AMC’s “scream & stream” OTT Shudder has acquired rights to the acclaimed experimental animated feature Mad God, from Oscar-winning stop-motion, animation & VFX legend Phil Tippett (Star Wars, Jurassic Park, RoboCop, Starship Troopers and Twilight films). After 30 years of work, the apocalyptic labor of love has been making the festival rounds since last year, and will debut on the genre-focused streaming platform on June 16.
The deal was brokered by Emily Gotto for Shudder and Peter Kaufman of Kaufman Abdel-Aal for Tippett Studio.
Tippett began work on his “Miltonesque world of monsters, scientists and war pigs” in 1987, creating dozens of environments and hundreds of puppets as well as notebook upon notebook of concept sketches and storyboards. But the success of Tippett Studio forced a pause on the creation of this surreal stop-mo world.
Decades later, a new generation of animators at the studio found the stashed material, and volunteered to work weekends to bring Mad God to life — learning the craft of practical stop-motion from Tippett along the way. A runaway Kickstarter campaign funded the project.
Mad God made its world premiere at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland in August 2021, going on to win top prizes from Fantasia (Most Groundbreaking FIlm and Best Animated Feature Audience Awards), Sitges (Best Visual Effects and José Luis Guarner Critics Award for Best Film) and the Trieste Science+Fiction Festival (Nocturno New Vision Award). It has also screened at Edinburgh, Chicago, Denver, Mar del Plata, the European Fantastic Film Festival, Slash Film Festival, Fantastic Fest (Austin), Beyond Fest, Tallinn Black Nights, Monster Fest (Melbourne) and Carrefour du Cinema d’Animation, to name a few.
The film is written, directed and produced by Tippett. Executive producers are Sanjay Das, Colin Geddes, Katarina Gligorijevic, Gary Mundell, Jules Roman and Joshua Sobel, with Jack Morrissey as co-producer.
“It’s been over 30 years, but thanks to the team at Tippett Studio we finally made the dream a reality,” Tippett told Deadline in the announcement. “I’m proud to partner with Shudder on the release of Mad God, and it’s an honor that my original vision can now be shared with audiences across the country.”
Visit madgodmovie.com to learn more about the film. Join Shudder at shudder.com.
[Sources: Deadline, Tippett Studio]
