Though Chuck Jones is widely billed as the director of the 1965 MGM short The Dot and the Line, the production quietly exploded into an on‑set power struggle when studio producers rejected Jones’s initial treatment and asked longtime background artist Maurice Noble to take over direction. Norton Juster had written the original 1963 book and the screenplay, and Jones was one of the originators of the adaptation and completed the first treatment. According to Noble’s own recollection, the handover was anything but amicable: Jones arrived in the room in a rage, literally threw the storyboard pieces onto Noble’s bookcase — “plunk, plunk, plunk” — and stalked out. Noble later described himself as the "true acting director," a claim that underscores how contentious the takeover felt to those involved.
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AI concept artworkArchive Record · 1960s
Chuck Jones's Furious Walkout: Maurice Noble Replaces Jones on the Oscar‑Winning The Dot and the Line
The Dot and the Line (1965) / 1960s
Though Chuck Jones is widely billed as the director of the 1965 MGM short The Dot and the Line, the production quietly exploded into an on‑set power struggle when studio producers rejected Jones’s initial treatment and asked longtime background artist Maurice Noble to take over direction. Norton Juster had written the original 1963 book and the screenplay, and Jones was one of the originators of the adaptation and completed the first treatment. According to Noble’s own recollection, the handover was anything but amicable: Jones arrived in the room in a rage, literally threw the storyboard pieces onto Noble’s bookcase — “plunk, plunk, plunk” — and stalked out. Noble later described himself as the "true acting director," a claim that underscores how contentious the takeover felt to those involved.
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