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Poster, More Staff Revealed for U.S./Japan Co-Production Tailchaser's Song

Animetropolis and IDA (International Digital Artists), who previously announced in 2011 their collaboration on a feature film adaptation of Tad Williams' novel Tailchaser's Song, announced more staff members and released a teaser poster (pictured at right) for the project on Friday at Cannes. The two companies will also be teaming with the motion picture company EFG-Renascence for production.

Peter Ramsey (Director, Rise of the Guardians) and Full Clip Production's Luca Scalisi will serve as executive producers, and Williams will serve as co-executive producer along with Full Clip's Michael Schwarz. Animetropolis' Paul Alvarado-Dykstra and Samantha Inoue-Harte, IDA's Junya Okabe, and EFG-Renascence's Solomon J. LeFlore and Susan Gee are producing the film. IDA's Yasumasa Kutami is co-producing the film. Fire Duck's Chris Rydo and Bethany Rhoades serve as associate producers and co-wrote the script.

Animetropolis' Alvarado-Dykstra and Inoue-Harte stated in the staff announcement that "IDA adds their unique sense of Japanese creativity to the universal appeal of the novel, which will result in an extraordinary animated film for a worldwide audience."

IDA is best known for producing the CG anime adaptation of Motofumi Kobayashi's military animal manga Cat Shit One (Apocalypse Meow), for which it became the first Japanese animation studio nominated by the Visual Effects Society for the VES Awards.

The young-adult novel Tailchaser's Song follows the adventures of Fritti Tailchaser, "a ginger tom cat of rare courage and curiosity, a born survivor in a world of heroes and villains." Tailchaser goes in search of his missing female friend Hushpad in a strange world populated by both feline-like creatures and furless creatures known as M'an.

The stereoscopic 3D CG-animated film adaptation is slated to start production later this year.