Sony Pictures Animation Re-Ups ‘Hotel Transylvania 3’ Director Genndy Tartakovsky

On the heels of latest film’s success, famed ‘Samurai Jack’ creator signs deal to direct two original animated features.

Genndy Tartakovsky, who co-wrote and directed Sony Pictures Animation’s latest Hotel Transylvania franchise hit, the just released Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation, has signed a deal to helm two new original films with the studio, according to Deadline.

Little has been announced about the projects other than one, Fixed, is an R-Rated comedy, while the other, Black Knight, which Tartakovsky will also write, is an epic-adventure along the lines of his immensely popular TV series, Samurai Jack.

“I’m very excited to start this next adventure with my Sony family,” Tartakovsky told Deadline. “With their trust and support we are going to do something unique and different, and push animation to the next level.”

Tartakovsky, whose resume also includes fan-favorite animated TV series Dexter’s Laboratory and Star Wars: Clone Wars, has directed all three Hotel Transylvania pictures – he also co-wrote Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation, currently in theatres, which has so far generated more than $227 million in worldwide gross on a reported budget of $80 million, bringing the franchise total box office haul to over $1 billion.

In development for years at the hands of five different directors before Tartakovsky jumped on as number six, Hotel Transylvania took the industry by surprise when it was released in 2012, generating almost $360 million worldwide and spawning the studio's first true hit franchise. The director also spent more than a year in development of an animated Popeye feature at SPA before he exited the film back in March of 2015. That project, announced with great fanfare the previous March, was an unfortunate victim of the famous 2014 Sony hack and subsequent studio upheaval.  

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Dan Sarto is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.