Sony Animation Announcment(s)

The folks at Sony Pictures Animation are getting ready to send off their debut feature, Open Season, in grand style. At a special press event held at the studio’s Culver City space on the Sony lot yesterday, attendees were treated to clips of the studio’s next four features and had the chance to meet and greet many of the upcoming features’ noted directors and producers.


One piece of news that came out of the event was that the studio has started to work on the CG-adaptation of Judi and Ron Barrett’s children’s book, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. Teased as “Coming to theaters Septober 32, 200F,” the film will be directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller (creators of MTV’s much-loved Clone High series) and produced by Pam Marsden (Disney’s Dinosaur, Mickey’s Twice Upon a Christmas). The off-beat project will answer time-honored questions such as what would happen if food (i.e. meatballs, pancakes, spaghetti, hamburgers, peanut butter and jelly sandwich) dropped like rain from the sky? What if you didn’t like the menu? What would it be like to be squashed by a pancake? Who would clean up the mess?


Besides Open Season, which premieres on Sept. 29, the studio has set the marketing wheels in motion for its 2007 summer release, Surf’s Up. Directed by Ash Brannon and Chris Buck, and produced by Chris Jenkins, the film will feature a voice cast that includes Jeff Bridges, James Woods, Zooey Deschanel and Shia LaBeouf. Also in the busy CG production pipeline is Hotel Transylvania, to be directed by David Feiss (Open Season, Cow and Chicken) and Anthony Stacchi (Open Season, Antz), and produced by Michelle Murdocca (Open Season, Stuart Little 1 and 2).


Hotel Transylvania will visit Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster, the Wolf Man and other classic creeps, who all hang out together and try to cope with the notion that they are no longer relevant in modern times. The script is being written by Surf’s Up scribe Don Rhymer, whose credits also include Big Mama’s House. The ghoul-fest is slated for a 2008 release.


Source: Animation Magazine