The movie, from Philippe Duchene and Jean-Baptiste Cuvelier, is being planned as a multimedia franchise following its international run.
Lendarys, an animated family adventure film currently in production, has landed a number of pre-sales at the Cannes Market.
Rights sales for Lendarys are being handled by All Rights Entertainment, which has headquarters in Hong Kong, Paris, and Los Angeles. According to Variety, “the film was pre-sold to KMBO for France; to Flins & Piniculas for Spain; to Njuta Films for Sweden; to Another World Entertainment for Denmark and Norway; to Outsider Films for Portugal; and to Blitz Film for ex-Yugoslavia territories.”
Lendarys marks the directorial debut of Philippe Duchene and Jean-Baptiste Cuvelier. Previously, Duchene worked as the lead concept designer on the animated musical Leap! (aka Ballerina) and as a character designer on the Netflix animated series Samurai Rabbit: The Usagi Chronicles.
The film is a joint venture between France and Canada, produced on a budget of $30 million by PM S.A. (Fonzy, Holy Lands). 2 Minutes Animation (Calamity, Zombillenium, Long Way North) served as line producer, in association with Caramel Films (Fireheart, Leap!). The film is expected to be completed by next year.
Duchene and Cuvelier’s film takes place in an imaginary world, where a witty wizard apprentice joins an oddball pachyderm to find the wizard’s missing younger brother. The pair also team up with a mythical animal -- the Lendarys of the title. As their journey draws them nearer to the lost boy, they find that he has allied with a fearsome creature bent on world domination.
All Rights has reportedly expressed long term plans to spin off the story into a “full cross media experience[,] to include a presence in the Metaverse, NFTs, VR, video games, mobile games, and playing cards.”
Max Weinstein is a writer and editor based in Los Angeles. He is the Editor-at-Large of 'Dread Central' and former Editorial Director of 'MovieMaker.' His work has been featured in 'Cineaste,' 'Fangoria,' 'Playboy,' 'Vice,' and 'The Week.'
