Timothy Olyphant to Star in Netflix’s ‘Terminator Zero’; Plus ‘Plankton’ Movie and ‘Motel Transylvania’ Among Animation Slate
Zack Snyder and Nathan Lane were among the filmmakers and cast members that joined Netflix’s animation presentation to preview a full slate of upcoming animated features and series, during an event held Thursday in Hollywood, just days before the start of the Annecy International Animation Film Festival.
“I love mythology,” said Snyder as he introduced a first look at his adult series “Twilight of the Gods.” On a scale like this, I feel like animation was the greatest way to tell the story.” The cast includes Sylvia Hoeks, Stuart Martin, Pilou Asbaek, John Noble, Paterson Joseph, Rahul Kohli, Jamie Clayton, Kristopher Hivju, Peter Stormare, Jamie Chung, Lauren Cohan and Corey Stoll.
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Also playing well before the crowd was a first look at Netflix and Skydance Animation’s “Spellbound,” which will be released Nov. 22 and featured next week at Annecy. Nathan Lane introduced the clip from the movie, directed by Vicky Jensen, joking that this isn’t the Hitchcock classic, it’s “so much better, because it’s animated.” In the story, a tenacious young daughter of the rulers of Lumbria must save her family and kingdom after a spell transforms her parents into monsters. It will feature an original score by legendary composer Alan Menkenwith lyrics by Glenn Slater. Lane and Tituss Burgess voice the oracles of the sun and moon, who are called upon to help the princess. The voice cast also includes Rachel Zegler, Nicole Kidman, Javier Bardem and John Lithgow.
Skydance and Netflix will follow this release with a “Pookoo”, a buddy comedy about a woodland creation and majestic bird, which will arrive in 2025. In the first look clip, the adorable critter creates a sort of snorkel system to allow him to swim beneath the surface of a pond.
Netflix also announced the English language voice cast for Studio Ponoc’s anime “The Imaginary,” directed by animator Yoshiyuki Momose and set for Annecy’s main competition. They include Louie Rudge-Buchanan, Evie Kiszel, Hayley Atwell, Sky Katz, Jeremy Swift, Kal Penn, LeVar Burton, Jane Singer, Ruby Barnhill, Roger Craig Smith, Courtenay Taylor and Miles Nibbe.
“In Your Dreams” brought more laughs to the presentation. The comedy follows a pair of siblings who enter a dream world populated by the likes of an avocado playing a plastic fork like a guitar. Simu Liu and Craig Robinson star in the film. It also showed a new clip featuring the snowy world of “This Christmas,” based on the children’s books by Richard Curtis. It marks the directorial debut of animation vet Simon Otto and is produced by Locksmith Animation.
Among the many announcements was that Timothy Olyphant is joining the “Terminator” universe in the upcoming anime “Terminator Zero.” The “Justified” star will be voicing a Terminator robot in the series, which releases on Aug. 29.
From Skynet to Bikini Bottom, there’s a second “SpongeBob SquarePants” spinoff movie coming to Netflix next year. “Plankton: The Movie” follows the pint-sized villain as his “world is flipped upside down when his plan for world domination is thwarted.” The movie releases in 2025, after “Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie” arrives on Aug. 2, 2024.
A “Hotel Transylvania” spinoff, titled “Motel Transylvania” produced by Sony Pictures Animation, will open its doors next year. There is no voice cast information yet, but the logline reads, “Motel Transylvania is open for business, as Drac & Mavis take a break from their Transylvanian haunts to set up a brand new resort for humans and monsters in the California desert. Vampires and sunshine… what can go wrong!?”
For fans of K-Pop (and demon slaying), the new 2025 series “K-Pop: Demon Hunters,” also produced by Sony Pictures Animation, is “a musical action adventure that follows the story of a world-renowned K-Pop girl group, as they balance their lives in the spotlight with their secret identities as bad-ass demon hunters, set against a colorful backdrop of fashion, food, style and the most popular music movement of this generation.”
An adaptation of Roald Dahl’s novel “The Twits” revealed its cast, including Margo Martindale, Johnny Vegas, Natalie Portman and Emilia Clarke. Simu Liu and Craig Robinson also joined the film “In Your Dream,” about two siblings who journey into the absurd landscape of their dreams.
“Jurassic World: Chaos Theory,” which recently released on Netflix, has also been renewed for Season 2, coming this fall.
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