Wedge Preps Robots

[Gservo]

Ice Age director Chris Wedge told SCI FI Wire that he is deep into preproduction on his next computer-animated film, which has the working title Robots. "It's being written by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel [Multiplicity], and it's being designed by William Joyce [A Bug's Life]," Wedge said in an interview. "So it's a real fun, big collaboration, and it's going to be a really colorful, funny movie. It's not [science fiction]. It's a completely fresh take on the world of mechanical people."

Meanwhile, Wedge is also contemplating the inevitable follow-up to Ice Age, the computer-animated comedy about the adventures of prehistoric animals and a human baby, which grossed more than $180 million during its theatrical run earlier this year. "We're working on treatments for it right now," Wedge said. "I think the studio is certainly interested. I'm happy. You get to know all these characters, and we have a million spinoff stories. But I'm just kind of consumed by [Robots], and I have to take it one step at a time." Wedge expects Robots to reach theaters sometime in 2004. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment will release the DVD of Ice Age on Nov. 26 in a two-disc set, with a new five-minute short and a director's commentary, among other things