Warner Bros. Teams With Ron's Gone Wrong Studio for New Animated Movies

By Jamie Lovett

Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group has signed a first-look deal with Locksmith Animation, the studio behind Ron's Gone Wrong, to develop and produce new animated films for global distribution. Mike De Luca and Pamela Abdy, Co-Chairs and CEOs of Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, Bill Damaschke, President of Warner Bros. Pictures Animation, and Natalie Fischer, CEO of Locksmith Animation announced the deal days before the Annecy International Animation Film Festival and Market, the biggest animation show of the year, begins. The deal is said to be a part of the studio's attempts to revitalize its approach to animated films through partnerships and creative development.

The deal stipulates that the Locksmith team – led by Julie Lockhart, Founder & President of Production, and Mary Coleman, Chief Creative Officer – will work with Damaschke and his team at WBPA on Warner Bros.' legacy IP while also developing and producing original features. First up are Bad Fairies and The Lunar Chronicles.

"Animation is deeply ingrained in Warner Bros.' creative DNA, so we're really excited to dive in with the team at Locksmith, who bring a fresh sensibility and aesthetic to this seminal art form," said De Luca and Abdy in a press release. Locksmith released Ron's Gone Wrong, its first feature film, in 2021. A holdover from Disney's purchase of 20th Century Fox, Ron's Gone Wrong struggled for attention at the box office after being released on the same weekend as the behemoth blockbuster Dune, despite being well received by critics.

Damaschke added, "The artists and storytellers at Locksmith Animation are among the most inspired and inventive in the industry. I'm looking forward to working with them on an array of projects – beginning with Bad Fairies and The Lunar Chronicles – and drawing on the unparalleled resources here at Warner Bros., as well as original stories dreamed up by their remarkable creative team."

"We are thrilled to be partnering with the visionary team at Warner Bros. to create franchises that will entertain and move family audiences worldwide," said Fischer. "With a celebrated history in animation and a commitment to the theatrical experience, Warner Bros. is the perfect home for us."

According to the press release, Bad Fairies "is a subversive musical comedy set in contemporary London, focusing on a badass gang of fairies who break every rule in the book. Deborah Frances-White, creator and host of popular podcast The Guilty Feminist, is writing the screenplay." Megan Nicole Dong, who created and directed the Netflix series Centaurworld, is attached to direct Bad Fairies.

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The Lunar Chronicles is based on Marissa Meyer's best-selling novel series. It is described as, "A sci-fi twist on Grimms' Fairy Tales, The Lunar Chronicles centers on four young women who launch a rebellion against the tyrannical Queen of the moon and soar through the stars while fighting to take charge of their own destinies." Kalen Egan & Travis Sentell, who previously wrote for the Amazon series Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams, are attached to write. Noëlle Raffaele, who directed DC Super Hero Girls and was a story artist for The Lego Ninjago Movie and Marvel Studios' The Marvels, is slated to direct.

Locksmith is currently in production on its second feature film, That Christmas, written by Richard Curtis (Love, Actually; Four Weddings and a Funeral). The film will release on Netflix.

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