Sky's the Limit: Skydance Gets Into Animation

The blockbuster end of Paramount is now looking into feature animation...

Skydance Media has produced and co-financed several tentpole pictures for Paramount, such as the newer Mission: Impossible films, the two Abrams-Star Trek sequels, and both Jack Reacher films. Though they are doing more films with the mountain studio, they are apparently set to end their partnership soon, which explains why two upcoming projects of theirs - Life and Geostorm - aren't Paramount movies.

Ilion is already hard at work on a feature for Paramount Animation, which is next summer's Amusement Park. Prior to Amusement Park, they did Planet 51 and a local film called Mortadelo and Filemon: Mission Implausible.

Two projects have been launched... The first of which is an untitled fantasy tale that will be penned by Linda Woolverton, screenwriter of Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King. According to Deadline, the film "tells the story of Elian, a teenager who comes of age using her magical powers to defend her family when the opposing forces of light and darkness threaten to divide her kingdom." That's currently aiming for a 2019 release.

The other picture in the works sounds more interesting. Titled Luck, it's about organizations who are behind the good and bad luck in our lives. The premise kind of makes me think of Reel FX's upcoming film WISH Police, which is about a secret team taking on evil forces who attempt to make people's malevolent wishes come true. Glenn Aibel and Jonathan Berger, writers of the Kung Fu Panda trilogy and Trolls, are handling that one. Skydance CEO David Ellison will have a hand in producing both.

There is no word on what distributor Skydance is prepping these pictures for. Again, Paramount and Skydance are set to split soon, but some co-production pictures are still on the docket. However, those two films - Mission: Impossible VI and World War Z 2 - are entries in Paramount franchises that Skydance previously worked on. So right now, I don't know if these will be Paramount Animation films or if they will be released by someone else. That being said, I'm looking forward to seeing what they have in store for us. One has a cool concept, the other sounds like a fun old-school fantasy story.

What say you?

Dropping In: Paramount Moves 'Amusement Park' to Summer 2018

It looks like the wait time to get on the roller coaster has shortened...

Yesterday, Illumination left the July 13, 2018 slot vacant when they moved their Secret Life of Pets sequel to the summer of 2019. That slot isn't being filled by another Illumination production. Instead, the mountain folk surprisingly decided to swoop right in...

Yes, that's right, Paramount Animation's cryptic Amusement Park is now set to open on July 13, 2018. The original date for the picture was March 22, 2019, and now I suspect that the third SpongeBob movie will take that slot because its current date - February 8, 2019 - pits it against Warner's Lego Movie Sequel. Any second now...

In their report of the release date change, Deadline revealed a nice-sized nugget. This film will be former Pixar animator Dylan Brown's directorial debut. Brown had actually moved to the ill-fated Pixar Canada unit and was a creative director on the Toy Story Toon short Small Fry (my favorite of the bunch), and was a top dog on several Pixar classics. I'm excited to see what he brings to table. Former Pixarians Teddy Newton and John Kahrs (who also had a stint at Disney Animation, directing their short Paperman) had also moved to work for Paramount Animation, but we've heard little to nothing on their respective projects. Are they still set to do projects for them?

The previously-announced cast consists of Matthew Broderick, Jennifer Garner, Jeffrey Tambor, Kenan Thompson, Ken Jeong, Mila Kunis, and John Oliver. The animation is being done at the Spanish studio Ilion, the people behind Planet 51 and Mortadelo and Filemon: Mission Implausible. Paramount Animation, for those who may not know, essentially operates like Warner Animation Group. Nothing is done in house, various different studios do the films for them. Monster Trucks was a Disruption film, SpongeBob 2 and 3 are Nickelodeon/United Plankton Pictures movies, and Gnomeo and Juliet's sequel is being done by Rocket Pictures, MGM, and Mikros.

I think this move shows that they're confident. I mean, moving right into a prime summer date after a big competitor left it? I think they've got some faith in this one, and it has taken a while for Paramount Animation to get off the ground. That was all due to former executives making very questionable decisions, and all kinds of muck-ups. See, I think Amusement Park is the very movie that will give us an idea of where Paramount Animation will be heading now that the proverbial band-aids have been ripped. Now with this switch, I get the sense that they want to really launch themselves as a viable competitor... And soon.

When will we hear details on the story? Probably towards the end of the year, because even before all the Monster Trucks woes, the studio's plan was to keep things in absolute secrecy. Anyways, I want to see them score, as they're one of the few major distributors that hasn't had a big animation line-up, and because they've been behind the 8-ball for far too long.

What say you?