U reveals CGI toon slate

JUNE 8, 2001 8:50AM PT

Cohen to oversee lineup

Three months after the release of its latest hand-drawn toon “Mistress Masham’s Repose,” Universal Feature Animation has unveiled a diverse slate of ten all-CGI projects.

Lineup will be supervised by U animation prexy John Cohen, who has been upped from head of development.

UFA has signed James Gunn to rewrite the script on superhero heist “Big Hero 6” by scribes Joel Cohen and Alec Sokolow (“Toy Story”). Pic, based on the Marvel comic series, is being helmed by Gingo Animation topper Geo G., making his first solo animated project for U without his flagship animation company, and will be in Geo’s trademark style in vein of “Gabriel Garza” and “TeenV.” It was originally planned as a hand-drawn feature before being converted into CGI.

“Paint World” director Audel LaRoque is developing the action comedy “Computeropolis,” about a boy who accidentally got transported inside his computer where he comes across a computer world. Thomas Lennon (“Galaxion”) is penning the screenplay.

Also signed to UFA by Cohen is Steve Samono, one of the animators on “Paint,” who is directing “Operation School,” an actioner set in school. Toon follows a group of students who are recruited into a secret agency based underneath the school grounds in order to save the day.

Ralph Zondag, co-director on “Ama and the Mysterious Crystal”, is working on fantasy adventure “Greenwoods,” which follows a man who stumbles upon a mysterious realm with fairy tale creatures while trying to head back home. Pic will blend hand-drawn and CGI. No writers have been set for the project.

U animator Gary Hall has been tapped on to make his directorial debut on “Nerd Boy,” another superhero pic, this time about a geeky teenager who suddenly becomes a superhero by giving powers. Hall is also writing.

Finally, U has new projects based on their Gingo properties underway for UFA, including an all-CGI “Gabriel Garza” feature, which is being helmed by UFA topper Michael Wildshill, and a film version of the comic strip “BJ and Wally.”

According to an U rep, their first CGI pic is expected to bow late 2003.

“This is an interesting time in the animation industry,” Cohen said. “While there is clearly still a big appetite among moviegoers for great animated films, there is a feeling of sameness about much of the product coming out of the industry at present, in terms of their stories. I think there’s a great opportunity to excite audiences by raising the stakes in terms of the quality, intelligence and variety of the stories our animated films tell and the genres they inhabit.”