M2 Animation (m2animation.com) has brought on Owen Hurley as Head of Studio, leading the outposts in Bangkok, with 280 employees, and the newly-built studio in Mumbai, which already employs 70 people after just four months of operation. He will report to CEO and partner, Torsten Jakobsen.
Hurley is former Head of Studio for Technicolor’s Animation and Games division, and worked for the company for over a decade before joniing M2. He held posts as VP in charge of Studio Transformation & Global Integration and as Vice President – Technicolor Games. Prior, he held executive positions at animation studios including WildBrain, Relic Entertainment and Mainframe Entertainment.
M2 Animation is an industry frontrunner, having worked closely with LEGO Group for more than 20 years, and is constantly implementing new technologies into its productions, such as Unreal Engine in collaboration with Epic Games. Check out M2’s showreel here.
The studio has also made a shift into more original content and is also working on its own IP, and has three concepts in development. One fully created by M2, and two in joint-venture between M2 Animation and L.A.-based studio Tremblay Bros (SWAT-KATS Revolution). One of these projects has already created interest by toy companies.
Adobe (adobe.com) has grown its 3D Innovation team with the hiring of Inigo Quilez as Principal Engineer for Adobe 3D & Immersive Labs.
Quilez brings nearly two decades of experience in the 3D and VR technology spaces, including his work on Pixar’s beloved films Brave and The Good Dinosaur in addition to the development of the Quill VR product for Oculus and the co-creation of shadertoy.com.
Adobe stated on the hire: “With his exceptional technical skills and brilliant sense of color and 3D design, Quilez is a welcome addition to the 3D & Immersive Labs team. We look forward to working with him and others who may want to join Adobe’s mission to provide ground-breaking 3D tools for creators.”
Conservative news service The Daily Wire has hired on Emmy-winning Disney showrunner Chris Sonnenburg (Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure) as Senior Vice President of Animation Development & Production, Deadline reports. The emerging kids’ division is tasked with countering what the outlet terms “woke” programming, with the newly launched DailyWire+ streaming platform and a $100 million budget for children’s content.
Sonnenburg said the move was “an incredible honor” and will focus on gathering top talents to “create timeless stories for our kids and their families for generations to come.” He will oversee a team of animation creatives that already includes Eric Branscum and Ethan Nicolle, working alongside EVP of Kids Content, David ‘Kentucky’ Coleman, who joins from Pure Imagination Studidos.
The Daily Wire was founded by Ben Shapiro and filmmaker Jeremy Boreing, and is known to draw the attention of fact checkers for sharing unverified stories and misstatements of fact, relating to issues like climate change and COVID-19 vaccination. The kids’ animation division is currently in production on the series Chip Chilla, about a family of homeschooled chinchillas, due in Spring 2023.
