‘Paddington in Peru’ Writers Reunite for AI Animated Feature ‘Critterz’ From Vertigo Films, Native Foreign (EXCLUSIVE)

variety.com:

Alex Ritman James Lamont and Jon Foster, best known for being two-thirds of the writing team behind “Paddington in Peru,” are reteaming for the newly-announced AI animated feature “Critterz.” The project is a feature-length adaptation of 2023’s groundbreaking short film of the same name, and comes from Vertigo Films, the Federation Studios-owned U.K.

production company, which is teaming with AI creatives at Native Foreign. Lamont and Foster — who also helped write StudioCanal’s pre-school “The Adventures of Paddington” animated series and Channel 4 comedy “Wasted” starring Sean Bean — will pen the script for the family adventure, which is set to expand the world of the so-called Critterz characters. “We’re very excited to be putting storytelling at the heart of this groundbreaking project,” said the writing duo. “The creative team behind ‘Critterz’ really impressed us with their vision and desire to make a beautiful, compelling and funny family movie” The 2023 short “Critterz,” written and directed by Chad Nelson, a creative specialist at OpenAI, became the first ever AI film to combine visuals generated by OpenAI’s Dall•E system with traditional animation techniques.

It screened at numerous festivals, including Annecy, Tribeca and Cannes Lions and was nominated for a PGA Innovation Award. Earlier this year, the Native Foreign team released “Critterz: Remastered” with OpenAI’s Sora, demonstrating the advancement of the tech in two years.

With the feature length “Critterz,” due to go into production in April, the producers say they hope to “set a new benchmark for generative storytelling pairing human-driven creativity and traditional animation techniques with the latest AI technology.” “The original ‘Critterz’showed us.