Directors David Pimentel and Douglas Sweetland are attached to direct the animated fantasy adventure Darkmouth movie, based on the adapted screenplay to be penned by Lloyd Taylor. It was announced by Alcon Entertainment co-founders and co-CEOs Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove.
Based on the popular HarperCollins Children’s Book series from Irish author Shane Hegarty, the Darkmouth movie is a comedic animated fantasy about an overeager kid who bites off more than he can chew when he prematurely jumps into the family business: hunting monsters.
Simon Brooks (Love, Rosie) of Canyon Creek Films, 8:38’s Kira Davis (Prisoners) and Craig Peck, who produced the short film Chalk for Walt Disney Animation Studios before moving into feature animation, will produce along with Kosove and Johnson. Brooks and Davis brought the project to Alcon and Jeannette Hill and Scott Parish negotiated the deal for Alcon with Marianne Gunn O’Connor.
David Pimentel’s most recent projects include the Best Animated Feature Oscar nominee Moana (head of story) for Walt Disney Animation Studios as well as the Oscar winning film Big Hero 6 (story artist) from the same studio. His other credits include How to Train Your Dragon (story artist) for DreamWorks Animation and Walt Disney Animation’s Tarzan (animator).
Director and animator Douglas Sweetland’s past credits include Warner Bros. Animation’s Storks where he served as a director and Pixar Animation Studio’s Monsters, Inc. (directing animator), Cars (supervising animator), The Incredibles (animator, board artist) and Toy Story (animator).
The screenplay will be penned by Lloyd Taylor, who most recently worked on Fox Animation’s upcoming feature Pigeon Impossible, directed by Troy Quane and Nick Bruno and produced by Chernin Entertainment. Taylor began his career in the Disney Writers Program, where he worked on such films as Race to Witch Mountain and Enchanted.
HarperCollins Children’s Books, which acquired rights to the series after a hotly contested auction at Bologna Book Fair 2013, has published the first three installments of Hegarty’s series titled “Darkmouth: The Legends Begin,” “Worlds Explode” and “Chaos Descends” in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and the US.
