Netflix is continuing its animated trail! The streaming giant has ordered the Kilkenny-based animation house, Cartoon Saloon, to produce a new animated feature titled, My Father’s Dragon.
Nora Twomey, who received an Oscar nomination earlier this year for Cartoon Saloon’s The Breadwinner, has been roped in to direct the adaptation of Ruth Stiles Gannett’s much-admired children’s novel of the same name.
“To have the kind of creative encouragement Netflix are providing is an incredible opportunity for our film-making team. We are all so excited to bind our skills together and begin My Father’s Dragon,” Twomey said.
First published in 1948, My Father’s Dragon revolves around a young boy who attempts to rescue a dragon from the remote Wild Island. It is the first book of a trilogy whose other titles are Elmer and the Dragon and The Dragons of Blueland.
With an unusual narrative mode, My Father’s Dragon has remained a favourite of American educators ever since. While the other two books are narrated in third person, it has a first person narrative, making it stand out in the trilogy.
Oscar-nominated for Pixar’s Inside Out, Meg LeFauve will be penning the screenplay. Alan Moloney and Ruth Coady of Parallel Films will co-produce with Cartoon Saloon.
The news was included in Netflix’s announcement of six new animated releases. Among the prominent projects in the studio’s current slate is Guillermo del Toro’s much-anticipated take on Pinocchio.
Apart from these, Netflix also announced Maya and the Three, a fantasy directed by Jorge Gutierrez; Go! Go! Cory Carson, a pre-school series from Kuku Studios in California.
Netflix in-charge of children and family programming Melissa Cobb told Variety, “We’re trying to take the Netflix philosophy of empowering creators and bring that into the animation space. We’re not focused on creating a singular brand identity. We want to produce a broad range of content that appeals to kids and families all over the world.”
My Father’s Dragon is slated to release in 2021 on Netflix.
