Though it floated in the rumoursphere in the years since Toy Story 3 effectively appeared to wrap up the story of Woody, Buzz and the rest of the playroom pals (aside from their appearances in shorts and TV specials), a fourth Toy Story film was officially announced last November. With a 2017 release date on the books, John Lasseter has picked Pixar veteran Josh Cooley as his co-director.
Cooley has been with the company since legendary story man Joe Ranft hired him as an intern on Cars. Since then, he’s worked his way up through films such as Ratatouille, Brave and Up to become head of story on the company’s forthcoming release, Inside Out. And he’s also earned his director’s stripes making shorts, including one set within the world of Pete Docter’s film, which will be on the **Inside Out **Blu-ray.
“To be co-director on Toy Story 4 with John, who brought the Toy Story** **characters to the screen 20 years ago, is a dream come true,” Cooley tells Variety, which recently selected him as an animator to watch. “When I first saw Toy Story I was amazed by the ground-breaking computer-generated animation. But it was the strong storytelling that kept me coming back. Toy Story 4 will continue that tradition and I couldn’t be more excited to be a part of it!”
Few details have been released about the fourth Toy Story’s plot, though Pixar president Jim Morris recently saidthat it won’t follow on directly from Toy Story 3 (the shorts and specials have done that to some degree) and that it will feature a romantic-comedy element, with Lasseter and some of the other Pixar brain trustees – Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich and Pete Docter – coming up with the idea and handing script chores to Celeste & Jesse Forever duo Rashida Jones and Will McCormack.
Toy Story 4 is scheduled to arrive here on July 17, 2017.