Toonz teams up with US firms to produce film on Santa Claus

Thiruvananthapuram, Nov 12 (IANS) City-based Toonz Entertainment Ltd will tie up with the US-based animation majors Gang of 7 Animation and Hyde Park Entertainment to produce a computer graphic imagery (CGI) animated feature film, 'The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus', he company announced Wednesday.

Based on the classic book by L. Frank Baum, the creator of 'The Wizard of Oz', the movie would chronicle the life of Santa Claus.

The film will be directed by Tom Tataranowicz, Rich Arons and Dick Sebast, who have supervised Disney, Marvel and Hanna Barbera features, a Toonz statement said here.

A supporting team of artists, who have worked on pictures like 'Finding Nemo', 'The Lion King' and 'Iron Giant', will also work for the Santa Claus movie.

The project is currently in pre-production stage, with production set to commence in November at the Toonz Animation Studio here in the Technopark campus.

The movie is expected to be released for Christmas 2010. Hyde Park will distribute it internationally and share North American rights with G7 Animation.

'This is our first CGI theatrical feature and it's a great moment for us. We at Toonz look forward to this challenging opportunity which would test our creative talents, and anticipate an exciting and quality production,' Toonz group chief executive P. Jayakumar said in the statement.

'Amazingly enough, this is the first time an original story, explaining Santa Claus and all the Christmas traditions, has ever come to the screen. We are very pleased to bring this exciting fantasy to life,' G7 Animation head Tom Tataranowicz said.

Toonz Animation offers its world-wide clientele end-to-end animation services, including 3D animation, 2D animation (digital and traditional), Flash, Stop Motion and VFX on a full spectrum of media platforms.