It's not hard to understand why any studio would want to start putting out more family-friendly content. Because young children can't go to the movies by themselves, each ticket purchased for them is worth at least two because of the parent that will have to accompany them. Thus it's not a surprise that Warner Bros. is now putting a think tank together that will hopefully allow them to start producing more of them - namely those of the animated variety.
Making a bold leap at the start of the year, Warner Bros. has brought together a group of filmmakers with the intention of starting to produce more "high-end animated motion pictures," according to The Hollywood Reporter. The group of writers and directors brought in by the studio include Phil Lord & Chris Miller (Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, 21 Jump Street), Nicholas Stoller (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, The Muppets), John Requa & Glenn Ficarra (Bad Santa, Crazy, Stupid, Love), and Jared Stern (Mr. Popper's Penguins). The idea behind bringing the group together is to have the studio release one major animated feature per year, much like how Pixar operates. All of the fillmakers involved are being encouraged by WB to collaborate with each other and work on each others' ideas.
And the process has actually already started. The studio is currently in the midst of developing Lord and Miller's Lego movie, which will be in theaters next year and features a stellar voice cast that includes Chris Pratt, Will Ferrell, Liam Neeson, Alison Brie, Nick Offerman, Morgan Freeman, Elizabeth Banks and Will Arnett. Following that they have Storks getting ready for 2015, which is based on a script by Stoller and is set to be directed by Doug Sweetland (who made the Pixar short Presto), and in 2016 they're planning Requa and Ficarra's Smallfoot, which will be directed by Despicable Me writer/producer Sergio Pablos. The trade doesn't have any plot details for the after two projects).
Obviously Warner Bros. is also home to properties like the Looney Tunes, but do you like seeing the studio branch out and try different animated projects? Do you like the team of filmmakers that they've brought together for the think tank? Let us know in the comments below!
