Fresh from completing Blazing Samurai, GFM Animation & Align have announced that production financing has closed on $26m animated family feature 10 Lives.
Read the full press announcement here:
Helmed by Chris Jenkins (Duck Duck Goose), working with House of Cool (Spies in Disguise, The Book of Life) and L’Atelier Animation (Ballerina, Fireheart), 10 Lives is the hilarious story of a pampered and selfish cat who takes for granted the lives he has been dealt, only to be miraculously granted a whole new set of lives, all in the hope that he will learn to be a better cat.
GFM Animation’s Head of Production, Sean Feeney, commented ‘We are very excited to be working once again with Align, who were a great support on Blazing Samurai. We are also working with two of the best studios in the animation space – House of Cool in Toronto, before L’Atelier Animation in Montreal commence CG animation.’
Align’s SVP of production, Martin Metz, added ‘we immediately fell in love with the script and are excited to help Chris Jenkins bring such a fun and heartfelt story to life. We’re incredibly lucky to be working with such an experienced team of creatives and producers who have all brought so much to the table.’
GFM Animation & 10 Lives Productions Ltd acquired the rights to the feature from leading Chinese animation and Visual FX studio Original Force, who remain a key financial partner in the film and control Chinese distribution rights. The film’s creative team are working to a shooting script completed in collaboration with Jenkins and Penney Cox (Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs), animation consultant to GFM Animation. Guy Collins and Sean Feeney are producing, alongside Yann Zenou of Quad, Valérie d’Auteuil and André Rouleau of Caramel Films, Louis-Philippe Vermette of The Happy Producers, Penney Finkelman Cox, and Adrian Politowski and Martin Metz of Align.
Worldwide sales are being handled by the team at GFM Animation.
Financial closing was overseen by Hannah Leader as attorney for 10 Lives Productions and GFM Animation, and Nessa McGill & Martin Metz for Align. Further funding was secured via Mipa, Caramel and L’Atelier through the National Bank of Canada and local investment. Media Guarantors are acting as the completion guarantor on the film.
Photo (c) GFM Animation