Feb 22, 2018

"Tangled" director Nathan Gruno leaves Disney for Sky Dance Media

Skydance Media, the film financing/production company started by David Ellison, son of billionaire Larry Ellison and brother of Annapurna Pictures' Megan Ellison, continues its aggressive push into feature animation.

Previously, Skydance has cherry-picked key Dreamworks talent and management. Today the company announced another major talent acquisition: Tangled director Nathan Greno.

Greno joins Skydance under a multi-year deal, where he is set to create and direct the original animated feature Powerless (working title).

“We are so honored Nathan Greno decided to join the Skydance family and share his impressive talents with our new and growing animation studio,” said Bill Damaschke , president of animation and family entertainment . “Nathan is well established in the animation community and we are fortunate to be able to add this prolific filmmaker to our team of talented storytellers. In addition to creating his own project for Skydance, Nathan will lend his expertise providing guidance on projects in our development pipeline.”

The studio's other previously reported projects are Alessandro Carloni's Luck (slated March 19, 2021) and Vicky Jenson's Split. They are being animated in Spain at Madrid's Ilion Animation Studios (Planet 51, Paramount's upcoming Amusement Park).

“I'm ecstatic to be joining the burgeoning team of Skydance Media's Animation studio,” said Greno. “From my first meeting with David [Ellison], Dana [Goldberg, chief creative officer], and Bill, I knew Skydance was the creative home I'd been searching for. I feel very much in step with David's vision of what an animation studio should be.”

Greno, who is repped by Verve and attorney Rob Szymanski, spent two decades working at Disney. Besides co-directing Tangled with Byron Howard, he was a creative advisor on Big Hero 6, head of story on Bolt, and directed the shorts Super Rhino and Tangled Ever After. He had been the director of Gigantic, a project that Disney announced last fall that it was putting on hold.

Greno's departure from Walt Disney Animation marks the latest high-profile exit from the studio in recent years. Others who have left include directors Leo Matsuda (Inner Workings), John Kahrs (Paperman), and Patrick Osborne (Feast), as well as Tangled animation supervisor Clay Kaytis, Frozen head of animation Lino DiSalvo, and Moana head of animation Hyrum Osmond.