January 27th – DreamWorks Animation has always assembled all-star casts for their CGI animated movies, and their upcoming film Rise of the Guardians is no exception.
Based on writer/illustrator William Joyce's upcoming children's novel The Guardians of Childhood, the movie will feature Jude Law (Repo Men), Alec Baldwin, Hugh Jackman (X-Men Origins: Wolverine), Isla Fisher and Chris Pine (Unstoppable) as the main characters. Law will voice the villainous Pitch – a mythical character akin to the Boogeyman – while the others will portray the heroic childhood (and public domain) figures opposing his evil scheme. Guillermo Del Toro is the movie's executive producer while Peter Ramsey (head of story for Monsters vs. Aliens) will direct the film with Joyce's help.
Hugh Jackman, Isla Fisher, Jude Law Star in DreamWorks Animation's Rise of the Guardians
Here's the synopsis according to DreamWorks Animation: "When an evil spirit called Pitch (Law) becomes bent upon taking over the world by inspiring fear in the hearts of kids everywhere, a group of our greatest heroes—Santa (Baldwin), the Easter Bunny (Jackman), the Tooth Fairy (Fisher), the Sandman and Jack Frost (Chris Pine) —band together for the first time, determined to stand in Pitch’s way. More than a collection of storybook subjects, “The Guardians” are also a band of superheroes, who possess their own special powers. Now joined in opposition of a common foe, the Guardians heed the call and combine their powers to defeat Pitch and protect the world from his campaign of fear."
Not surprisingly, Joyce's book is the first in a proposed series, which means the sequel-happy DreamWorks Animation will have plenty of material should the studio's bean counters green-light a sequel to this film. William Joyce is best known as a concept artist who worked on Pixar's original Toy Story, but he also wrote A Day With Wilbur Robinson in 1990. That book eventually became the 2006 Disney animated film Meet the Robinsons.
Joyce has been kicking The Guardians of Childhood around for a few years in various media: in 1996, he was chatting with Fox about turning it into a television series. Another iteration of the film would have seen Leonardo DiCaprio (Inception) voicing the role of Jack Frost.
The first book in the series will be released later this year and Rise of the Guardians is tentatively scheduled for a November 2, 2012 release. That date was chosen to avoid potential conflicts with both Disney/Pixar's Monsters Inc. 2 and Summit/E1's Twilight: Breaking Dawn.
Dominic von Riedemann - Dominic is the Animated Film Feature Writer, and winner of 11 Suite 101 Editors' Choice Awards.
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