Armand Baltazar
There will be a wealth of animation talents on display for new live-action/CG hybrid Timeless, coming our way from Fox. Rio director Carlos Saldanha is now attached to adapt the planned three-book children's series by DreamWorks/Disney/Pixar veteran Armand Baltazar{
We say planned, because the ink is still wet on the deal – it closed last week – and Baltazar isn’t scheduled to deliver the first book until 2016. Still, Saldanha, producer Ridley Scott and the studio think this could fuel an intriguing new movie.
Timeless is set in Chicago, where the city is the epicentre of a time implosion throwing people and creatures from the past, present and future together in one unruly mix. A boy must unite friends from different time periods to find his father, who has been kidnapped by a Roman general. The books are set to be illustrated in a lush faux-watercolour style, which isn't surprising given the author's background. In his time, Baltazar has worked on films such as The Prince Of Egy****pt, The Princess And The Frog and, most recently, Cars 2.
Though it seems to be flying into development, this is unlikely to be Saldanha’s live-action debut. He’s already targeting Rust, the adaptation of Royden Lepp’s graphic novel that briefly had interest from Joe Cornish, and that seems likely to come before Timeless on his To Do list. He was also, last we heard, also attached to The Story Of Ferdinand, another animated tale about a gentle bull that is due in 2017.