It looks like director Chris Williams has made quite the impression with Netflix, as he has now signed an overall deal with the streaming studio. It seems that he has two projects currently in development with one being a direct sequel to his film The Sea Beast. The animation legend has worked for 25 years at Disney Animation on various Oscar-winning and nominated films. It seems the deal came together shortly around when they were wrapping up work on his first project.
We had just wrapped up on the Sea Beast and we were in the post-production phase when we started talking about me continuing at Netflix and working on something else. They were cool about letting me know they wanted me to stay. I felt so supported throughout the making of Sea Beast, even though it was a massively ambitious movie. That represents a financial investment and risk, and they were always cool letting me making the movie I wanted to make. I always value people’s opinions and I will always listen to what anyone has to say. But they never forced my hand and they never made me do anything other than let me do the movie I wanted to make. And I really appreciated that. And so I wanted to do it again.
Chris Williams
William‘s first big project outside of the usual walls of Disney was his Moby Dick-inspired story of The Sea Beast, which was inspired by movies from his youth. It’s no surprise that Netflix would want him back, as his film is the most-watched animated film in Netflix’s library even with some stellar competition already on the platform.
With that success, Netflix has penned a deal with Williams to produce two originals for the studio. The sequel will follow the continuing adventures of Jacob Holland, but he’s also set his eyes on an original fantasy film that would be a combination of The Princess Bride meets The Lord of the Rings.
I pitched an original fantasy story. And it would be similar to Sea Beast in that I would create a completely cohesive world. Tonally, it would be between Lord of the Rings and Princess Bride. It’s like Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings where you have a history that leads up to the point where the story begins, and it’s a huge world with multiple events going on outside the story being told. But at the same time, I want to have fun with some of the conventions that Princess Bride did. It’s not parody and it’s not making fun of it, but it has a perspective that is light and refreshing.
It definitely sounds like he has ambitious plans and Netflix is definitely on board to see where their investment in his vision goes. With the success of his previous project, it makes sense they wouldn’t want to lose the talent they have already working for them.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
