Katy Perry & Eminem To Cameo
Director John Stevenson has used the success of his feature directorial debut “Kung Fu Panda” to ink a producing/directing deal with Vanguard Films, and the first film out of the gate will be the terrible-sounding “Alien Rock Band.”
The “live action/CGI hybrid that revolves around a garage band from Earth which journeys across the Universe to qualify for a shot at superstardom in an Intergalactic Battle of the Bands, where they’ll have to compete with multi-armed alien monsters.” The concept is interesting enough, but with planned celebrity cameos to include the likes of Eminem and Katy Perry. we’re in no rush to see this thing get made and thrown up on the big screen. In another musical connection, Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics is producing.
Clearly Vanguard, who have run far behind their competition in the animation race with the likes of “Valiant,” “Happily N’Ever After” and “Space Chimps,” are hoping that Stevenson is the magic ingredient to at least bring them into at least the same ballpark as Pixar or DreamWorks Animation. With that in mind, they’ve lined up four other projects for Stevenson to have his hand in, including two live action vehicles.
“Rotten Island,” based on the book by William Steig, will tell the story of “an island where monsters reign free until a beautiful flower changes everything” is another project Stevenson will direct. Meanwhile, on his producing plate, he will tackle “Buzby” (“a high speed animated romantic comedy starring fruit flies” with Phil Robinson of “Fern Gully 2: The Magical Rescue” directing); “City Of Dragons” (a live-action martial arts movie with supernatural elements) and “Atomic Circus” (“A live-action fantasy adventure story featuring a fast-talking con-man in a post-apocalyptic world”).
As with anything in development, don’t be surprised if some of these stall or don’t get made, but regardless it’s an ambitious run of projects. No word on when these are being slotted for theaters, but if you want to check out some early artwork for “Alien Rock Band” go here. [/Film]
