Annapurna Animation Adds 'Nimona' Director To Leadership Team As They Take On 'Stray' Adaptation

Nick Bruno and producer Julie Zackary both come from Blue Sky, whose closure jeopardized the now-Netflix film

Annapurna Animation is diving headfirst into its next phase as a studio. Multiple projects are now in the works as they bolster their leadership. They have added Erica Pulcini as Creative Executive, Nimona director Nick Bruno and producer Julie Zackary, a former Blue Sky Studios Vice President of Production. will serve as Annapurna’s Head of Animation. Pulcini’s role has her helping curate, develop and refine the studio’s slate.

Zackary will oversee all aspects of production throughout Annapurna Animation’s division. Currently, the animation division plans to adapt video games from its sibling game branch of Annapurna, Annapurna Interactive. First on the list is Stray, based on the award-winning adventure game that was developed at at BlueTwelve Studio. The 2022 game has players as a stealthy cat who must journey through an underground city loaded with robots and mutant bacteria. The feline has a friendly drone known as B-12 by their side.

Bruno is already in charge of developing and directing an untitled original feature film, while actively developing several other original ideas for the studios. He was also the director of Blue Sky’s last film, Spies in Disguise after being head of animation on The Peanuts Movie, among other credits. In addition, Annapurna’s skies are extra blue as the defunct studio’s co-founder Chris Wedge, who directed Ice Age, Robots, and Epic, has his next project, Foo, in development there. "It's a not-perfect acronym for 'fish out of water,' and that's what the story is about," explains studio head and former Disney Animation executive Robert Baird. "It's about the first fish ever to climb out of the water and onto land. What you learn in this movie is that was the last thing in the world that that fish wanted to do. It's about his hilarious struggle to get back into the water, but to get back will require a lot of effort and a lot of change on this fish's part. That was the pitch that came out of Wedge's brain that we just loved."

Andrew Millstein, Annapurna Animation’s other head who shares a background with Baird, calls Wedge "one of the seminal creators in the world of computer-generated animation." He continues, "The DNA of Chris Wedge as an animator and as a comic storyteller exploring universal themes is absolutely infused in FOO." Baird believes the film finds him "getting back to [his] roots of directing Ice Age and the storytelling that surrounded that movie."

As much as Annapurna Animation may have Blue Sky Studios DNA, it’s not trying to be a replication, Millstein notes. "Blue Sky was very unique. It had decades of history. There was deep, connective cultural tissue in the organization that you just can't break. It's those kinds of relationships that we're going to build on." And it’s Nimona’s release that let it all happen.

Sources: Deadline, Entertainment Weekly