‘Moana 2,’ ‘Ultraman: Rising’ Filmmakers Board Sanrio’s Latest Attempt At A Hello Kitty Feature

Sanrio’s long-developing Hello Kitty feature has officially locked in its filmmaking team, with Warner Bros. Pictures Animation tapping Moana 2 director David Derrick Jr. and Ultraman: Rising’s John Aoshima to helm the character’s first Hollywood theatrical feature.

The film, which Warner Bros. has dated for a theatrical launch on July 21, 2028, adds two filmmakers with deep roots in animation story and television directing. Derrick recently made his feature directing debut on Disney’s Moana 2 after years as a story artist at Disney and DreamWorks. His credits include key sequences in the original Moana, as well as work on Encanto, Raya and the Last Dragon, Strange World, and DreamWorks features such as How to Train Your Dragon and Rise of the Guardians.

Aoshima brings more than two decades of TV and feature experience to the production. He recently co-directed Netflix’s Ultraman: Rising and previously directed episodes of Gravity Falls, DuckTales, and American Dad! His other credits include story contributions on Laika’s Kubo and the Two Strings and sequence directing on Jorge Gutierrez’s Maya and the Three.

Producer Ramsey Naito, the former animation president at Paramount and Nickelodeon, has also joined the project alongside Beau Flynn of FlynnPictureCo., with Shelby Thomas overseeing for the company.

The screenplay is being led by Jeff Chan with previous drafts by Dana Fox, Katie Dippold, Adam Sztykiel, Jenny Jaffe, Lindsey Beer, and Tamara Becher-Wilkinson, from a treatment by Robert Ben Garant & Thomas Lennon.

It really does seem like WBPA has its kittens in a row this time, although we’ve heard this story before. Five years ago, Jennifer Coyle and Leo Matsuda were tapped to direct a feature film based on the Hello Kitty franchise with New Line. Five years before that, a feature project was set up at Sanrio’s U.S. offices, Sanrio Media & Pictures Entertainment, with an eye-watering proposed budget of $160-240. Time will tell if they can get the kawaii kitty up and running this time around, but with the producers mentioned in the press materials, this seems like the most promising attempt to date.