Despite making a costly flop in City of Ember, Gil Kenan has avoided director jail. Of course he’s been thrown from live action right back to the animated world, where he got his start with Monster House.
Kenan’s next project will be the motion capture epic Airman, based on a novel by Eoin Colfer. Variety tells me that Airman ‘centers on Connor, a boy who lives on an island off
the coast of Ireland, where his father is the king’s bodyguard. When
the king is murdered, Conor is blamed for the crime and thrown into
prison where he passes the solitary months designing a flying machine
that he will use to save his family.’
The book is being adapted by Ann Peacock, who wrote The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. Robert Zemeckis, evil king of all mocap, is producing with his Image Movers. And Disney is shelling out a whopping $150 million for the whole thing. I thought mocap was supposed to make movies cheaper, man.