Though DreamWorks Animation’s Trolls movie was first announced a couple of years ago, we now have some solid information regarding the animated pic. DreamWorks Animation announced today that Sky High and Shrek Forever After director Mike Mitchell will helm the film, with screenwriter Erica Rivinoja (South Park, Up All Night) handling the screenplay.
The film features the titular dolls that became a phenomenon in the 1960s and again in the 1990s, and is described as “a grand scale musical comedy centering around how the Trolls came into their vibrant and colorful hair.” An origin story of hair isn’t exactly what I expected when I pictured a Trolls movie, but maybe the slightly ridiculous premise is right in line with the peculiar choice of making a Trolls movie in the first place. Hit the jump for more, including the full press release.
Gina Shay (Shrek Forever After) is onboard as the producer of Trolls, and Mitchell has quite a bit of directing experience in the world of both animation and live-action. In addition to Sky High and Shrek 4, the filmmaker’s credits also include Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo and Surviving Christmas, while Rivinoja was also a staff writer on the excellent but short-lived TV series Clone High. A previous iteration of a project called Trolls was set up at DreamWorks Animation with an entirely different creative team and Chloe Grace Moretz onboard as the lead voice actress, but it’s unknown if that project is continuing under a different name or if Mitchell is taking over the film with an entirely new creative direction.
Read the full press release below. Trolls will open on November 4, 2016.
Glendale, CA – June 28, 2013– Acclaimed comedy director Mike Mitchell and Emmy Award winning writer Erica Rivinoja are tackling something notoriously small for their next big screen project – the iconic troll dolls (which stand at about two inches tall). DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc. (Nasdaq: DWA), which recently announced the acquisition of the Trolls franchise, has tasked Mitchell and Rivinoja with reimagining the Trolls universe on the big screen. Mitchell, currently directing the live action sequences in The Spongebob Squarepants Movie 2 has garnered a fan base among family audiences for hits such as Shrek Forever After, Sky Highand Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked, and has a proven track record taking legendary characters on new adventures. Rivinoja has been lauded for her work on comedies including South Park and Up All Night. Under the direction of this new creative team Trolls will be distributed by Twentieth Century Fox on November 4, 2016.
“Mike and Erica are the perfect team to reimagine this film,” said Chief Creative Officer Bill Damaschke. “Mike’s pedigree in shaping stories with already beloved characters is second to none, and Erica’s amazing sense of comedy will introduce the Trolls to a new generation of fans while keeping the spirit and appeal audiences have loved for years.”
The film, which will be a grand scale musical comedy centering around how the Trolls came into their vibrant and colorful hair, will be produced by Gina Shay (Shrek Forever After).
The Troll doll phenomenon was born in 1959 when Danish fisherman and woodcutter Thomas Dam, too poor to afford a Christmas present for his young daughter Lajla, carved a doll for her based on the legendary Scandinavian troll. This modern-day Geppetto couldn’t have imagined that the Troll dolls would soon become one of the biggest toy crazes of the 1960s. The Trolls experienced a resurgence in the 1990s and their uniquely endearing faces and shocks of colorful hair continue to capture the hearts and imaginations of fans around the world.