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Ashok Amritraj’s Hyde Park International (HPI) announced on May 7, 2013 that the company has picked-up international rights to directors Will Finn and Daniel St. Pierre’s 3D animated family adventure film LEGENDS OF OZ: DOROTHY’S RETURN starring Lea Michele, Martin Short, Dan Aykroyd, Jim Belushi and Kelsey Grammer. The film is from a script by Adam Balsam and Randi Barnes, based on the series of books by Roger Stanton Baum. Bonne Radford is producing alongside Ryan Carroll and Roland Carroll of Summertime Entertainment.
The film, scheduled for a May 2, 2014 domestic theatrical release by Clarius Entertainment on a minimum of 3,000 screens, will be introduced by HPI’s President Eric Christenson and will screen at the upcoming Marché du Film. Cannes screenings are scheduled for Saturday, May 18th at 4:00pm at Olympia 2, Monday May 20th at 4:00pm at Olympia 2, and Tuesday, May 21st at 4:00pm at Olympia 8. The film will also screen in competition at the 2013 Annecy International Animation Festival. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment will be handling home entertainment distribution for North America. Sony will be distributing the soundtrack.
LEGENDS OF OZ: DOROTHY’S RETURN is a 3D animated feature film based on the adventure books by Roger Stanton Baum, the great-grandson of L. Frank Baum, and is a continuation of the world’s most popular and beloved fairy tales. In the story, Dorothy (voiced by Michele) awakens to a devastated post-tornado Kansas, but is soon whisked back to Oz and its new villain in this 3D-animated musical adventure. There she is joined by familiar faces including the Scarecrow (Aykroyd), the Lion (Belushi) and the Tin Man (Grammer).
Bonne Radford, one-time head of feature animation at Dreamworks and VP of Animation at Amblin, produced THE ROAD TO ELDORADO, as well as executive produced CURIOUS GEORGE. Will Finn is best known for animating such classics as ALADDIN, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST and THE LITTLE MERMAID. Daniel St. Pierre has worked as a director, production designer and art director on a number of hits including THE LION KING, SHARK TALE and TARZAN.
Hyde Park has an impressive slate of films in production which will be presented at the Marché du film including ELMORE LEONARD’S SWITCH, with a multi-star cast led by Jennifer Aniston, John Hawkes and Tim Robbins, EVERY SECRET THING starring Diane Lane, Elizabeth Banks and Dakota Fanning, A FRIGGIN’ CHRISTMAS MIRACLE with Robin Williams, Lauren Graham and Joel McHale, CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR starring Nick Jonas and Isabel Lucas and the Roger Spottiswoode-directed MIDNIGHT SUN.
