AFTER the success of its debut film, Nimona, Annapurna Animation is ready for the next series of films. According to Entertainment Weekly (EW), multiple projects are currently in the pipeline.
Formed last year, Annapurna Animation is the animation division of Annapurna Pictures, and on its agenda for the division are plans to adapt video games from the gaming division, Annapurna Interactive, into films.
Out of them, the most intriguing is last year’s Stray, the award-winning adventure game from BlueTwelve Studio. In the game, Stray puts players in control of a stealthy cat that traverses an underground city populated by robots and mutant bacteria with the help of a friendly drone, B-12. The game is being adapted into an animated movie, which is currently in active development.
In an interview with EW, Annapurna Animation co-founder Robert Baird explained that Stray is a game about what it means to be human, and there are no humans in the game.
“It’s a buddy comedy about a cat and a robot, and there’s such a hilarious dynamic. So, there’s comedy inherent in this, but there’s not one human being in this movie. I think it’s one of the reasons why the game was incredibly popular - that you are seeing the world through the point of view of an adorable cat.”
Baird went on to say that there’s “something so emotional” that the creators are trying to capture when adapting the game to film.
BlueTwelve Studio, he explains, described the game as having a “sort of ‘hopepunk’ vibe,” a narrative concept that optimism is a form of resistance.
“I love that term, hopepunk,” he said. “I think, if we are going to do this adaptation justice, this is going to be the first and greatest hopepunk movie that’s ever been made.”
