Pixar Comes To The Rescue On Final Ken Loach Film

The image you see above is a custom drawing of Mike and Sully sent from Pixar editor Steve Bloom (Boundin', La Luna, Monsters University) to noted British director Ken Loach. See, Loach is editing what he says will be his final film, and he ran into a spot of trouble. Having never gone digital, Loach still shoots film and cuts it by hand. Working on this film, he ran out of film numbering tape, which is used to catalog shots while cutting — with film disappearing from the motion picture landscape, the tape isn't as plentiful as it once was.

Assistance, and that pleasant illustrated greeting, came from Loach's cadre of fans on the Pixar campus.

Loach put out a call for assistance in Screen Daily (via The Playlist) and Pixar responded. Turns out that the primarily digital outfit had a good supply of the tape. Bloom boxed it up and sent it on to Loach, with this drawing and a good luck card signed by other Pixar employees. Many Pixar editors are fans of Loach's dramas such as Route Irish, My Name Is Joe, and The Wind That Shakes the Barley, and were evidently happy to help out.

Loach is finishing Jimmy's Hall, written by regular collaborator Paul Laverty, which is set in 1932, and follows "Irish communist leader James Gralton who returns from a decade in New York to re-open the dance hall he built in 1921." Loach has said it will be his final film.

The director said,

We were delighted to know that Pixar is still in love with the same technology as us.  We hope to get to meet them along the way.  We've had a tinful of tape from a few other friends as well and we're very grateful.

He and his company also sent their own photo back to Pixar in return for the drawing above.