The creative talent at Pixar seems to be fair game, and who can blame other outfits for going after them? Sony Pictures Animation has signed David Reynolds, the Oscar-nominated co-writer of Finding Nemo, to flesh out a story by Stephan Franck. Franck was a supervising animator on The Iron Giant and most recently served as story artist on the acclaimed How to Train Your Dragon. This is the first of four upcoming projects between Gotham Pictures and Sony.

Hit the jump for more on the untitled project.

Continuing the steady growth throughout his career, Franck will finally sit in the director’s chair for this upcoming film. While Reynolds is best known for co-writing Nemo, he was given singular credit for the screenplay of The Emperor’s New Groove, so this won’t be foreign territory. Gotham signed a four picture, first-look deal with Sony in 2009, and this is the first announced project that was born from that partnership.

Heat Vision reports Gotham Group’s Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Peter McHugh, and Eric Robinson will executive produce alongside Academy Award winner Karen Dufilho-Rosen. Dufilho-Rosen furthers the Pixar flavor, as she produced the shorts Geri’s Game and For The Birds at Pixar. While the plot details are being kept secret, the nature of this partnership assures us that it will be widely covered when any detail is revealed.

Do you think this film has the backing to become more than the dime a dozen animated films and float to the top? Sound off in the comments below.