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Imagi Confirms Temporary Production Halt on Astro Boy
posted on by Egan Loo
Astro Boy manga. However, President Erin Corbett of IMAGI Studios U.S. told ANN that her company plans to resume production next week. IMAGI primarily does its development and pre-production work at IMAGI Studios in Los Angeles, while much of the computer animation production takes place as its headquarters in Hong Kong.
Kevin Koch, the president of The Animation Guild, first reported on the guild's blog on Sunday that IMAGI's Los Angeles animators were told not to come to work on Monday. Corbett confirmed the report and added that IMAGI's Hong Kong facilities were already planning to take this week off for the traditional Chinese New Year's holidays. Corbett emphasized that the rest of IMAGI U.S., besides the animation team, is still working as normal this week.
The Variety entertainment trade news source reported at the end of December that the audit firm Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu expressed concern on "whether [IMAGI] will have the necessary financial resources to complete" its slate of film projects. The Forbes financial news magazine reported on January 14 that IMAGI secured US$30 million in funding last fall, only to have US$20 million of it fall through. IMAGI has since been promised US$20 million in replacement financing, and Corbett says that, barring delays, the new line of funding will come in on February 3. Until then, the company was obligated to stop production on Astro Boy.
IMAGI still plans to present the Astro Boy film property to industry representatives at Toy Fair '09, which takes place in New York City on February 15-18. New York Comic Con on February 8.
Corbett reports that the Astro Boy film is 50% complete. Once Astro Boy is finished for its Matt Lucas.
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