News

DreamWorks Animation has announced the cast, set the premiere date and unveiled the trailer for Abominable and The Invisible City, the 10-episode series inspired by the 2019 film Abominable. Alan Cumming (The Good Wife) joins Abominable alums Chloe Bennet (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), Tenzing Trainor (Liv and Maddie) and Michelle Wong. All 10 episodes of Abominable and The Invisible City will premiere on Peacock and Hulu on October 5.

Bennet reprises her role as Yi and Trainor as Jin, with Cumming joining as Burnish. In addition to Wong, the voice cast also includes Ethan Loh, Karen Huie and Darin De Paul.

Abominable and The Invisible City is a comedy adventure series that continues the wild and wooly fun of DreamWorks Animation’s Abominable. Through Everest the yeti, Yi, Jin, and Peng know that there’s a whole magical world out there, and now it’s even closer than they think!

Exclusive: Peacock will double down on its animated kids programming slate, unveiling a number of new and returning titles including two follow up series to DreamWorks Animation’s Megamind and Abominable.

The streamer has also renewed Babble Bop!, the musical dance jamboree series for preschoolers, for Season 2.

Written by Katherine Stanford, Babble Bop! is a foot-tapping, hand-clapping, baby-bottom wiggling, sing-along world of music, dance and preschool play. With a mix of new takes on classic nursery rhymes and original songs, this inclusive short-form series is intended for social and emotional learning for the pre-k set.

Heroes Lily, Hugo, Miguel, Izzie and Sam will play the day away movin’ and boppin’ and havin’ a ball to awesome, catchy, repeatable – and sometimes very familiar – songs. With new characters, animals and brand-new song styles, the second season continues to hold up a magnifying glass to the little things in their life: having a snack,...

In the innovative Netflix animated film I Lost My Body, a severed hand skitters across the streets of Paris trying to reunite with its missing anatomical companion. Whether that hand winds up grasping an Oscar is up to Academy voters, in a year when a record 32 contenders qualified for the Best Animated Feature race.

I Lost My Body is an original film, but more than likely a sequel will come away with the Oscar: either Toy Story 4, Frozen 2 or How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, the third and final film in the Dragon series.

Walt Disney Studios once again finds itself in prime contention, with the fourth installment in the Pixar Toy Story franchise, which saw the addition of a new character, the spork Forky, voiced by Tony Hale, and an expanded role for Bo Peep (Annie Potts). Toy Story 3 (2010) remains the only sequel to win...

Note to would-be directors of animated features: get your composer involved from the start. That was one of the key observations from The Contenders L.A. DreamWorks Animation panel Saturday, that featured filmmaking talent behind How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World and Abominable.

“I try to put get [composer] John [Powell] involved as early as possible, sending him scripts from the earliest drafts,” said Dean DeBlois, director of all three Dragon films including The Hidden World.

“This is our third installment of a trilogy so we have honed a partnership over a 10-year period in which I completely trust John and his instincts and know that he is a great storyteller in his own right,” DeBlois added. “He finds themes that I might not be as aware of as I’m writing on the surface and they play like harmonies to the intention that I try to put on screen.

Abominable has been frozen out of theaters in Vietnam.

The animated adventure from DreamWorks Animation and Shanghai-based Pearl Studios ran afoul of the Vietnamese government because of a map in the film illustrating China’s claims to a vast portion of the South China Sea, the BBC reported Monday.

The scene that touched off the controversy shows what’s known as China’s “nine dash line” in the background.

Journalist Mike Tatarski tweeted a picture of the scene.

'Abominable,' the animated movie produced by Dreamworks & Shanghai-based Pearl Studio, has been pulled from theaters in Vietnam after viewers noticed a map apparently depicting China's 9-dash line in the East Sea. (Screenshot & 'X' via Zing.) pic.twitter.com/S2OUR6xyu2

— Mike Tatarski (@miketatarski) October 14, 2019

China and Vietnam have been locked in a dispute over the sea, and tensions escalated in July when the Chinese conducted an energy survey in waters Vietnam claims.

Chicago – The changing view on yetis goes to show just how different my childhood was from kids growing up today. Back in my day, yeti’s were elusive creatures meant to be feared, much like Big Foot or Loch Ness. Films like “Smallfoot” and “Abominable” are paving the way towards acceptance were we ever to encounter a yeti, but the latter is more of a step back than forwards.

Rating: 2.5/2.5

It is impossible to completely dislike something that is so morally good and good-hearted. “Abominable” should be stomping into our hearts, but it feels more like it tip-toes past us. The story follows young Yi (Chloe Bennet) as she deals with the grief over the loss of her father by working constantly so that she can save enough money to take the trip they had been planning to take together. Her self-imposed isolation brings her in contact with an escaped...

Marking the first studio animated pic of the fall season, DreamWorks Animation's Abominable easily scaled the box office chart over the weekend with a winning $20.9 million from 4,242 theaters.

Abominable is from filmmaker Jill Culton, the first woman to be credited as the lead director and writer of an animated Hollywood studio pic (Todd Wilderman is credited as a co-director). It's also the first co-production between Dwa and China's Pearl Studios. The movie is set to open Tuesday in China. 

Elsewhere overseas, the family film earned $8.8 million from 30 markets for an early foreign ...

Marking the first studio animated pic of the fall season, DreamWorks Animation's Abominable easily scaled the box office chart over the weekend with a winning $20.9 million from 4,242 theaters.

Abominable is from filmmaker Jill Culton, the first woman to be credited as the lead director and writer of an animated Hollywood studio pic (Todd Wilderman is credited as a co-director). It's also the first co-production between Dwa and China's Pearl Studios. The movie is set to open Tuesday in China. 

Elsewhere overseas, the family film earned $8.8 million from 30 markets for an early foreign ...

“Abominable,” the animated family film from DreamWorks Animation and Pearl Studios, earned $650,000 in box office previews on Thursday from 2,950 screens. It opens on 4,242 screens this weekend.

“Abominable” is the sole new wide release this weekend and could contend for the number one movie in America depending on how “Downton Abbey” performs in its second weekend. Universal is handling domestic distribution, and both the studio and independent trackers are projecting an opening between $17-20 million for the film.

That would put it close to films like “The Lego Ninjago Movie,” which also opened to $20.4 million in Sept. 2017, and DreamWorks’ “Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie,” which made $23 million. Those films though skipped preview screenings. The previous DreamWorks release, this spring’s “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World,” raked in $3 million in Thursday previews behind a $55 million opening weekend.

Also Read: 'Abominable' Film Review: Familiarity Doesn't Stop the...

DreamWorks Animation's Abominable hopes to freeze out the competition at the box office this weekend with a domestic start in the $17 million-$20 million range.

The 3D family pic goes up against holdover Downton Abbey, which opened to a far-better-than-expected $31 million last weekend. If it falls 50 percent in its sophomore outing, Downton Abbey would earn $15 million to $16 million. (Universal, home to both films, wins either way.)

Abominable is from filmmaker Jill Culton, the first woman to be credited as the lead director and writer of an animated Hollywood studio pic (Todd Wilderman is credited as a co-director). It's also the ...

DreamWorks Animation's Abominable hopes to freeze out the competition at the weekend box office with a domestic start in the $17 million to $20 million range.

The 3D family pic goes up against holdover Downton Abbey, which opened to a far better-than-expected $31 million last weekend. If it falls 50 percent in its sophomore outing, Downton would earn $15 million to $16 million. (Universal, home of both films, wins either way.)

Abominable is from filmmaker Jill Culton, the first woman to be credited as the lead director and writer of an animated Hollywood studio pic (Todd Wilderman is credited as a co-director). It's ...

DreamWorks Animation’s “Abominable” is a fantasy about a city girl and two cousins helping a Yeti travel across China to its Mount Everest home, but creating the film’s look with virtual lighting and production design required as much attention to detail as any live-action feature.

Proprietary software allowed head of lighting Michael Necci and his team to arrange their lights on a virtual soundstage around the final on-screen image. The team was free to make minute adjustments as if they were in the rafters of a real stage, seeing the results in real time. “Looking at what our lights are doing in scenes mimics what happens on a live-action stage,” Necci says, “but we don’t have the limitations of having to position C-stands.”

Written and directed by Jill Culton, with co-director Todd Wilderman, “Abominable” is a co-production with China-based Pearl Studios, formerly Oriental DreamWorks, and opens in theaters Sept.

Gala screenings include ‘The Lighthouse’ and ‘The King’.

Robert Eggers’ The Lighthouse, Pablo Larrain’s Ema, Tom Harper’s The Aeronauts and David Michod’s The King will all be showcased as gala screenings at this year’s BFI London Film Festival (October 2-13).

The full programme has been announced today. Scroll down for the list.

Lff artistic director Tricia Tuttle talks new festival hub, ticket prices and venue challenges

Further galas include Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story, Mirrah Foulkes’ Judy And Punch, Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles’ Bacurau, and Marielle Heller’s A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood,...

Annecy — “·Hello, I’m Margie Cohn, and I am president of DreamWorks….”

By that time, as she walked onto the stage at Annecy on Tuesday for a DreamWorks Animation presentation of upcoming titles, Dwa president Cohn’s self introduction had been drowned by a barrage of applause and yelps of approbation.

It’s hard to underestimate the goodwill that Universal’s DreamWorks Animation has built up over the years at Annecy, first by creating a studio as an alternative to Disney, and most recently by one of its crowning achievements, the “How to Train Your Dragon” movie trilogy, presented as works in progress at Annecy to reverent appreciation, and celebrated this year by a medley of special moments from the three movies and the presence on stage of director Dean Deblois.

That said, the two upcoming movies that Cohn and creatives previewed at Annecy – a full 25 minutes of “Abominable” and...

2nd Update, 5:18 Pm: Universal has moved the release date for The Hunt up by three weeks, from October 18 to September 27. Damon Lindelof-penned political thriller now will open against Stx’s Chadwick Boseman actioner 21 Bridges, The Universal/DreamWorks Animation feature Abominable, Entertainment Studios’ drama All Rise and an untitled Blumhouse film from Universal.

Updated, 11:12 Am: Universal has moved its Damon Lindelof-penned The Hunt from September 27 to October 18, swapping dates with an untitled Blumhouse horror pic. In its new slot, the political thriller will open against Disney’s Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, which just claimed that slot today. MGM’s The Addams Family also had been set for October 18, but the studio moved it up to October 11 today.

The Hunt had been set to battle Universal toon Abominable and Fox drama The Art of Racing in the Rain on September 27; those pics now will face the Blumhouse horror show instead.

Universal’s DreamWorks Animation has unveiled first-look images of “Marooned,” the latest title in its burgeoning short films program. The film is produced by Jeff Hermann, just attached to produce Tom McGrath’s “The Boss Baby 2.”

Directed by Andrew Erekson,“Marooned” world premieres on June 11 at France’s Annecy Intl. Animation Film Festival as part of a DreamWorks Animation feature presentation which has now been expanded, to offer a first look at “Trolls World Tour,” the sequel to “Trolls,” which earned $347 million worldwide.

Part of a muscular DreamWorks Animation Annecy presence, hosted by president Margie Cohn, the Dwa feature presentation will also showcase excerpts from “Abominable,” written and directed by Jill Culton, as previously announced.

Hermann and Erekson, a story artist on “How To Train Your Dragon,” will both attend the Annecy presentation. Billed as a stylized look at a not too distant future, “Marooned” turns on C-oR13, a...

Abominable Trailer Jill Culton and Todd Wilderman‘s Abominable (2019) movie trailer has been released and stars Chloe Bennet, Eddie Izzard, Sarah Paulson, Albert Tsai, and Tenzing Norgay Trainor. Plot Synopsis Abominable‘s plot synopsis: “DreamWorks Animation and Pearl Studio’s co-production Abominable takes audiences on an epic 2,000-mile adventure from the streets of Shanghai to the breathtaking Himalayan snowscapes. When [...]

Continue reading: Abominable (2019) Movie Trailer: Chloe Bennet & Her Friends Embark on Quest to Return a Yeti to Mount Everest...

must readPresentation features live performance by Jennifer Hudson from Cats and Yesterday star Himesh Patel.

Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham delivered the highlight of Universal’s CinemaCon presentation on Wednesday (3) when they took to the stage in Las Vegas to introduce a non-stop action-packed first trailer from Fast And Furious spin-off Hobbs & Shaw.

“Our goal was to build out the Fast And Furious franchise,” Johnson told the audience at Colosseum in Caesars Palace, Las Vegas. “We wanted to create something that was special, something that had our own tapestry, our own feel, or own energy but the bottom line was...

Update: DreamWorks’ Animation threequel How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World from series director Dean DeBlois will now open on Feb. 22 instead of March 1 next year. DeBlois has been touring clips of the movie at Tiff and will be at New York Comic-Con to show off elements to fans next weekend.

Dragon moves away from a very busy March 1 frame that includes MGM’s Dwayne Johnson pic Flirting With My Family, Lionsgate’s Tyler Perry’s A Madea Family Funeral and Chaos Walking, and Fox’s The Kid Who Would Be King. On Feb. 22, Dragon‘s new competition is just Paramount/Sk Global’s The Rhythm Section.

Meanwhile, DreamWorks’ live-action horror drama The Turning, originally dated for Feb. 22, is temporarily off the calendar for the time being.

Updated, April 17, 2018:: Universal Pictures said today that the third installment in DreamWorks Animation’s lucrative and toon Oscar-winning franchise now is...

In today’s film news roundup, Eddie Murphy’s “Dolemite Is My Name” and DreamWorks Animimation’s “Abominable” have rounded out their casts and veteran exec Gary Glushon joins F. Gary Gray’s production company.

Castings

Wesley Snipes, Craig Robinson, Mike Epps, Tituss Burgess and Da’Vine Joy Randolph have joined Eddie Murphy in the Netflix biopic “Dolemite Is My Name!”

Production started June 11 with Craig Brewer directing from a script by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski. Murphy is also producing with John Davis and John Fox. Michael Buegg is executive producing.

The project centers on the life of Rudy Ray Moore, who recorded the Dolemite comedy albums in the early 1970s and used the proceeds to finance the 1975 film “Dolemite,” in which he starred as a pimp and ghetto hero. Moore also starred as Dolemite in “The Human Tornado,” “The Monkey Hustle,” and “Petey Wheatstraw: The Devil’s Son-in-Law.

Shanghai-based Pearl Studio, formerly Oriental DreamWorks, is teaming up with Kung Fu Hustle and The Mermaid director Stephen Chow to develop an animated feature version of Chinese box office smash The Monkey King ‘for a worldwide audience’.

Chow’s involvement was announced today at animation festival Annecy in France and represents an exciting collaboration for Pearl, which previously co-produced Kung Fu Panda 3. Chow has not been set as director.

The animation update, adapted from the classic Monkey King legend about a monkey who gains supernatural powers, is being written by Ron Friedman and Steve Bencich, whose credits include Brother Bear and Chicken Little.

Multi-hyphenate Chow’s directing credits include The Mermaid and Journey To The West: Conquering The Demons, both of which shattered Middle Kingdom box office records, as well as action-comedy Kung Fu Hustle, which grossed more than $100M worldwide as well as BAFTA and Golden Globe noms.

“Stephen...

“Everest,” the co-production between Pearl Studio and DreamWorks Animation, has been retitled and will be released as “Abominable,” Variety has learned exclusively.

“Abominable” is currently in production and will be released by Universal Pictures worldwide beginning Sept. 27, 2019. In China, the film will be distributed by Pearl.

Jill Culton (“Open Season”) is serving as director with Todd Wilderman (“Trolls”) as co-director. Suzanne Buirgy (“Kung Fu Panda 2”) is the producer, while Tim Johnson (“Over the Hedge”) is executive producing.

Chloe Bennet stars in the lead role of Yi. Further details about the film will be revealed by Pearl Studio and DreamWorks during Pearl Studio’s studio focus session at the Annecy Film Festival next month, where director Culton will be speaking.

“Abominable” covers a 3,000-mile journey from the streets of Shanghai to the Himalayan snowscapes. When a mischievous group of friends encounter a young Yeti, they embark upon an epic quest...

Universal Pictures set a Sept. 27, 2019, release date for its action-thriller “The Hunt,” produced by Jason Blum for his Blumhouse Productions alongside Damon Lindelof for his White Rabbit shingle.

The studio won an auction last month for “The Hunt,” a spec script written by “Lost” and “The Leftovers” co-creator Lindelof and Nick Cuse. Craig Zobel (“Z for Zachariah”) has been set to direct. Lindelof, Cuse, and Zobel all previously collaborated on HBO’s “The Leftovers.”

Lindelof’s feature writing credits include Brad Pitt’s “World War Z” and “Prometheus.” Nick Cuse is the son of Carlton Cuse, who teamed with Lindelof on “Lost.” Nick Cuse began as a writer’s assistant on “The Leftovers” and later became a story editor and writer. Zobel directed several episodes of the show.

Universal is keeping the plot details under wraps. Blumhouse and Universal saw an impressive 2017 with “Split,” “Get Out,” and “Happy Death Day.

Oriental DreamWorks has elevated Peilin Chou to Chief Creative Officer, where she will be in charge of the animation studio’s overall creative direction and overseeing all of its animated feature films, the company announced Tuesday. In addition, Oriental DreamWorks unveiled several films on its slate in addition to the previously announced “Everest,” directed by Tim Johnson and Todd Wilderman and produced by Suzanne Buirgy. The other films, which are designed to appeal to the global market — with a particular focus on China — include: Also Read: Warner Bros in Talks to Acquire Universal's Stake in Oriental DreamWorks (Report) “Over the Moon,...

Brendon Connelly Mar 23, 2017

Since DreamWorks Animation got snapped up by Universal, it seems several films have been cancelled. So what's actually happening?

If we imagine that the acquisition of Pixar by Disney was some kind of seismic shift for the Emeryville animation house, then Dreamworks Animation, by comparison, must be living in the red-hot cradle of a hyperactive volcano.

Animated films take so long, from concept to production to release, that recent Dreamworks titles are making their eventual escape from a corporate context which bears little relation to where they were conceived.

The Croods is a particularly good example. It was, originally, going to be a stop-motion film produced at Aardman with a screenplay by John Cleese. Without it ever being cancelled outright, this project continued to evolve, as Dreamworks twisted and turned like a kaleidoscope around it, in to the final product. The plot was different. The characters were different.

We have the trailer for Sony Pictures Home Entertainment's "Open Season 2" featuring the voice talents of Mike Epps, Joel McHale, Jane Krakowski, Crispin Glover, Olivia Hacker, Cody Cameron, Sean Mullen, Steve Schirripa and Hans Tester. The DVD and Blu-ray premiere is on January 27th. Matthew O'Callaghan directed Will Ferrell starrer "Curious George" and "Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas." As far as co-director Todd Wilderman goes, this marks the directorial debut. Epps was recently seen in the comedy "Soul Men" alongside the recently passed Bernie Mac and Samuel L. Jackson.

We have the trailer for Sony Pictures Home Entertainment's "Open Season 2" featuring the voice talents of Mike Epps, Joel McHale, Jane Krakowski, Crispin Glover, Olivia Hacker, Cody Cameron, Sean Mullen, Steve Schirripa and Hans Tester. The DVD and Blu-ray premiere is on January 27th. Matthew O'Callaghan directed Will Ferrell starrer "Curious George" and "Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas." As far as co-director Todd Wilderman goes, this marks the directorial debut. Epps was recently seen in the comedy "Soul Men" alongside the recently passed Bernie Mac and Samuel L. Jackson.

  We have the trailer for Sony Pictures Home Entertainment's "Open Season 2" featuring the voice talents of Mike Epps, Joel McHale, Jane Krakowski, Crispin Glover, Olivia Hacker, Cody Cameron, Sean Mullen, Steve Schirripa and Hans Tester. The DVD and Blu-ray premiere is on January 27th. Matthew O'Callaghan directed Will Ferrell starrer "Curious George" and "Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas." As far as co-director Todd Wilderman goes, this marks the directorial debut. Epps was recently seen in the comedy "Soul Men" alongside the recently passed Bernie Mac and Samuel L. Jackson. Check out the gallery here! What's "Open Season 2" all about? Boog (Mike Epps) and Elliot (Joel McHale) are back for more crazy adventures! After falling head over hooves in love with Giselle (Jane Krakowski), Elliot's road to the altar takes a slight detour when Mr. Weenie (Cody Cameron) is kidnapped by a group of pampered pets determined to return him to his owners.

We have the trailer for Sony Pictures Home Entertainment's "Open Season 2" featuring the voice talents of Mike Epps, Joel McHale, Jane Krakowski, Crispin Glover, Olivia Hacker, Cody Cameron, Sean Mullen, Steve Schirripa and Hans Tester. The DVD and Blu-ray premiere is on January 27th. Matthew O'Callaghan directed Will Ferrell starrer "Curious George" and "Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas." As far as co-director Todd Wilderman goes, this marks the directorial debut. Epps was recently seen in the comedy "Soul Men" alongside the recently passed Bernie Mac and Samuel L. Jackson.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment sent us the latest movie trailer from the upcoming DVD release “Open Season 2″ by directors Matthew O’Callaghan and Todd Wilderman and starring Mike Epps, Joel McHale, Crispin Glover and Jane Krakowski. Synopsis: Boog (Mike Epps) and Elliot (Joel McHale) are back for more crazy adventures! After falling head over hooves in love with Giselle (Jane Krakowski), Elliot’s road to the altar takes a slight detour when Mr. Weenie (Cody Cameron) is kidnapped by a group of pampered pets determined to return him to his owners. Boog, Elliot, McSquizzy (Billy Connelly), Buddy and the rest of the woodland creatures launch a full-scale rescue mission for their sausage-shaped friend and soon find themselves in enemy camp: the world [...]...

Animation director Andy Jones has joined Sony Pictures Imageworks. Formerly an animation director at Digital Domain, where he oversaw animation on 20th Century Fox's I, Robot, Jones joined Imageworks for the opportunity to oversee 100 shots of a computer animated digital double of Superman on Warner Bros. Pictures' upcoming Superman Returns. Jones joins Imageworks' team of animation directors and supervisors that includes David Schaub, Spencer Cook, Sean Mullen, Troy Saliba, Pepe Valencia, and Todd Wilderman. Jones directed The Final Flight of the Osiris episode from The Animatrix series.