Open Season is the first homegrown animated feature out of Sony Pictures Animation. All images © Sony Pictures Ent.

From the AWN/VFXWorld Exclusive Open Season Diaries.

May… 2002. Sony Pictures Animation was barely a month old. Executives Sandra Rabins and Penney Finkelman Cox (evps of Sony Animation) and Yair Landau, president, Sony Pictures Digital Ent., were eager to start work on their first feature film.

Fortunately for them, cartoonist Steve Moore and his producing partner, John Carls, had just the project. Moore had been kicking around an idea about a domesticated animal and the “what if” scenario occurred: what if that domesticated animal were to suddenly be plopped in the wild… and had to survive on his own; once dining on leftovers… now having to fend for himself.

Syndicated in more than 200 newspapers worldwide, Moore’s comic strip In the Bleachers takes a “what if” approach to his humor. He got the idea for Open Season from articles he had collected — about the “quasi-domesticated” animals who would lurk around the outskirts of mountain resort towns in the Northwest and Canada. Those animals would inevitably cause a little mayhem — leaving the Park Ranger with no choice: capture the animals and relocate them back into the wild.

Proving that timing is everything, cartoonist Steve Moore (above) and his producing partner, John Carls, walked into the nascent Sony Pictures Animation with panels from Moore’s In the Bleachers and the story of Boog and Elliot.

Moore saw a great story in the making. Carls agreed. Armed with a stack of panels from In the Bleachers as inspiration, he pitched the story of Boog and Elliot to the Sony team and, at their request, fleshed out a 20-page treatment that served as the backbone for the film. Sony Animation optioned the treatment — and doors were open for business.

But who would bring the story of Boog and Elliot to big screen?

Enter directors Jill Culton, Roger Allers and co-director Anthony Stacchi.

Culton makes her directorial debut with Open Season. She brings to Sony Pictures Animation nearly eight years of experience as a conceptual artists and storyteller. Among her credits at Pixar are Monsters Inc., Toy Story 2, A Bug’s Life and Toy Story. One of her most beloved creations is that of the character “Jessie” from Toy Story 2. As character designer on that film, she was responsible for giving Jessie such great heart and soul. Culton’s story sensibilities are just as keen — her contributions as head of development on Monster’s Inc. earned her a place alongside the team credited with the “original story” of Mike, Sully and the gang. Culton is a graduate of CalArts.