar hits as 2001’s Monsters, Inc., 2009’s Up, 2015’s Inside Out and 2020’s Soul. “To remake it, it's not very interesting to me personally.”

While Pixar has yet to remake one of its CGI-animated hits, the films’ distributor Disney, which acquired the animation studio in 2006, has seen box office success with new versions of The Lion King, The Little Mermaid and more.

In terms of the culinary comedy, Docter also agreed that it would be “tough” to render a live-action rat as cute and expressive as the animated movie’s protagonist Remy.

“So much of what we create only works because of the rules of the [animated] world,” he explained. “So if you have a human walk into a house that floats [like in Up], your mind goes, ‘Wait a second. Hold on. Houses are super heavy. How are balloons lifting the house?’ But if you have a cartoon guy and he stands there in the house, you go, ‘Okay, I'll buy it.’ ”

Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Alan Bergman (left), June Squibb, Pete Docter, Kensington Tallman, Kelsey Mann, Liza Lapira, Maya Hawke, Yvette Nicole Brown, Amy Poehler, Mark Nielsen, Ayo Edebiri, Jim Morris, Tony Hale, Asad Ayaz and Lewis Black

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Ahead of the highly anticipated release of sequel Inside Out 2 on June 14, which brings back animated inner emotions Joy (voiced by Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Fear (Tony Hale) and more, Docter addressed the poor box office turnout of 2024 so far.

“I can't imagine having a better chance at a big box office than this because it's a known movie and characters that meant something to people... and hopefully something meaty at the heart of it that you can take home as well,” he said.

Docter continued, “If this doesn't do well at the theater, I think it just means we're going to have to think even more radically about how we run our business.”

Inside Out 2 is in theaters June 14. Next up for Pixar is the original story Elio in 2025, followed by Toy Story 5 in 2026.

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