Jill Culton, an animation features veteran who has worked with DreamWorks Animation, Sony Pictures Animation, Industrial Light & Magic and Pixar Animation Studios, has been tapped to co-direct the adaption of Dr. Seuss’s Oh, the Places You’ll Go! from Warner Bros. Pictures Animation, Dr. Seuss Enterprises and Bad Robot. She joins Jon M. Chu (In the Heights, Crazy Rich Asians), who was announced as director on the project in 2021.
A perennially popular graduation gift, Oh, the Places You’ll Go! was the final book by Dr. Seuss (Theodore Geisel) published during his lifetime, in 1990. Packed with the author-illustrator’s wonderfully whimsical artwork and rhymes, the book takes readers of all ages to diverse corners of its colorful world and into all kinds of strange situations, as it gently encourages exploration and resilience.
The animated feature adaptation will be a globetrotting musical about a young adventurer who journeys through the joys and heartaches, the peaks and valleys, of life. Culton and Chu will direct from a screenplay by Rob Lieber (Peter Rabbit), and the film will feature original songs from Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (La La Land, The Greatest Showman). Bad Robot co-founder J.J. Abrams serves as producer, alongside the shingle’s Head of Motion Pictures Hannah Minghella.
A graduate (and teacher) of CalArts, Culton has worked in feature animation for three decades. In her early career, she worked with animation icon Richard Williams as an animator on The Princess and the Cobbler. She began her Pixar days working on Toy Story 1 & 2 (Culton designed the Jessie the Cowgirl character) and A Bug’s Life. She was also head of story development and is credited with the original story for Monsters, Inc. In the 1990s, she also was a directing animator and story artist for Cats Don’t Dance at Turner Features.
Culton made her directorial debut with SPA’s first feature, Open Season, and executive produced Open Season 2. With Sony, she also helped develop Hotel Transylvania franchise. For DreamWorks, she was a story artist for the first Shrekand provided new characters for Shrek Forever After. Most recently, Culton wrote and directed the 2019 yeti adventure Abominable for DreamWorks Animation and Pearl Studios, which spawned a series on Peacock and Hulu. She is represented by Verve.
[Source: Deadline]
