Several companies have come aboard as European partners on Cartoon Saloon’s next feature, Song of the Sea, reports Variety.
The deals see Optimum Releasing getting distribution rights in Ireland and the United Kingdom, while Denmark-based Noerlum Studios. will co-produce and provide about half of the animation.Also signing on are Belgium’s Big Farm, a joint-venture whose component companies, Digital Graphics and Studio 352 will work on effects, CG-animation, compositing and stereoscopic 3D. Lastly, Super Productions in Paris also will co-produce, focusing on post-production and music.
Based in Ireland, Cartoon Saloon is the lead producer on Song of the Sea, its follow-up to the Oscar nominated The Secret of Kells. Tomm Moore, who directed Kells, also will direct Song of the Sea.
Preproduction is planned for September, and the film has a budget of about $7.4 million.
Word of the project first floated out at the start of February, with the release of a conceptual trailer. Cartoon Saloon’s website described the film as follows: “The story of the last Seal Child’s journey home. After their mother’s disappearance, Ben and Saoirse are sent to live with Granny in the city. When they resolve to return to their home by the sea, their journey becomes a race against time as they are drawn into a world Ben knows only from his mother’s folktales. But this is no bedtime story; these fairy folk have been in our world far too long. It soon becomes clear to Ben that Saoirse is the key to their survival.”
Here’s another look at that trailer:
