Apr 21, 2015

Doug Sweetland and Nick Stoller will co-direct The Stork for Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. has given the animated feature Storks, “a fresh and funny look at the fable behind storks,” a release date of September 23, 2016.

In a rare case of animation and live-action directing talent coming together, the film will be co-directed by Pixar alum Doug Sweetland and Apatow Productions regular Nicholas Stoller, from an original script by Stoller.

Stoller has previously directed such live-action fare as Neighbors, Get Him to the Greek, and Forgetting Sarah Marshall. He also co-wrote and executive produced the two recent Muppets movies, provided additional screenplay content for DreamWorks's Turbo, and is attached to write the screenplay for Fox's as-yet-untitled Tinker Bell live-action adventure/comedy film.

Sweetland wrote and directed the classic Warner Bros.-evoking Pixar short Presto, before which he worked as supervising animator at the studio. Sweetland was a key figure in the studio's animation department, having worked as an animator or supervising animator on Pixar's first seven features. More recently, Sweetland supervised the animation for Google's interactive short Windy Day.

Storks will feature the voices of Andy Samberg and Kelsey Grammer. Stoller will co-produce with Cars 2 co-director and Ratatouille producer Brad Lewis. Glenn Ficarra, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, John Requa, and Jared Stern are on board as executive producers.

Like The LEGO Movie, Storks is a project developed within Warners' in-house feature animation creative consortium. In 2013, the film was first announced as being in development.

Photo: Nicholas Stoller (left) and Doug Sweetland will co-direct “Storks.” (Stoller photo: S. Bukley/Shutterstock.com)