Bee Movie co-director to lead Madagascar spin-off

Dream­Works Ani­ma­tion SKG

Simon Smith, co-director of Dream­Works Animation’s 2007 Bee Movie, will now direct the same studio’s as yet unti­tled spin-off of 2005’s Mada­gas­car, fea­tur­ing the penguins.

Lara Breay, of DWA’s Mega­mind (2005), will pro­duce the film.

In March, DWA hur­ried the project along by hir­ing Mega­mind writ­ers Alan J. School­craft and Brent Simons, to script the tale, which will focus on pen­guins Skip­per, Kowal­ski, Pri­vate and Rico’s para­mil­i­tary sto­ries. The four are sup­port­ing char­ac­ters of the Mada­gas­car movies, but often have stolen the show.

Deci­sions on cast­ing remain far away.

A DWA ani­ma­tor, Smith was head of lay­out for the studio’s Antz (1998) and Shrek (2001). He was a lay­out con­sul­tant on Shrek 2 (2004).

Shrek then directed Shrek 4-D, an ani­mated attrac­tion that’s part of the Uni­ver­sal Stu­dios theme park.

In addi­tion, he directed the Shrek-themed Far Far Away Idol (2004) and this February’s Mega­mind: The But­ton Of Doom, shorts that came as extras on DVDs released by DWA.

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