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Exclusive: Searching for Sugar Man producer Passion Pictures has broadened its partnership with Paris animation outfit Circus Studios and the pair have been revealed as the producers behind Interplay Entertainment’s Earthworm Jim animated TV series based on the iconic 90’s computer classic.

Circus has been working for a number of years with the Marc Bodin-Joyeux-run Passion Paris hub including on three seasons and more than 650 hours of Nickelodeon’s Lego City Adventures but the deal will see the company work with the wider Passion Pictures outfit and its animation unit, which has been expanding most recently with the signing of two former Pixar execs.

The studios are in development on TV series Earthworm Jim Beyond The Groovy based on the cult, iconic 90’s computer game for Interplay Entertainment. The series of platform games that were first released in 1994 followed the eponymous character, who wears a robotic...

Pixar Vet Alan Barillaro Moves To Passion Pictures

Searching For Sugar Man producer Passion Pictures has signed Oscar-winning Pixar veteran Alan Barillaro as Creative Director for its Animation division. Barillaro will further Passion’s push into animated features and TV series, having already been behind the likes of Netflix’s Love, Death and Robots. He is the second Pixar veteran to join Passion in the past year, following David Park’s move to be Head of Production and Exec Producer. Barillaro joined Pixar in 1997 and worked on the likes of A Bug’s Life, Lightyear, Finding Nemo and The Incredibles, along with winning an Oscar for animated short Piper. He recently secured a global three-book deal with Candlewick Press and the Walker Books Group. Passion Founder Andrew Ruhemann called him a “true pioneer in the animation world and an inspiration to many.” Barillaro hailed Passion as a “creative hub for some...

Part of what it describes as a bold and rapid expansion of its long-form animation department, London-based Oscar winning Passion Pictures has appointed Nicki Cortese as head of development for animated features and series.

Cortese joins Pixar veteran David Park, a production manager on “Coco” and animation department manager on “Toy Story 3,” who was himself hired as Passion head of production for long-form animation in 2021, as well as executive producer Debbie Crosscup.

Joining Passion ahead of Annecy, Cortese served as head of development for Elisabeth Murdoch’s Locksmith Animation, where she worked on Disney’s “Ron’s Gone Wrong” as well as the just-announced Netflix feature “That Christmas,” based on children’s books by “Four Weddings and a Funeral’s ”Richard Curtis. Cortese had a first-look deal with Brian Robbins’ studio, Awesomeness Films, and, prior to that, oversaw the “Divergent” franchise at Red Wagon.

Cortese comes to Passion after it...

Sometimes it's the littlest films that have the most heart. If you've had a chance to see Kenny Riches's The Strongest Man then you know this weird and wonderful film has heart in spades. It's also pretty damn funny. FilmBuff is putting the film out on June 26 and we have an exclusive clip from the film below. The Strongest Man is a Miami-centric comedy about an anxiety-ridden Cuban-American man, who fancies himself the strongest man in the world. In a quest to recover his most beloved possession, his golden BMX bicycle, he finds and loses so much more. The film stars Robert "Meatball" Lorie, Paul Chamberlain, Ashly Burch, Patrick Fugit, Lisa Banes, David Park, Nancy Fong, Davy Rothbart, and Freddie Wong. Check out the...

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