DreamWorks Animation announced today it is adapting Caldecott Honor winner Peter Brown’s New York Times bestseller The Wild Robot into an animated theatrical feature. Three-time Academy Award nominee Chris Sanders has adapted the screenplay and will direct, Jeff Hermann is set to produce and Dean DeBlois will executive produce.
When Rozzum 7134 (“Roz” for short), a robot designed for a futuristic urban world, finds herself washed ashore on a deserted island, a tale of survival and discovery begins when she becomes the unexpected protector to an orphaned gosling, which she names Brightbill. Together they struggle to survive the harsh environment, but only succeed with the help of a close-knit group of misfit animals, who become first friends, then family. Ultimately Roz and company save the island from a robotic invasion by Roz’s manufacturer, looking to bring her back to civilization by any means necessary. In the process she becomes something much more than she was programmed to be, a ‘wild robot.’
Beneath the action and comedy, The Wild Robot tells an emotional story about how we all have the power to “exceed our programming,” to become more than we were destined to be. Roz not only finds a way to survive in this dangerous world, but also brings new meaning to her “life” by taking on the responsibility of parenthood. The movie celebrates what it means to be wild and alive, and how cooperation is the key to survival in a harsh world.
The film marks the return of Sanders to DreamWorks Animation, where he previously directed and wrote How to Train Your Dragon with DeBlois and The Croods with Kirk DeMicco. Sanders also wrote and directed Lilo & Stitch with DeBlois for Disney.
Hermann most recently produced The Boss Baby: Family Business, co-produced Kung Fu Panda 3 and produced several of DreamWorks Animation’s recent award-winning short films.
Sanders, Hermann and DeBlois are joined on The Wild Robot by production designer Raymond Zibach (Kung Fu Panda 1, 2 and 3), head of story Heidi Jo Gilbert (Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, The Croods: A New Age) and editor Mary Blee (The Boss Baby: Family Business, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World).
Since the book’s debut in 2016, Brown has published the equally successful New York Times bestseller The Wild Robot Escapes in 2019, and will release his next book The Wild Robot Protects on September 26.
Brown is the author and illustrator of many bestselling children’s books, including Children Make Terrible Pets and The Curious Garden. He is the recipient of a Caldecott Honor for Creepy Carrots!, two E.B. White Read Aloud Awards, a New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Book award, and a Children’s Choice Award for Illustrator of the Year.
