The L.A. Times has an interesting story up that Hollywood producers Brian Grazer and Ron Howard are stepping into the animated film business in hopes of taking advantage of the booming — and increasingly competitive — market for family movies.
From the site:
Grazer and Howard’s production company Imagine Entertainment has teamed with Australian animation firm Animal Logic to develop, produce and finance six movies during the next five years, they said. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Animal Logic, based in Sydney with offices in Vancouver and Los Angeles, is best known for doing the animation for hit films including Oscar-winner “Happy Feet†and “The Lego Movie,†both of which were released by Warner Bros.
The move comes amid animation’s continued dominance at the box office. Four of the top 10 movies last year were computer animated — “Finding Dory,†“The Secret Life of Pets,†“Zootopia†and “Sing.†The grown-up mid-budget movies Imagine has built its brand around face growing difficulties at the box office.
You can red the entire story here.
McKay (one of the exec producers of The Lego Movie) was recently hired to direct The Lego Batman Movie at Warner Bros. and also was the genius behind Robot Chicken. Lee is producing The Lego Batman Movie and also produced Warner Bros.’ groundbreaking animated The Lego Movie along with Dan Lin. That film broke box office records when it bowed last year to $69M for the studio; it has since grossed a whopping $468.7M 
worldwide. Cartoon Networks Studios will be involved in the production as will Pendleton Ward, the show’s creator who will have some involvement in writing and producing the feature version.
