Will Ferrell, Adam McKay and Jimmy Miller to Produce Columbia Pictures / Sony Pictures Animation's Live-Action/Animation Hybrid Comedy "MANIMAL"

CULVER CITY, Calif., July 22, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Sony Pictures Animation today announced that Jimmy Miller's Mosaic, and Will Ferrell and Adam McKay's Gary Sanchez Productions will produce MANIMAL, a live-action/animated feature film that takes the concept of the cult television drama of the same title – a crime-fighter who can transform into animals – and reinvents it as an action-comedy. Original series co-creator Glen A. Larson will also produce. The feature is being written by Jay Martel & Ian Roberts. The project, which will be a live-action hybrid heavy in visual effects and animation, is being overseen by Sony Pictures Animation President of Production Michelle Raimo Kouyate and SVP Michael Lachance.

Mosaic's past feature films include The Other Guys, Step Brothers, Bad Teacher, and Talladega Nights. Glen A. Larson previously created several popular television series including Battlestar Galactica, Knight Rider and Magnum, P.I. Gary Sanchez Productions' credits include Step Brothers, The Other Guys, and Anchorman 2. Writers Martel & Roberts serve as showrunners and executive producers on Comedy Central's hit series Key & Peele, and also wrote the screenplay for Warner Bros.' upcoming Get Hard starring Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart.

Sony Pictures Animation President of Production Kouyate comments, "When we approached Jimmy, Will and Adam about Manimal, they instantly saw the potential for a big, fun comedy that blends their unique comic sensibility with our studio's animation expertise. With their help, Jay and Ian then came up with a brilliantly funny story that delivers on that potential. We couldn't be more excited."

"A comedy where a secret agent turns into a multitude of animals to fight crime… and to do it with Sony Pictures Animation, Gary Sanchez, and Ian and Jay? It doesn't get better than that," said Jimmy Miller.

Adam McKay added, "Like 'The Catcher in the Rye' or 'The Sound and the Fury,' Manimal has always been one of those elusive projects every producer dreams of taking to the silver screen. I know the movie will be funny and entertaining but will it be the first film to win a Pulitzer?  We'll just have to see."

ABOUT SONY PICTURES ANIMATION
Sony Pictures Animation produces a variety of animated and family entertainment for audiences around the world. The studio is following its worldwide comedy hits—the 2012 monster hit comedy Hotel Transylvania, the hybrid live action/animated blockbusters The Smurfs and The Smurfs 2, and the mouth-watering Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs movies—with the family comedies Hotel Transylvania 2 in September 2015 and a brand new all-animated, currently untitled Smurfs feature film in August 2016. Sony Pictures Animation also released a critically acclaimed, brand new mini-movie on DVD and television last Fall, The Smurfs: The Legend of Smurfy Hollow. In 2007, Surf's Up  received an Academy Award® nomination for Best Animated Feature Film. The division's first feature film Open Season led to a very successful movie franchise. Sony Pictures Animation, which was founded in 2002, is an operating unit of Sony Pictures Digital Productions.

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SOURCE Sony Pictures Animation