Doug Sweetland, the animation director best known for Pixar’s 2008 animated short, “Presto,” has signed on to direct The Familiars for Sony, says Heat Vision.
The animated film, to be based on the children’s fantasy book series written by Adam Jay Epstein and Andrew Jacobson, follows three young wizard apprentices who, after being whisked away to an evil kingdom by a nefarious queen, must rely on their animal companions — an alley cat, a blue jay and a tree frog — to escape.
Josh Donen and Sam Raimi are attached as producers on the project. The book, which saw release last month, is planned as a franchise, a teaser for which is viewable below:
