Jun 22, 2019

Ron Howard directs Paramount Animation's "Shrinking the Tree Horn"

After a 40-year career as a live-action director, Ron Howard, 65, is set to make his animation directorial debut with The Shrinking of Treehorn, an adaptation of the 1971 children's book by Florence Parry Heide.

The surreal story about a boy who starts shrinking was originally illustrated by Edward Gorey, and Howard is said to be following Gorey's aesthetic, even if the film will be made in cg. It will mark the first film in a partnership between Howard and Brian Grazer's Imagine Entertainment and the Australian animation studio Animal Logic (The Lego Movie franchise, Happy Feet). Imagine and Animal Logic initiated the partnership back in 2017.

“I've long had this passionate point of view that Ron Howard should make a tentpole animated movie. That's how this started,” Zareh Nalbandian, Animal Logic CEO, told Variety, which first reported the news. “It was serendipitous that Imagine was sort of evolving and growing, and Animal Logic was more and more committed to the development and production of our own intellectual property. We have a shared vision of what that space can be.”

Paramount Animation will release The Shrinking of Treehorn as part of its upcoming slate of animated features. Rob Lieber (Peter Rabbit, Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day) is handling script duties.

In addition to Treehorn, Imagine and Animal Logic have announced three additional animated and hybrid movies that the companies are developing jointly. Those are: