Alessandro Carloni leaves the production reportedly due to creative differences with studio head John Lasseter.
Peggy Holmes has been brought on to direct Skydance Animation’s first animated feature film, Luck, as Alessandro Carloni leaves the production after reported creative differences with studio head John Lasseter.
Peggy Holmes
According to Skydance Animation president Holly Edwards, “Peggy is an incredible creative talent and has already been a huge asset to our growing animation studio over the past year. We’re so happy to have her leading the team creating Luck. She has the perfect mix of experience and artistic vision to bring this exciting project to the screen.”
Holmes is an animation industry veteran with more than 30 years of experience as a director, writer and choreographer. She directed two of the most successful Disneytoon Studio films in the award-winning Fairies franchise: Tinker Bell the Pirate Fairy and Secret of the Wings. She made her full-length directorial debut with the DisneyToon prequel The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Beginning. She also served as a choreographer on various films including The Country Bears, A Very Brady Sequel, Hocus Pocus, Newsies, Wayne’s World and The Fabulous Baker Boys. She won an Emmy Award for “Outstanding Achievement in Choreography” for her work on Fame L.A.; other television choreography projects include the first two seasons of American Idol and Gypsy, starring Bette Midler.
Carloni, who co-directed DreamWorks Animation’s Kung Fu Panda 3 with Jennifer Yuh Nelson, was also head of story on How to Train Your Dragon, Shark Tale and Kung Fu Panda. As reported on AWN last February, in response to her concern about Lasseter’s hiring by Skydance CEO David Ellison, two-time Oscar-winning actor Emma Thompson withdrew from her role voicing a character on Luck; in a letter published by the Los Angeles Times, Thompson praised Carloni as “an incredibly creative director.”
Luck is a comedy that pulls back the curtain on the millennia-old battle between the organizations of good luck and bad luck that secretly affects our daily lives. The film is being produced by Skydance Animation and Paramount Pictures in conjunction with Spain’s Ilion Animation Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures.
Carloni is currently listed as co-director, along with Pixar story veteran J.P Vine, on Locksmith Animation’s inaugural animated feature, Ron’s Gone Wrong, set for a February 26, 2021 release through Disney.
Source: Skydance Animation
Dan Sarto is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.
