Jon M. Chu, Jill Culton to Co-Direct Dr. Suess’ OH, THE PLACES YOU’LL GO!
By Movieguide® Contributor
ABOMINABLE director Jill Culton is officially joining CRAZY RICH ASIANS director for an adaptation of Dr. Suess’ OH, THE PLACES YOU’LL GO!
“Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, whose work includes THE GREATEST SHOWMAN, SPIRITED and LA LA LAND, will write original songs for the film adaptation,” Deadline reported June 10. “Rob Lieber (PETER RABBIT) is writing the screenplay based on Dr. Seuss’ final book. The book is the blueprint for a globetrotting animated musical following a young adventurer as they journey through the joys and heartaches, and the peaks and valleys, of life.”
Though the book is 35 years old, it recently took the number one spot on Amazon children’s bestseller list and hit #2 on Publishers Weekly’s Top 10.
The animated movie will be produced with Warner Bros, Dr. Suess Enterprises and Bad Robot. Bad Robot’s J.J. Abrams and Hannah Minghella will produce.
Chu was originally tapped to direct the movie in 2021. At the time, Deadline reported the movie will release in 2027.
Culton designed TOY STORY’s Jessie character and directed Sony’s first animation, OPEN SEASON. She served as executive producer on OPEN SEASON 2.
“Culton is a 30-year veteran in the animated feature film space and is best known for both writing and directing ABOMINABLE (2019), a co-production with DreamWorks Animation and Pearl Studios. She is a computer animation pioneer, spending a decade at Pixar working on their early classics – TOY STORY, A BUG’S LIFE, TOY STORY 2 — and she has an ‘original story by’ credit on MONSTERS, INC. where she was the head of story development,” Deadline reported.
Movieguide® previously reported on Culton:
In ABOMINABLE, audiences meet Yi, a young teenage girl who’s distant from her mother and grandmother after her father died.
Culton explained, “I never wanted this to really be a story about the dead dad. I wanted to give it more because not every nobody can relate to that, right, but everybody can relate to being distant from your family.”
…“We all longed to be close to our families, you know, and that’s an inherent thing. So, I wanted that to be the thing we lead with, and then for you to find out little bits and pieces along the way of why [the Yeti] is like that,” Culton said.
