In the recent video game-inspired feature film, Alone in the Dark, Christian Slater battled computer-generated monsters. Now, he’s going to become one for Exodus Film Group’s CG-animated short film, Igor: Unholy Frijoles. The stage and screen actor will voice the title role in the short, which will serve as a precursor to a feature-length version slated for release in 2007.
Igor is described as an irreverent comedy that puts a new twist on the mad scientist genre made popular by Universal’s 1933 classic, Frankenstein. In this animated update, the hunchbacked lab assistant has big dreams of becoming a mad scientist in his own right and winning the coveted first place award at the annual Evil Science Fair.
Both the short and the feature were written by Chris McKenna (American Dad) and are being exec produced by seasoned animation exec Max Howard, who collaborated on such animated hits as Disney’s The Lion King, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Pocahontas, Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and Warner Bros.’ Space Jam and The Iron Giant. The short will be directed by Fil Barlow, an Emmy-winning production designer on Porchlight’s animated TV series, Tutenstein. He also designed characters for such projects as Heavy Gear: The Animated Series and the direct-to-video release The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury.
Animation on the Igor films is being handled by Emmy-winning toon studio ElectroAge. The company’s credits include Hanna-Barbera’s The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest for, Sony Television’s Roughnecks Starship Troopers Chronicles, Paramount’s Star Trek Voyager, Saban’s Mystic Knights 20th Century Fox/Centropolis Television’s The Visitor and Hollywood Pictures’ Deep Rising.
Slater previously lent his voice to 1992’s FernGully: The Last Rainforest, and recently narrated the Discover Channel’s Prehistoric Planet series. Fresh from his award-winning run in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest on London’s West End, he will be appearing opposite Jessica Lange in the upcoming Broadway revival of Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie.
Other films in development at Venice, Calif.-based Exodus include Bunyan and Babe, 55 Holly Star and My Life With 3 Women.
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