The Los Angeles Times confirms a report that began circulating online a few days ago that Pixar has replaced the director of their next film, The Good Dinosaur, less than a year before its scheduled release date. Bob Peterson, co-director and co-writer of Pixar’s Up, created the original concept for The Good Dinosaur, about a world where dinosaurs never went extinct, and had been working on the project for years. But now he’s been removed from the director’s chair; here’s Pixar President Ed Catmull, explaining the decision to the Times:

“All directors get really deep in their films. Sometimes you just need a different perspective to get the idea out. Sometimes directors… are so deeply embedded in their ideas it actually takes someone else to finish it up. I would go so far as to argue that a lot of live-action films would be better off with that same process.”

At least in the short term, Peterson has been replaced by an entire committee of directors, including Toy Story’s John Lasseter, Toy Story 3’s Lee Unkrich, Brave’s Mark Andrews, and The Good Dinosaur co-director Peter Sohn. Each will be in charge of their own “section of the movie.”

As the Times notes, this is not the first time Pixar has replaced a director in the middle of production; in fact, it’s the fourth time in eight movies that it’s made such a drastic change. Sometimes that decision has worked out creatively; Brad Bird subbed in for Jan Pinkava on Ratatouille, and helped make that movie one of Pixar’s biggest creative successes. Sometimes that decision has not worked out creatively; Lasseter wound up completing Cars 2 after Brad Lewis started the film, and even he couldn’t save that sinking ship.

You don’t often hear about films with two directors, let alone three or four (and by the time the project reaches theaters it may have another director, at least officially). But Pixar’s movies, more than most, are products of creative collaboration. As I’ve noted before, every single Pixar movie is about the way Pixar movies are made, championing the triumph of the team over the individual. When a ship is sinking, four sets of hands are better than one.

The Good Dinosaur is scheduled to open on May 30, 2014.