To support the company's expansion to Hollywood, Original Force has appointed two of the industry's most respected animation production veterans Sandra Rabins and Penney Finkelman Cox as co-presidents and opened a new production office in Culver City. Rabins and Finkelman Cox were instrumental in the launch of DreamWorks’ and Sony Pictures Animation’s animation branches.
While this is Original Force’s first foray into producing their own features, the studio is hardly a newcomer to the animation world. Founded in 1999 by Harley Zhao, Original Force has become a CGI leader creating high-quality state-of-the-art animation and currently employs over 1,000 people at its offices in Beijing, Nanjing, Shanghai, and Chengdu. Original Force made its first foray into Hollywood as the lead animation studio for DreamWorks Animation’s Dragons: Riders of Berk, a television spinoff of DWA’s 2011 Academy Award-nominated feature How to Train Your Dragon. The studio also does a lot of video game work, and has created in-game animation and effects for titles including Grand Theft Auto V, Need for Speed: The Run, League of Legends, and The Sims 3.
One of the most accomplished and successful executive teams in the industry, Rabins and Finkelman Cox have overseen such beloved animated films as Shrek, Prince of Egypt, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Open Season, and Surf’s Up, among others. At Original Force, they have already tapped an accomplished team of veteran artists, writers and filmmakers for their inaugural slate.
First out of the gate, the studio is currently in production on Duck Duck Goose. The film will be directed by Chris Jenkins, who produced DreamWorks Animation’s recent hit feature Home and prior to that had worked as an effects animator at Disney in the 1980s and ’90s. Jenkins wrote the script with Rob Muir (Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue). Finkelman Cox and Rabins are producing the feature along with Viola Chen.
After he’s grounded by an injury, a high-flying bachelor is saddled with two wide-eyed orphans as they come face-to-face with the dangers and beauty of the outside world in the funny and touching animated feature, Duck Duck Goose. Our free-wheeling hero, Peng, rejects the community of his tight-knit flock of geese in an attempt to live life on his own terms. But after he narrowly rescues two young ducklings, Chi and Chao, from an eccentric but deadly cat named Banzou, the two latch onto the Goose like a surrogate father; and with a paralyzing winter on the horizon and the departure of both their flocks, Peng agrees to look after the ducklings out of fear his injury might be discovered by Banzou, and other predators who would prey on a goose who cannot fly. The makeshift trio embarks on a beautiful and dangerous journey through mountains and lakes, bamboo forests, marble caves and deep river valleys to get back to their respective flocks. On the way, Peng must learn to care for the two ducklings despite his independent attitude, all the while evading the hungry and relentless Pallas Cat, who’ll stop at nothing to claim the ducklings he feels entitled to. Peng’s biggest challenge is learning to shed his selfish ways and become the responsible “parent” no one ever thought he could be, including himself.
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| Key Original Force Animation staff (l. to r.): Sandra Rabins, Bob Bendetson, Harley Zhao, Chris Jenkins, John Eng and Penney Finkelman Cox |
“Harley has organically grown his business from a small start-up of four to a thriving world-class animation services and production facility that is operating in five cities with a talented team that is nearly 1,000 strong,” said Rabins. “After years of successfully working as a studio-for-hire, Original Force is creating its own content and global IP and we believe we have an inaugural slate that will resonate all over the world.”
Original Force has also announced being in the early stages of development and pre-production on two other features, with the goal of releasing one CG-animated feature approximately every 18 months. OldZilla is directed by Bob Bendetson (a producer on ALF, Home Improvement, and The Simpsons) and co-written with veteran TV sitcom writer Art Everett (Married… With Children). A parody of kaiju and assorted vintage monster movie cliches, the film is about an aging monster who attempts to rally other monsters at a retirement home to terrorize Atlantic City one final time. (The film includes a real estate developer named Ronald Rump…get it?)
King Saurus, the self-proclaimed “Lord of the Stomp,” is unwilling to admit Father Time is nipping at his heels. He wears a scale toupee and spends his days watching newsreel footage of his past destructions. Finally, he leaves his cave and moves into Fading Fast (a senior community in the Bermuda Triangle built exclusively for the “vintage” Chinese monster). The place is run by Miss Petfarkin, a monster who’s obsessed with order and rules. King Saurus is stunned by the listlessness of his fellow behemoths and attempts to liven things up. He ultimately convinces Icarose and Birdy, an old married monster couple, to travel with him to Atlantic City to interrupt the grand opening of Rump Mart, the mega-store of mega-stores. This one last attempt at terrorizing ends up biting these senior citizen behemoths in the butt when Ronald Rump, the tyrannical owner of Rump Mart, brings in King Saurus’ old nemesis, the elderly Chinese monster hunter, Dai Anu. Anu, along with his daughter and granddaughter, arrives in America in order to battle and finally defeat the Lord of the Stomp. The film is produced by Finkelman Cox and Rabins.
QQ Speed, a co-production project with Tencent Holding Limited, based on a popular Chinese online racing game of the same name, will be directed by John Eng (co-director of Rugrats Go Wild); the thrilling action-adventure motion picture concerns a brother-and-sister racing team who risk everything to protect a family legacy.
After legendary racer John Speedman dies during the high-stakes Super Speed Cup 500 race, his son Matt raises his younger sister, Orange, and keeps the doors of famous Speedman garage open. Fourteen years later, Orange has grown into a willful 19-year-old with her father’s passion for fast cars. With the business in trouble, foreclosure seems inevitable until Orange decides to enter the Super Speed Cup 500 and vie for enough cash that would solve their financial woes. At the wheel of her father’s prototype car, Orange is guided by an experimental computer that speaks with John’s voice, personality and racing experience, giving the young woman her first chance to bond with the father she barely knew. But in order to win, she will have to defeat not just the other drivers, but her father’s old rival, Munikula and his son Tristan.
In addition to the three in active production, other films announced in active development include Where The Mountain Meets The Moon based on the Newberry Honor Book by Grace Lin; and Riding Giants, to be adapted by Greg Johnson from his original manuscript.
Original Force is also animating the upcoming Ratchet & Clank feature, a co-production with CNHK, Rainmaker Studios and Blockade - based on the popular Sony Playstation sci-fi/adventure game, in production. Ratchet and his robot pal Clank go back to their roots in this fun and action-filled origin story about the two unlikeliest heroes in the Solana Galaxy. When the pair discovers a nefarious plot to destroy every planet in the galaxy, they enlist a team of colorful warriors known as The Galactic Rangers to stop the evil Chairman Drek from carrying out his deadly plot. Along the way, they learn the value of true friendship, what it really means to be a hero and the importance of knowing yourself. Paul Giamatti, John Goodman, Rosario Dawson, Sylvester Stallone, Bella Thorne, James Arnold Taylor, David Kaye and Jim Ward are doing voices.
Marketing expert Peter Adee, formerly president of marketing at Universal and MGM, is consulting with Original Force on the launch of their initial releases.
There is a growing trend for Chinese studios to bring aboard Americans as producers and directors. Mandoo Pictures’ upcoming Rock Dog also boasts an American director, Toy Story 2 and Surf’s Up co-director Ash Brannon.
The Chinese feature animation industry business is rapidly booming over the last few years and the country now produces more animated features than the United States — in 2013 Chinese animated films totted up about $250 million, which doubled to about $500 million last year and is expected to reach $900 million this year. 2015 has so far seen the unprecedented success of Tian Xiaopeng’s CG family film Monkey King: Hero is Back, which went on to become the highest-grossing animated feature in Chinese box office history, surpassing every American animated movie ever released in China. Produced by Zhejiang HG Entertainment, the flick has grossed $139 million so far, which is over 50% more than the now No. 2 toon, Kung Fu Panda 2.
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