Disney has confirmed Movieline’s scoop that they are developing a “Cars” spinoff called Planes. The project is being developed for the direct-to-video market:
Movieline hears that Pixar is currently developing Planes as a semi-sequel and spinoff franchise to Cars, one meant to take advantage of the enormously lucrative direct-to-video market. It’s a format that Pixar has flirted with before — Toy Story 2 was once meant to go direct to video, and Toy Story 3 was originally developed for DVD in a semi-unauthorized fashion by Disney before Pixar head John Lasseter took over the company — but with Planes, Pixar could leverage the Cars brand without diluting its bigscreen appeal.