Cannes: Global Screen Picks Up ‘Stitch Head’ From ‘Ooops! Noah Is Gone…’ Director (EXCLUSIVE)
By Leo Barraclough
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Munich-based world sales company Global Screen has picked up the rights to 3D animated feature “Stitch Head,” co-helmed by the director of box-office hit “Ooops! Noah Is Gone…” will present the project to buyers at the Cannes Film Market next month.
The film gives a humorous twist to the Frankenstein story, in which the monsters are the good guys and the humans are scary. The movie, directed by Toby Genkel (“Richard the Stork”, “Ooops! Noah Is Gone…”) and Steve Hudson, is based on the children’s books by British author Guy Bass.
The film is set at Castle Grotteskew, high above the little town of Grubbers Nubbin, where a mad professor brings to life his monstrous creations, and then forgets about them. Looking after the castle and its monsters is Stitch Head – the professor’s first creation.
Terrified that even the smallest sign of monstrousness will turn the townsfolk of Grubbers Nubbin into an angry mob who’ll burn the castle to the ground, Stitch Head does everything to keep himself and his fellow monsters safe and hidden.
Then a Freak Show comes to town; its director, Fulbert Freakfinder, desperately needs new and scarier exhibits. Soon it’s up to Stitch Head and his best friends, the huge one-eyed Creature, and the small but fearless Arabella, to save themselves, the castle and all the monsters within from Freakfinder, and the angry mob.
The movie is produced by Sonja Ewers for Gringo Films; as Wild Bunch Germany’s head of family entertainment Ewers has been responsible for the “Peterson and Findus” films, “Dilili à Paris” and the forthcoming “My Friend Connie,” among others.
Ewers said “Stitch Head” has “laugh out loud humor, characters that make your heart melt, and, most of all, it plays in a world that everyone – kids and parents alike – grasp instinctively.”
LAVAlabs and Studio Rakete (“Niko” and “Ooops! Noah Is Gone…”) will serve as co-producers. The film’s development has been supported by the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, the German Federal Film Board (FFA), and Creative Europe – MEDIA.
