Paperman Director Lands At Paramount

The Oscar-winning director of Disney’s Paperman- John Kahrs– has turned up across the street at Paramount for his next project. Kahrs’ Oscar last year for the Disney animated short was the studios first win in that division in the since 1969’s It’s Tough To Be A Bird. His new project will be Shedd, a feature film with no release date yet set.

The story is based on an original idea from Paramount’s Film Group president Adam Goodman, and will be written by Tripper Clancy. Goodman heads the animation division at Paramount, which spun up in 2012 as the studio faced the end of its distribution pact for DreamWorks Animation. Rango was their first partnership, and their first full film with be 2015’s SpongeBob Squarepants. The studio also has Doug TenNapel’s Monster Zoo in the works, but no date is set for that film.

Kahrs surprised many people when he abruptly left Disney, just months after his Oscar win for Paperman. He had previously worked at Pixar on such films as A Bug’s Life, The Incredibles, and Ratatouille. After moving over to Disney, he animated on Bolt, Wreck-It Ralph and Frozen and was an animation supervisor on Tangled.

Meanwhile, Toonbox announced a date for a sequel to the newly-released The Nut Job. Look for The Nut Job 2 to hit theaters on January 15, 2016. No other information about the film is available at this time.