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Picolo Pictures has unveiled exclusive first-look images for their upcoming feature “On the Run” (“La petite cavale”), currently presented at Annecy’s MIFA Pitches.

The film will see a young male blue penguin, Cookie, who dreams of becoming a dad. Cookie can’t lay an egg, but a volcanic eruption turns his New Zealand refuge upside down and sets a curious soft echidna’s egg in his path. What if this was the little one he had been waiting for?

“At the heart of the film is our wish to tell the story of a family bond,” its director Julien Bisaro tells Variety. Bisaro co-writes with Claire Paoletti.

“That’s one of the major issues for our two characters, who belong to completely different species: Making it work! These kinds of unexpected adoptions can be observed in real life too: a cat raises chicks, a leopard raises a baby baboon and so on.

Julien Bisaro and Claire Paoletti, the French director-writer team behind award-winning short Shooom’s Odyssey (2020) are setting their feature debut. The duo pitched the animated feature La Petite Cavale (On The Run) to co-production partners, as well as producers and broadcasters, at an industry session at this year’s Annecy animation festival on Wednesday. Bisaro and Paoletti screened a two-minute pilot for the project, which France’s Picolo Pictures are producing.

The kids-friendly feature focuses on Cookie, a male penguin who cannot lay an egg. When a volcanic eruption disrupts his New Zealand refuge and rolls an echidna egg in his path, Cookie takes it as a sign that this is the opportunity for fatherhood he has been longing for, and decides to raise the echidna chick as his own.

The bird theme and focus on parenthood recall Bisaro and Paoletti’s Shooom’s Odyssey, which told the story of little owl...

Emmy-winning French animation production-distribution studio Dandelooo has closed several key sales for its exquisite 2D animated preschool short film “Shooom’s Odyssey,” a standout at the 2020 Annecy International Animation Film Festival where it took the Crystal for Best TV Production and was selected as one of Variety’s 10 Shorts Not to Miss that year.

Dandelooo has struck deals for the Picolo Pictures-Bardaf! Productions co-production with Discovery Kids in Latin America, Zdf in Germany, Rai in Italy, Japan’s Nhk, Movistar in Spain, Periscoop in the Netherlands, Hop! In Israel, Truecorp in Thailand, Taiwan’s MomoKids and South Korean public broadcaster Ebs.

“Shooom’s Odyssey” was directed by award-winning animator Julien Bisaro, whose impressive resume includes productions such as his black and white César-nominated short “Bang Bang!,” storyboard artist work on Cannes and Annecy winner and Oscar nominee “I Lost My Body” and Annecy Audience Award-winner and Oscar nominee “The Secret of Kells.

With Calamity Jane, writer/director Rémi Chayé explored the origin story of the legendary American frontierswoman of the same name, digging into her childhood and the ways in which she defied the gender conventions of her time.

Produced by Maybe Movies, the French-language animated adventure picks up with the young Martha Jane Cannary in 1863, as she’s traveling with her family up to Oregon. Along the way, her father is badly injured, and conflict emerges when she strives to assume responsibility of her caravan.

Winning the Annecy International Animated Film Festival’s Cristal Award for Best Feature last June, the Oscar contender has been praised for its uniquely vibrant, painterly style.

Below, Chayé explains the way in which he hit upon this style on his 2015 debut feature Long Way North, also touching on the historical research that informed Calamity Jane and the challenges in bringing his latest feature to life.

Rémi Chayé’s Calamity, A Childhood Of Martha Jane Cannary

The French Institute Alliance Française in New York has announced that Rémi Chayé’s Calamity, A Childhood Of Martha Jane Cannary, co-written with Sandra Tosello and Fabrice de Costil will open the fourth annual Animation First Festival. Calamity Jane is voiced by Salomé Boulven. Rémi Chayé joins Michaël Dudok de Wit (The Red Turtle), Michel Ocelot (Kirikou And The Sorceress) and Jean-François Laguionie to become the fourth guest of honour. Chayé’s 2015 film Long Way North (Tout En Haut Du monde), written by Claire Paoletti and Patricia Valeix with a screenplay by Fabrice de Costil will also screen during the festival. Wes Anderson, the first American special guest, has selected four animated films that inspired him.

Wes Anderson selects Suzie Templeton’s Oscar-winning Peter & The Wolf

Rémi Chayé: “It's an honour to bring Calamity Jane [Crystal Award winner for best feature at the.

Directed by celebrated animator and filmmaker Rémi Chayé and produced by Sacrebleu Productions (Oscar®-Nominated Madagascar, Carnet de Voyage), Maybe Movies (Oscar®-Nominated Ernest & Celestine) and Norlum Studios (Oscar®-Nominated Song of the Sea), France 3 Cinéma and 2 Minutes, Long Way North won the coveted Audience Award at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival and the winner of Grand Prize and the Governor of Tokyo Award at Tokyo Animation Festival 2016. This captivating animated adventure, bolstered by emotionally resonant storytelling and visually exquisite hand-drawn animation, has continued to attract universal acclaim as it enchants movie audiences around the world.

A spirited and inspiring tale of hope and courage, Long Way North is the feature directorial debut of lauded animator Rémi Chayé (first Ad and head of storyboard for Oscar®-Nominated The Secret of Kells, The Painting) and tells the story of a young heroine persevering through a physical and emotional journey...

Chalk up one more for Steve McQueen and co. First, Deadline reports that his next, ever-expanding feature, Twelve Years a Slave, has found yet another onscreen player with Garret Dillahunt (No Country for Old Men, The Road); he’s said to have boarded as one of Solomon Northup‘s field hands, Armsby. Then, over at Variety, it’s been announced that Paul Giamatti and Sarah Paulson (Mud, Game Change) are also in tow; the former will be seen as Freeman — who takes control of slaves upon their arrival — while the latter is playing the “jealous wife” of Michael Fassbender‘s character, himself a slave master.

His casting comes about five days after Sherlock‘s Benedict Cumberbatch came aboard as a plantation owner; they’re both in the company of Chiwetel Ejiofor, Brad Pitt, Paul Dano, Adepero Oduye, Scott McNairy, Taran Killam, and Ruth Negga, though I’d expect some more names to get added soon.

Longway North

Lea Seydoux ("Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol") will play the lead voice in Remi Chaye's $10 million animated feature "Longway North".

Written by Claire Paoletti and Patricia Valeix and set in the 1890's, the story follows an aristocratic girl who flees St. Petersburg to rescue her grandfather, a renowned explorer lost in the Arctic. [Source: Chicago Tribune]

Runner Runner

Ben Schwartz ("House of Lies," "Parks and Recreation") has joined the Brad Furman-directed online gambling drama "Runner, Runner" at New Regency. Shooting kicks off this Summer in Puerto Rico.

Justin Timberlake plays the protege of an offshore gaming CEO (Ben Affleck) after losing money to him, and tensions later arise. Schwartz will play Timberlake’s friend. [Source: THR]

Woody Allen's Next

Louis C.K. and Andrew Dice Clay have joined the cast of Woody Allen's latest untitled film to be shot in New York and San Francisco this summer.

The pair join Alec Baldwin,...

Any proposed animated feature film that looks promising, deserves attention and Longway North (aka Tout en Haut du Monde) definitely falls under this camp based on the gorgeous footage from its pilot trailer. The in-development project is directed by Rémi Chayé, the first assistant director/storyboard artist of The Secret of Kells, written by Claire Paoletti and Patricia Valeix, and produced by Paris-based Sacrebleu Productions.Sasha, a young Russian aristocratic girl at the end of the 19th century, dreams of the Great North and languishes over Oloukine, her grandfather, a renowned scientist and Arctic explorer, who has not returned from his last expedition to conquer the North Pole.  He transmitted his location to Sasha which is far from satisfying her parents as they have already arranged for...