DVDizzy Forum

Oscar winners Benj Pasek and Justin Paul will write the songs for an upcoming Fox Animation/Blue Sky Studios project, Variety has learned. The family film has the working title “Foster” and will reunite the musical duo with their “La La Land” producer Marc Platt.

The project is an adventure film that centers on a young super fan who isn’t satisfied with the ending to a series of fantasy books. After he seeks out the author to voice his displeasure, the pair finds themselves transported into a mystical world.

“It’s a heartfelt journey through this huge imagined world,” said Fox Animation co-president Andrea Miloro.

Karen Disher (“Daria”) and Steve Martino (“The Peanuts Movie”) will co-direct the picture from a script by Tim Federle (“Ferdinand”). It hits theaters on March 5, 2021.

Since taking the reins as the sole chairman of Fox, Stacey Snider has expended a great deal of effort building up its animation output. Snider formed a co-production pact with Locksmith Animation to bolster the studio’s slate and set a goal of releasing an animated film every year. Fox is poised to accomplish that feat. It will release “Spies in Disguise,” an action-comedy with the voices of Will Smith and Tom Holland, on Jan. 18, 2019. Then “Nimona,” an adaptation of a fantasy web comic, opens Feb. 14, 2020. And “Ron’s Gone Wrong,” a collaboration with Locksmith, debuts in November of 2020. Snider believes that a new era for Fox Animation began with the release of “Ferdinand” last year.

“We’ve tasked Pasek & Paul with doing a different kind of animated musical and to create something that’s never been done before,” Baird said. “We want to make our characters sing in a different way.”