Handmade Films Intl. has teamed up with Madrid-based Ilion Animation Studios to finance and co-produce Planet One, a $50 million CGI movie written by Shrek screenwriter Joe Stillman, reports Variety.
The film will be directed by Jorge Blanco, the lead artist on videogame series “Commandos.”
Production is set to start in May, with the theatrical release targeted for Christmas 2008 or Easter 2009.
The film is an alien invasion story about the inhabitants of Planet One, and who have two antennae and eight fingers, live in a world strangely akin to American suburbia of the 1950s, with drive-in movies, picket fences and a persistent fear of alien invasion — which is fulfilled when a human astronaut lands in their midst.
Ilion is the theatrical production offshoot of Spain’s Pyro Studios, creators of the “Commandos” videogame series. Pyro is simultaneously developing a game of Planet One.
