Meryl Streep, Mel Brooks, Nicole Kidman and Zendaya will voice characters in the Weinstein Company’s upcoming animated movie “The Guardian Brothers.”
TWC announced the cast on Friday, as well as its acquisition of the worldwide rights for the film previously distributed in China by Alibaba Pictures, under the title “The Little Door Gods.” The rights exclude China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau.
TWC plans to sell the film at Cannes Film Festival this year. This is their second animation film acquisition this week, as the studio acquired the international distribution rights for “The Nut Job 2.”
“The Guardian Brothers” is about a Chinese family on the verge of losing their family business, a wonton soup shop. When the family’s grandmother passes away, the restaurant is left in the hands of Raindrop (Zendaya) and her mother (Kidman.) But millions of miles away, The Guardians have been looking over humans for centuries.
Gary Wang directed the animated feature produced by Zhou Yu and Light Chaser Animation Studios.
“I’ve loved working with our Beijing partners Light Chaser Animation” said TWC co-chairman Harvey Weinstein. “Everyone who knows me, knows I’m determined to build our animation division for film and television. This is going to be a huge area for our company and ‘The Guardian Brothers’ is just the beginning of our plan to bring the caliber of film associated with TWC to animation.”
The deal was negotiated my Michael Lappin, Micha Steinberg and Talia Houminer for TWC and Zhou Yu and Gary Wang on behalf of Light Chaser Animation Studios.