Focus Features and Laika, the companies behind the Academy Award nominated stop-motion animated feature “Coraline”, are re-teaming for Laika’s next two projects, “ParaNorman”, and one yet-to-be named project.
Like with “Coraline”, Focus Features will hold worldwide distribution rights to the movies, and Universal Pictures International will release them overseas, according to the press release.
“ParaNorman”, which is currently in production, is being directed by Sam Fell and Chris Butler, from Butler’s original screenplay. The official synopsis is as follows:
In the comedy thriller, a small town comes under siege by zombies. Who can it call? Only misunderstood local boy Norman (voiced by [Kodi Smit-McPhee, “Let Me In”]), who is able to speak with the dead. In addition to the zombies, he’ll have to take on ghosts, witches and, worst of all, moronic grown-ups, to save his town from a centuries-old curse. But this young ghoul whisperer may find his paranormal activities pushed to their otherworldly limits.
The rest of the cast of “ParaNorman” includes Academy Award nominee Casey Affleck (“The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford”), Tempestt Bledsoe (“The Cosby Show”), Jeff Garlin (“Toy Story 3”), John Goodman (“Monsters, Inc.”), Bernard Hill (“Titanic”), Academy Award nominee Anna Kendrick (“Up in the Air”), Leslie Mann (“Rio”), Christopher Mintz-Plasse (“How to Train Your Dragon”), and Tony and Emmy Award winner Elaine Stritch (“30 Rock”).