Jorge Gutierrez sure knows how to keep himself busy. He’s the executive consultant on DreamWorks Animation’s The Adventures of Puss in Boots and he also conceived the story, co-wrote the screenplay, and designed the characters for Anima Estudios’ first CG film Wicked Flying Monkeys. After having spent a whole 14 years trying to bring The Book of Life to the big screen, it’s no wonder that he (rightfully) chooses to be prolific between projects.

Kaori Takee of Mingle Media TV Network was one of many to attend the red carpet event at the 42^nd Annual Annie Awards and it was there that she engaged in a short interview with Jorge Gutierrez and Brad Booker, one of the producers on The Book of Life. This interview (which you can watch below) ends with a few tantalizing statements from Jorge and Brad concerning their next project:

When asked about their next project, Jorge answered with this: “We haven’t announced it yet, but we’re already working on the next movie.” Brad followed up with an even more interesting statement: “In the next couple months, we’ll be announcing what the next project is for Jorge and Reel FX.”

It’s obviously not much, but there’s still quite a bit to draw from these statements. To get the obvious out the way, we now know that work is underway on the next movie. Even more interesting is the fact that Jorge will be staying at Reel FX for his next project. This makes sense, given that Reel FX was the one animation studio that really took a chance with The Book of Life (and benefited greatly for it). To top it off, we only have a couple of months left until we find out what the next project is (If I had to take a guess, it will be sometime around March/April).

When asked if Guillermo del Toro would take part in producing the project, Jorge simply replied: “We can’t say. We can’t say yet.” I’ll be surprised if he does, knowing that he’s practically one of the busiest filmmakers in Hollywood.

To some extent, there’s still the question of what this new project will be. Jorge has long hinted on his Twitter account that his next project will revolve around the world of ‘Mexican kung-fu’. He also expressed interest in extending The Book of Life into a trilogy, with the idea that the following installments would take the anthology-style route of focusing on a different character.

There’s also the question of when we’ll hear about any of Reel FX’s other projects that are currently in development (Beasts of Burden, Honeymoon with Dad, Monument 14, and W.I.S.H. Police). It’s been quite a while, but hopefully we’ll see an update about either one of those projects soon.

Again, it took Jorge 14 years to get The Book of Life to the big screen.  I don’t think his fans will mind that his next project is being fast-tracked at a much quicker pace.

What do you think? Are you looking forward to Jorge Gutierrez’s next project? Any ideas as to what that project might be?

Edited by: Hannah Wilkes