Dylan Brown, the director of Paramount’s upcoming animated feature Amusement Park, has been fired by the studio followed an internal investigation over complaints of “inappropriate and unwanted conduct.”

Brown’s behavior included touching and caressing female co-workers, according to The Hollywood Reporter, which broke the story this afternoon. A follow-up report in Variety also claims that Brown made “inappropriate comments that were sexual in nature.”

Brown’s firing is believed to have happened a couple weeks ago, but Paramount did not acknowledge the situation until confronted by the media. A Paramount spokesperson offered this comment today:

“We are committed to fostering a safe and professional workplace that is free of harassment or inappropriate conduct, so we take allegations of misconduct and impropriety very seriously. We received allegations of inappropriate and unwanted conduct by Dylan Brown in the workplace and we conducted a thorough investigation, and he is no longer employed by the company.”

Before signing on to make his feature directorial debut on Amusement Park, Brown had worked at Pixar for nearly two decades. He started at the studio in 1995, and worked as an animator or supervising animator on films like A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, and Ratatouille. He later became the creative director of the short-lived Pixar Canada in Vancouver.

"Amusement Park" logo.
“Amusement Park” logo.

The voice cast of Amusement Park includes Matthew Broderick, Mila Kunis, Jennifer Garner, Kenan Thompson, Ken Jeong, John Oliver, and Jeffrey Tambor. The incidents involved Brown were not related to the film’s actors, according to Variety.

The film is still scheduled to be released on March 15, 2019. It is being animated in Spain by Ilion Animation Studios, the studio that made Planet 51 and Mortadelo and Filemon: Mission Implausible.

Nickelodeon is also developing an Amusement Park animated series that will debut in 2020. Both Nickelodeon and Paramount are owned by the same parent company, Viacom.

UPDATE: The Hollywood Reporter updated its story this evening with a comment from Brown’s attorney Andrew Brettler: “Mr. Brown disputes these allegations. They are defamatory, and he is considering his legal options.”

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