Paramount Will Release Aniventure’s ‘Blazing Samurai’ On July 22
Long in the making, cg feature Blazing Samurai has finally found a home at Paramount Animation.
Here are the details:
- Paramount acquired the movie from GFM Animation for North America and other key territories, and will release it in the U.S. on July 22, 2022.
- Riffing on Mel Brooks’s Blazing Saddles, the story follows a dog with dreams of becoming a samurai who ends up as the sheriff in a town of cats.
- The film is directed by Rob Minkoff (The Lion King) and Mark Koetsier (story artist, Big Hero 6, Rumble). The screenplay is by Ed Stone and Nate Hopper, with revisions by Robert Ben Garant and Minkoff.
- Minkoff, Adam Nagle, and Guy Collins produced the film. Alex Schwartz, Adrian Politowki, and Martin Metz executive produced.
- The voice cast includes Michael Cera, Samuel L. Jackson, Ricky Gervais, Mel Brooks, George Takei, Djimon Hounsou, Michelle Yeoh, Cathy Shim, Kylie Kuioka, Gabriel Iglesias, and Aasif Mandvi.
- Blazing Samurai was first announced in 2015, at which point it was slated for a 2017 release. Minkoff was then onboard only as a producer, not a director.
- It is the second release from Aniventure, a U.K. production company dedicated to developing “a new economic model” for animated features, following 2021’s Riverdance: The Animated Adventure.
- Aniventure financed the film together with Align and HB Wink. Cinesite, which has a first-look service deal with Aniventure, produced the animation.
- Meanwhile, Paramount Animation’s Under the Boardwalk, which had previously been scheduled for the same date, has been unset.
The Hollywood Reporter first reported the news.