TORONTO MOVIE/TV NEWS

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Starz Animation Toronto Wraps "9"...

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Starz Animation Toronto, has wrapped the Tim Burton animated production "9".

In addition, Starz reports that Elton John continues producing the CG spoof of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet", titled "Gnomeo and Juliet", with Premier Dalton McGuinty, representing the province of Ontario, giving Starz $23 million from Ontario's $1 billion next generation jobs fund, to help the company, which opened in 2007, to create and preserve about 250 jobs, including 40 more animators slated to be hired by year's end.

John and partner David Furnish are producing the musical comedy through Rocket Pictures, describing the film as the story of 'Romeo and Juliet' with garden gnomes as the main characters, starring actress Emily Blunt and featuring both old/new music written with song collaborator Bernie Taupin.

"Bernie and I are writing the music," said John.

"We're using a lot of Elton John catalogue in it as well."

The feature is being distributed by Disney's Miramax.

The computer-animated "9," produced by Tim "Batman" Burton is
based on the Oscar-nominated short, featuring the voice talents of Jennifer Connelly ("A Beautiful Mind"), Elijah Wood ("The Lord of the Rings"), John C. Reilly ("Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby") and Christopher Plummer ("The Sound of Music"). The film was written/directed by Shane Acker, set in a post-apocalyptic future where ragdolls are pursued by a mechanized beast that steals souls, until hope comes from one resourceful doll, known as number '9'...