Aloha! This one is a story of more and more people gradually understanding that this movie could be something special.
In fall of 2017, former Disney exec
@foster4th and I grabbed lunch to talk about the Disney movies we grew up on.
He said he’d be open to a take on Lilo & Stitch, a criminally underrated movie to both of us.
That Halloween I saw hotshot writer
@mikevanwaes was dressed up as a spooky Stitch (pictured above), and asked if he’d ever be interested in working on an adaptation. Super-Producer
@jeirich and I developed a take with him to bring to Disney. When we got in front of the higher ups, they decided to commission a script, but said they were concerned about the lack of “commercial potency” of
@chrissandersart ’s Lilo & Stitch.
Despite this skepticism, we developed.
It became real when
@deanfleischercamp shared his vision.
It became obvious when
@kekaniokalani poured himself into the pages.
And it became inevitable when we met
@maiakealoha and
@sydneyagudong
Thank you to
@louieprovo and
@racheello for being incredibly caring studio partners and as much a part of the filmmaking team as anyone. To the rest of our amazing cast, to the many Hawaiians who made up our crew, to our tireless VFX team, and to acting coach
@saraarrington for bringing out the best in all of us, on the harder days especially.
I’ve been so grateful to witness this evolve from a wittle Disney+ movie to a global theatrical release thanks to all the
@disneystudios teams’ relentless support this past year. Young people going to the movies is a really good thing!
May we all live long and remain commercially potent. Mahalo nui loa 🌺🌊🏄♀️
#liloandstich
