Having earned Academy Awards for his work on the Star Wars and Spider-Man film franchises, visual effects supervisor John Dykstra is trying out his directing chops with Walden Media and Relevant Ent.’s previously reported feature based on a real-life friendship between a 100-year-old tortoise and a baby hippo.
Tentatively titled Tortoise and Hippo, the film is based on a wire-service photo depicting the animal odd couple cuddling up at a wildlife sanctuary in India after being pulled from the Indian Ocean following the tsunami that devastated parts of Asia in 2004. Shrek co-writer Roger S.H. Schulman is penning the script.
Andrew Adamson, who co-directed Shrek and helmed The Chronicles of Narnia, is reportedly in talks to produce the live-action/CG pic, along with Relevant Ent. partner Mike Menchel. Much like Narnia, the tortoise and hippo flick will feature stylized, photo-real animal characters in live-action environments.
Dykstra, who helped form world-renowned vfx studio Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) with George Lucas and Gary Kurtz, is currently working as visual effects designer for Sony Pictures Imageworks. In addition to the Spider-Man films, his credits with the company include Stuart Little, for which he directed second-unit photography. His full-on directorial debut, Tortoise and Hippo, is expected to arrive in theaters in 2007.
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