John Stevenson to Direct Noah’s Ark-inspired Animated Film for Unified Pictures

Unified Pictures announced in a press release that Academy Award-nominated director John Stevenson will be directing its “Noah’s Ark”-inspired animated film.This will be the first CGI animated film for the studio.

The film, yet to be titled, will be an animated comedy adventure based on the famous Bible story of Noah and the ark, but will twist it up by telling the narrative from the point of the view of the animals. The main character, an outcast aardvark named Gilbert, “becomes the reluctant leader of a ragtag group of misfit animals that need to be led to the mighty ark before the impending flood.” Along the way, Gilbert must dig deep within himself to overcome obstacles and discover his inner strength and ingenuity to “prove that in a world of ‘twos’, he was truly destined to be the ‘one’.”

Unified Pictures’ version of Noah’s Ark isn’t the first animated version of the story that has been released. There have been countless low-budget, direct-to-video versions, as well as Juan Pablo Buscarini’s Spanish adaptation that was released in Argentina in 2007. Nonetheless, it will be interested to see what spin Stevenson and his team puts on his version.

Previously Stevenson previously was an executive producer on the film and was heading up the creative direction, but now has filled the director’s chair entirely. Prior to joining the Unified Pictures team, Stevenson worked for DreamWorks in the story and animation department for a variety of movies, finally directing Kung Fu Panda in 2008.

The film’s script is written by Philip LaZebnik and Glen Dolman. Cecil Kramer, Kurt Rauer and Keith Kjarval and Stevenson are executive producers.

The film is set for a 2016 release.