Paramount Animation Announces New Film Slate Through 2019

Deadline broke the news yesterday that the studio has unveiled a new slate of planned films. Dated all the way to 2019, the films are a relatively diverse bunch, both in genre and format. This is key for Paramount Animation as they contend with a wave of films from established giants and new faces alike.

The Little Prince was originally set to be released by Paramount Pictures under its Paramount Vantage imprint sometime this winter, but it will now be released under the Paramount Animation umbrella in the US on March 18, 2016. The film has already been released in theaters internationally to a largely positive reception (see Pablo’s review of the film here).

Monster Trucks, the live-action/CG-hybrid franchise starter, will release on January 13, 2017. This will be the third time that the film has changed its launch date. The reported reason for the latest shakeup is to give the marketing department enough time to build a strong campaign for the film. Given that the film is budgeted at $125 million, that may be a good strategy.

Sherlock Gnomes, the sequel to 2011’s Gnomeo and Juliet, will roll into theaters on January 12, 2018. The film will be a co-production between Paramount Animation and Metro Goldwyn-Meyer. John Stevenson (Kung Fu Panda) will direct the film while James McAvoy and Emily Blunt will reprise their roles from the first film, and Johnny Depp voices the titular role.

SpongeBob SquarePants 3 is the obvious one out of the set, given that sequel talks were already happeningearlier in the year. The film is set for release on February 8, 2019. Paul Tibbit (co-director of The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water) will return to direct the film, while the principal cast of actors from the show and the previous films are expected to return.

Amusement Park will be Paramount Animation’s first original animated feature and will arrive in theaters onMarch 22, 2019. Dylan Brown, former Pixar artist and supervising animator on Ratatouille and Finding Nemo, will direct the film. Its cast will feature the voice talents of Matthew Broderick, Jennifer Garner, Jeffrey Tambor, Kenan Thompson, Ken Jeong, Mila Kunis, John Oliver and Brianna Denski.