It seems that Martians are to blame for the scrapping of the 3D remake of the Beatles classic film Yellow Submarine.
Producers at Disney sank the project after its latest 3D feature, the $150 million (Dh551m) Mars Needs Moms, bombed at the box office.
The remake was to be directed by the Oscar-winning director Robert Zemeckis, responsible for Forrest Gump, Cast Away and Back to the Future.
Disney torpedoed the film after the Zemeckis-produced Mars Need Moms, where a mother is kidnapped by Martians from outer space, took only $6.5m in its opening weekend.
Zemeckis can now seek other backers for the project.
Since first announced in August 2009, the Yellow Submarine remake has faced budgeting troubles. Zemeckis's remake was to use motion-capture technology (where computer sensors record a performer and use the data to create an animated character), similar to his previous films Beowulf and A Christmas Carol.
The film, which was also set to use the 16 Beatles songs from the original animation, was scheduled to premiere before next year's London Olympics.
Zemeckis vowed to continue using motion-capture technology in his future films. He described it as a form of "digital make-up" as opposed to a technology designed to eventually replace flesh-and-blood actors.
"I always go back to music," he told the The Gazette in Montreal. "We have the capability in the digital world to create any sound that an instrument can make. We've been able to do this for 15 years. We haven't replaced a single musician."
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