The Hollywood Reporter has the scoop that the $6.9 million opening for Mars Needs Moms, directed by veteran animator Simon Wells, was the nail in Yellow Submarine's coffin at Disney.  Evidently, budget concerns had long been hindering process on the animated film, and a crucial presentation to heirs of Beatles bandmembers was repeatedly pushed back.  An original start date in December was also pushed back, without being properly rescheduled.  This weekend's opening for the $150 million-budgeted Mars Needs Moms conclusively dissuaded Disney from continuing with the sure-to-be-expensive Beatles film.

According to THR, Zemeckis is now mulling his options, including a possible (and welcome) return to live-action film making.  It's also possible, however, that he'll find a new financier for his high tech Beatles cartoon.  With Disney's departure, the director is now able to shop the project – which has been developing for well over a year now – to a new studio.  Given the price tag associated with Zemeckis' motion capture films, and their increasingly poor reception, it's unknown whether any studio will bite.

Disney announced a year ago that they would close ImageMovers upon the completion of Mars Needs Moms.  Based on this and information from anonymous sources inside Disney, Deadline claims that the studio made their decision on Yellow Submarine months ago, well before the actual release of the Martian adventure.

The updated Yellow Submarine already has a cast to play the Fab Four: Peter Serafinowicz as Paul McCartney, Dean Lennox Kelly as John Lennon, Cary Elwes as George Harrison, and Adam Campbell as Ringo Starr.  Elwes is well known for his roles in films such as Saw and The Princess Bride, while Serafinowicz appeared with Simon Pegg in the British television series 'Spaced', as well as the zombie-plagued romantic comedy Shaun of the Dead.

Do you want to see Robert Zemeckis make his motion capture Yellow Submarine at another studio, or is are you hoping that he finally returns to directing live action?