After the billion-dollar success of Disney‘s live-action reboot “Lilo & Stitch,” it was a foregone conclusion that the house of mouse would pursue a sequel, and they’ve landed on quite the filmmaker to take over directing duties from Dean Fleischer Camp (“Marcel the Shell with Shoes On”), as Chris Sanders has been hired for the gig on “Lilo & Stitch 2.” The pic features a young girl from Hawaii who befriends and adopts an adorable fuzzy alien, who has a passion for causing trouble.
Sanders, you might not know, is not only the longtime voice of Stitch but also co-created the popular kid-friendly franchise alongside Canadian filmmaker Dean DeBlois and was the co-writer and co-director on the first animated film that hit theaters back in 2002.
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DeBlois and Sanders would reunite for the first “How to Train Your Dragon” animated movie, which is now a massive attraction at the Universal Studios theme park and has become a landmark franchise for DreamWorks alongside “Shrek” and “Kung Fu Panda.” The former of the duo went on to make the live-action films based on the book “How to Train Your Dragon,” with the second one casting Cate Blanchett to play Hiccup’s estranged mother.
Not only that, Sanders was behind Universal/DreamWorks‘ “The Wild Robot,” which ended up becoming a Best Animated Feature Film Oscar nominee (lost to Gints Zilbalodis‘ fantastic “Flow“). This won’t be Sanders’ live-action feature debut, as that was with the Harrison Ford-led movie “The Call of the Wild” from 2020.
Currently, it is said to be a “brand new” story (expected to have Sanders working on the script), as mentioned in an update from The Hollywood Reporter, so those thinking it will be a direct one-to-one with the home video animated sequel “Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch” or take plot cues from the animated series might be a tad disappointed. Filming on the sequel is set for later this year.
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
