FEATURE
these kinds of films. But in the meantime, the amount of money available for the fi lm industry is no higher.” The UK was boosted recently by the announce-
ment that tax relief for high-end TV, video games and animation would be introduced from 2013. David Sproxton, co-founder and executive chair-
man of Bristol-based Aardman Animations, hopes the new credit will resemble the existing fi lm tax relief, which Aardman has utilised for its features, but which does not currently extend to TV anima- tion despite the big budgets involved. “The num- bers are about right, the caveats work, producers understand it, Europe understands it, the taxman understands it… It’s a pretty clear and clean sys- tem,” he says. Co-producing remains vital in Europe and unlike
live-action shooting, animation work can be divided between territories. There is also a growing interest in co-producing with partners from other parts of the world. Meledandri’s Universal-backed Illumination was
attracted to France because of the territory’s anima- tion talent and splits production work between its Paris base at Illumination Mac Guff — where CG and other work is done — and its Los Angeles base and elsewhere. The company is in production on Despicable Me 2 for a July 2013 release. Europe is increasingly a producer of ambitious,
commercial family fare. The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists — made by the UK’s Aardman Ani- mations, which has a rolling development and pro- duction deal with Sony Pictures Animation — has taken more than $23m in the UK and opened in the US on April 27 to $11.1m), while Aardman’s Arthur Christmas took more than $147m worldwide. A Monster In Paris, produced by France’s EuropaCorp, has taken almost $25m (more than $15m of that fi g- ure in France), while Illumination Entertainment has scored hits with Despicable Me and Dr Seuss’ The Lorax (which has taken more than $209m to date in the US, and $94.1m internationally to May 13). Another recent hit was Gnomeo & Juliet, produced by the UK’s Rocket Pictures, which took $194m worldwide. For European projects, matching the kind of lengthy story development process that can go into
The Annecy International Animation Film Festival (June 4-9), has played a major role in the development of the European animation sector since its fi rst edition in 1960, providing a meeting place for both creatives and executives. “The only way in Europe is to fi nd
partners, to co-produce and to make [projects] in different countries to make it less expensive,” says Tiziana Loschi, managing director of Annecy and parent company Citia. “Annecy is the only place where all the people come, both the artistic side and the business side.” The 2012 offi cial selection includes
49 shorts and 10 features: Wrinkles (Spain); Children Who Chase Lost Voices From Deep Below (Japan); Crulic — The Path To Beyond (Romania-Poland); Zarafa (France-Belgium); Le Tableau (Belgium-France); Asura (Japan); The Dearest (South Korea); Approved For Adoption (France-Belgium); Tad, The
Lost Explorer (Spain); and Ronal The Barbarian (Denmark). The festival opens with Patrice
Leconte’s The Suicide Shop — which was presented as a Work In Progress at Annecy in 2010 — with other out- of-competition feature screenings including Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted, The Day Of The Crows and Dr Seuss’ The Lorax. There will be a focus on Ireland, while
Work In Progress sessions will feature Genndy Tartakovsky’s Hotel Transylvania and Raul Garcia’s Extraordinary Tales. Annecy’s market, MIFA (June
6-8), is set to match or better 2011’s record-breaking attendance of 2,300 delegates. Europe’s animation talent attracts US and European companies to recruit during MIFA’s Creative Focus, while there will be pavilions dedicated to companies from Taiwan and Russia. MIFA will also host delegations from Brazil and South Africa.
‘The thing the American studios will pay for is a lot of time spent on
development’ David Sproxton, Aardman Animations
Gnomeo & Juliet
very high-end animation can be a challenge. “The thing the American studios will pay for is a lot of time spent on development,” says Aardman’s Sprox- ton. While a typical feature story reel might have 6,000-8,000 frames, Aardman drew around 25,000 storyboard frames for Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit, and about 50,000 for Pirates. “Every scene is redone and redone and redone to get the story right, get it to play better, get it to be fun- nier,” Sproxton explains. “There is a huge amount of rewriting done the whole time and that’s what takes the time.”
Creating quality Some European producers utilise studio methods but are savvy about the cost. Producer Steve Hamil- ton-Shaw of Rocket Pictures, which produced Gnomeo & Juliet on a budget of $80m-$100m, says: “What we did with Gnomeo is something in the mid- dle, where you take the Disney/DreamWorks model of production and shrink it a bit in terms of schedule and make certain effi ciencies within it in order to create a piece of work of the same story quality as you would get in extremely high-end animation pro-
SPOTLIGHT ON ANNECY INTERNATIONAL ANIMATION FILM FESTIVAL
duction. But you’re a little bit more aggressive about how you’re approaching it from a production and decision-making point of view so that it fi ts into a smaller number.” Rocket is developing a number of animated fea-
tures aimed at the family market, including Gnomeo & Juliet sequel G&J 2: Sherlock Gnomes, being writ- ten by Andy Riley and Kevin Cecil; an adaptation of the fi rst in Michael Buckley’s N.E.R.D.S. series of books, which the author is adapting; and an adap- tation of The Pig Who Saved The World by Paul Ship- ton, being scripted by Geoff Deane. Other family films in the works include such
projects as Postman Pat: The Movie, a 3D CG feature adaptation of the UK children’s TV series produced by Rubicon Group Holding (RGH) Entertainment and Classic Media. The fi lm is being sold by Time- less Films, which is also handling Justin And The Knights Of Valour, a 3D CG animation produced by Kandor Graphics in Spain. Other forthcoming titles include Ernest And Celestine, which features in Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes and screens at Annecy; and EuropaCorp’s The Boy With The Cuckoo-Clock Heart.
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Children Who Chase Lost Voices From Deep Below
■ 48 Screen International at Cannes May 20, 2012
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