Though he still makes an appearance in the sequel as Happy Hogan, Favreau opted not to return to direct Iron Man 3 and instead signed on to develop the film, the concept of which is basically Night at the Museum at Disneyland.  When his follow-up to Iron Man 2, last summer's Cowboys & Aliens didn't quite live up to its event movie aspirations, we stopped hearing much about the project.  Combined with the commercial shellacking Disney experienced on John Carter, that seemed to indicate that the studio's enthusiasm for a costly Magic Kingdom had dried up.  Word earlier this month that Favreau is in negotiations with Sony to direct an adaptation of the Broadway musical Jersey Boys seemed to confirm the demise of his Disney movie.

That's not the case, however.  Favreau is indeed still working away on Magic Kingdom.  Favreau recently directed the pilot episode of Revolution, and as such he was on hand at NBC Television Critics Association cocktail party, where he informed Fred Topel of Crave Online that development is continuing, and that Pixar has pitched in.  Favreau explained,

“What we’ve been doing is writing a script, going up to Pixar, meeting with the brain trust, coming back down, bringing on artists, story editors and putting it together as though it were an animated film so that by the time we actually film it, we’ll have a rock solid story. I don’t want to rush anything. I want this thing to be perfect. I want it to be one shot one kill, like a sniper. I want to make sure this movie’s right in the crosshairs that we can really knock it out of the park so to speak.”

That doesn't mean in any way that this is now a Pixar movie; Magic Kindom remains a live-action affair not produced by Pixar.  It does make sense for Disney to seek out the animation studio's guidance in this department, though.  Pixar has deservedly earned a reputation for crafting well-told stories, a process that is long, arduous, and ultimately worth it, as demonstrated by Pixar's output.  Members of the animation studio's core brain trust have previously offered constructive criticism on working cuts of films like Tron: Legacy and John Carter, but a consultation before production is a wiser move.

Favreau elaborated on the process as it's being applied to this film, saying,

“Fortunately there’s no rush on it. I’ve been working on it as a writer now and we’re looking forward to beginning that long lead prep as you would on an animated film. Then you work your way to where you know what the whole movie is going to be before you ever roll camera. You actually watch it as the Pixar people do and actually watch it on a screen and evaluate it before you ever roll camera.”

As for why the project is moving at a pace that's downright languid compared to so many contemporary blockbusters, which rocket through production in order to meet a release date, Favreau said his recent experiences inform the pace:

“I went back to back to back with three movies in a row, Iron Man, Iron Man 2 and Cowboys & Aliens, all of them with release dates announced as I walked in.  As I cracked the script for the first time we already knew the date and the poster, in some cases the cast. On this one, Magic Kingdom is a big film. It’s a very special piece of intellectual property with all the characters from the park and the legacy of Walt Disney.”

The director also commented on the film's story a bit, saying,

“It’s going to be a family in the park. It’s an alternate reality version of the park that they get launched into. So much of it is just how it weaves together as a tapestry and what the visuals look like in creating this rich world. It’s informed by everything that I remember and know about the park from going there since I was a small child.”

For more, read the full interview over at Crave Online.

Earlier drafts of Magic Kingdom were written by Battlestar Galactica's Ronald D. Moore.  Though it was never officially confirmed, last year Favreau hinted that Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Michael Chabon had signed on to work on rewriting the screenplay.  Chabon was a co-writer on John Carter, though, and one can't help but wonder if that film's failure to connect commercially cooled Disney's enthusiasm for Chabon by association.