Disney and Pixar Waiting for Chicken to Restart Talks

(Cinematical) - Considering how loudly most studio business is carried out nowadays, it's somewhat surprising that we haven't heard more about the supposedly ongoing renegotiation talks between Pixar and Disney. According to Laura M. Holson of the NY Times, that's because they're not really ongoing at all. Apparently, both sides are waiting to see how Chicken Little (opening this weekend at a theater, presumably, near you) performs before any new deal is made. Chicken will be the first major non-Pixar film from Disney Animation in quite awhile. If it does well, it bodes doubly well for Disney, who will be able to return to the table safe in the knowledge that they don't need Steve Jobs to produce an animated hit. However, if Chicken Little fails to catch on with critics and/or audiences, many feel that Disney would move to out-and-out acquire Pixar, even if it costs them $5 billion or more. There's also the fact that Steve Jobs just seems to get along a lot better with new Disney head Bob Iger than he did with ousted CEO Michael Eisner. But those in the know warn that Jobs' apparent friendliness with Iger means approximately nothing. "Mr. Jobs," Holson writes, "would evaluate any Pixar partnership based on where he could get the best deal for the studio."