The former Disney animator and his colleagues will base the feature on Winsor McCay’s classic newspaper comic strip.
The studio behind Mark Osborne’s The Little Prince has tapped Hyrum Osmond, head of animation on Disney’s Moana, to direct Little Nemo in Slumberland, a feature based on the classic Winsor McCay comic, Variety reports.
ON Animation Studios, currently in production on The Playmobil Movie, has budgeted the project in the $70 million range.
“Little Nemo in Slumberland is a masterpiece that has influenced generations all over the world, breaking new ground in visual storytelling,” says Osmond, whose credits include Tangled and Wreck-It Ralph. “I look forward to joining the amazing team at ON Animation to bring this beloved work to life.”
Lino DiSalvo, head of animation on Disney’s Frozen and director of The Playmobil Movie, and Tito Ortiz, former VP of Illumination Entertainment, will serve as producers and head up creative development at the studio, the report states.
ON Animation is the production company of Aton Soumache and Dimitri Rassam. The pair, plus Alexis Vonarb and Emmanuel Jacomet, will produce Little Nemo between Paris and Montreal, where the company has offices. ON Animation is part of ON Kids & Family, which is currently in final negotiations to join forces with European media conglomerate Mediawan, Variety reports.
Source: Variety
Tom McLean has been writing for years about animation from a secret base in Los Angeles.
