David Farnor | On 18, Nov 2018

Netflix is reteaming with Oscar nominated director Mark Osborne for Escape from Hat, a magical animated adventure.

Osborne’s breakout film was DreamWorks Animation’s Kung Fu Panda, which premiered Out of Competition at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Since then, he directed and executive produced Netflix’s animated feature film adaptation of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s beloved classic The Little Prince. Mixing stop-motion animation and CGI, the film featured a cast of voice talents led by Jeff Bridges, Rachel McAdams and Mackenzie Foy and won the 2016 French Cesar Film Award for Best Animated Feature.

Now, he’s teaming up with Netflix again for a fairytale where black cats are bad and magic rabbits are good, balance is threatened when one such rabbit is cast into a mysterious realm of danger and shadow. There, our desperate hero rallies an unexpected band of allies and undertakes an impossible quest to escape from inside a magician’s hat – and return to the human boy he dearly loves.

Osborne will direct and produce with Jinko Gotoh, who worked with him on The Little Prince and serves as producer on the 2019 Netflix animated feature film Klaus, from director Sergio Pablos. The screenplay is by Adam Kline and Osborne, based on the book of the same name by Kline, a new middle-grade novel that will be published by HarperCollins in Winter 2020.

“Escape From Hat tells a story about friendship and magic, which perfectly mirrors how I feel about getting to reunite with my friend Mark at Netflix after 10 years,” says Melissa Cobb, Vice President of kids & family at Netflix. “I cannot wait for audiences around the world to immerse themselves in our fantastical magic trick gone awry, where they will find an epic and imaginative world of good versus evil.”

“Netflix is shaking up the animated feature world in highly inventive ways, including offering filmmakers the rare opportunity to turn their dream project into a reality,” comments Osborne. “I’m thrilled that Escape From Hat is now one of them.”

“Creative people are the luckiest people on the planet,” adds Gotoh. “I’m thrilled to reunite with Mark, Adam, Melissa, and the entire team at Netflix.”

“Every original screenplay needs a little magic,” notes Kline. “This one has it on pretty much every page.”

Production will commence this month in New York. Netflix expects the film to be released in 2022.

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