Apr 18, 2018

Sony Pictures Animation releases "Wish Dragon"

Sony Pictures Animation (SPA) has jumped aboard the Chinese/American co-production Wish Dragon, set for 2019 release in China, followed by U.S. and international releases.

The cg project, a genie-in-a-bottle retelling set in contemporary China, is based on an original story and directed by Chris Appelhans, who has worked as a visdev artist on films like Monster House, Coraline, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and Puss in Boots.

China's Base Animation, a subsidiary of vfx vendor Base FX, is producing the film in partnership with Jackie Chan's Sparkle Roll Media.

The U.S. voice cast includes Chan, as well as Constance Wu, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Will Yun Lee, Nico Santos, Jimmy Wong, and Bobby Lee. John Cho and Jimmy O. Yang are also in negotiations to provide voices.

Aron Warner (Shrek, The Book of Life) is producing with Base FX CEO/founder Chris Bremble. Executive producer is Ian Sugarman.

While Sony Pictures Animation has traditionally released films that it has developed in-house, it's not unprecedented for the label to release a film like Wish Dragon, which it didn't produce.

Earlier this year, Sony Pictures Animation released Peter Rabbit, a third-party film that proved to be a big success, grossing almost $300 million worldwide to date on a $50 million budget.

Deadline first reported the news.