Warner Bros. Studios is making a big push to produce more animated features at the studio in order to compete with Disney, Sony, Fox and Universal. Deadline.com reports that the studio has formed a “feature creative consortium” to produce at least one animated feature per year.
John Requa and Glenn Ficarra, Nicholas Stoller, Phil Lord and Chris Miller and Jared Stern are among the directors in the program. They aren’t exclusive to the studio, and will develop animated projects along with the live action films they direct. Stoller has written Storks, which will be directed by Doug Sweetland for 2015 release; Requa and Ficarra will produce Smallfoot, from an original idea by Despicable Me‘s Sergio Pablos, who’ll direct for 2016 release.
Warner’s first big studio picture is LEGO: The Piece of Resistance which will be released on February 7, 2014. Warner Bros execs Jeff Robinov, Greg Silverman, Courtenay Valenti and Chris deFaria will exec produce the movie. The voice cast includes Will Ferrell, Liam Neeson, Nick Offerman, Morgan Freeman, Chris Prat, Will Arnett, Elizabeth Banks and Alison Brie. The film is directed by Phil Lord, Chris Miller and Chris McKay.
