The directorial merry-go-round at Pixar has seen the animation powerhouse shuffle the deck countless times on many of its most high profile projects, and the decision to replace Brenda Chapman with Mark Andrews midway through production on Brave ultimately saw them share a co-directing credit and land an Academy Award each after the movie scooped the Best Animated Feature trophy in 2013.
Andrews has been involved in fourteen Pixar efforts in a creative capacity, but Brave remains his only credit as a director, so he’s decided to branch out on his own to create a brand new animated fantasy. As per Deadline, the filmmaker has partnered up with former colleague Andrew Gordon and producer Oded Turgeman to develop Hawkmaster for Fox.
The concept takes place in a mythical kingdom where knights ride giant birds of prey into battle, with a young woman named Kess as the lead character and audience surrogate. She always wanted to fly, and encounters a hawk without a rider, taking the airborne steed under her wing while also finding herself caught up in a plot to murder the queen.
Teaming up with a quartet of exiled knights known as the Four Winds, she sets off on a journey to foil the royal assassination and embrace her destiny. That’s a unique hook for what has the potential to blend the action, adventure and fantasy genres together, but let’s just hope the bare bones of Hawkmaster turn out more How to Train Your Dragon and less Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole.
