Urban Distribution International (UDI) (“Zombillenium”) has boarded the animated project “The Prince’s Voyage”, Jean-François Laguionie’s follow-up to “Louise by the Shore” and “The Painting”, Variety reports.
Featuring hand-drawn animation, “The Prince’s Voyage” follows an old monkey prince who finds himself lost and injured on an unknown shore, where he gets rescued by a young boy and sheltered by his parents — two scientists who have been exiled from their community for believing in the existence of other monkey civilisations. The animated fable tells the journey of this aging monkey who discovers a new civilisation.
“The Prince’s Voyage” is the latest in a string of auteur-driven animated feature repped in international markets by UDI’s Urbanimation label, following Rémi Chayé’s “Long Way North,” Jan Bultheel’s “Cafard” and most recently Arthur de Pins and Alexis Ducord’s critically-acclaimed “Zombillenium” which premiered at Cannes in the special screenings section and is opening this year’s Annecy Film Festival.
“Our label Urbanimation is dedicated to arthouse animated feature films,” said Frederic Corvez, founder and CEO of UDI. “While discovering and nurturing new voices like Rémi Chayé, Jan Bultheel, Arthur de Pins or Alexis Ducord is our mandate and a source of pride, it’s a great honor as well to represent an animation master such as Jean-François Laguionie,” added Corvez.
The toonpic is being produced by Armelle Glorennec and Eric Jacquot at Blue Spirit Productions, the French animation studio behind Laguionie’s Cesar-nominated “The Painting” and Claude Barras’s “My Life as a Zucchini” which premiered at Cannes’ Directors Fortnight, won a Cesar award and nominations at the Golden Globe and Oscars.
Set for a release during the last quarter of 2019, “The Prince Voyage” is currently in pre-production.