About The Filmmakers of Dr. Seuss' The Lorax

Having worked for Marvel and DC Comics from 1994 to 2000, CHRIS RENAUD (Directed by) comes from a background in comic art. From there, he moved to production design at Shadow Projects and Big Big Productions, where he oversaw all aspects of the animation process, including character development, creating concept storyboards and managing teams of digital modellers and artists.

He progressed to Blue Sky Studios/20th Century Fox Animation, where he worked as a story artist on a number of feature animation projects, including Robots, Ice Age: The Meltdown and Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who!. His role was to translate the screen story into the visual language of cinema, inventing and staging both dramatic and comedic action.

In 2007, Renaud conceived, wrote and storyboarded the animated short No Time for Nuts, overseeing every creative aspect of production, including design, layout, lighting, rendering, music composition and sound design. No Time for Nuts was nominated for an Academy Award® and went on to win the animation industry’s Annie Award for Best Short.

From 2008 to 2010, Renaud directed, with Pierre Coffin, the animated hit Despicable Me, the 10th highest-grossing film in the U.S. domestic box office in 2010. He and Coffin are currently directing Despicable Me 2.

CHRIS MELEDANDRI (Produced by) is the founder and CEO of Illumination Entertainment, which has an exclusive financing and distribution partnership with Universal Pictures and released its first film, Despicable Me, starring Steve Carell, in July 2010. Despicable Me has earned more than $540 million worldwide. Illumination Entertainment also released Hop, starring Russell Brand and James Marsden and directed by Tim Hill (Alvin and the Chipmunks), in April 2011. Hop opened at No. 1 in North America for two consecutive weeks.

Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax continues the successful collaboration between Meledandri and Theodor “Dr. Seuss” Geisel’s widow, Audrey Geisel. Additionally, the Illumination team is hard at work on Despicable Me 2.

Meledandri was previously an executive at 20th Century Fox for 13 years. While there, he became founding president of 20th Century Fox Animation, which he headed for eight years, amassing more than $2 billion in global box-office revenue.

During his tenure, he helped 20th Century Fox become a major player in the world of animated feature films and in 1998, he led 20th Century Fox’s acquisition of fledgling visual effects/commercial house Blue Sky Studios, which he built into a successful producer of animated features. He oversaw the creative and business operations of Blue Sky Studios, now 20th Century Fox’s wholly owned CGI studio. While at the studio, Meledandri supervised and/ or executive produced movies including Ice Age, Ice Age: The Meltdown, Robots, Alvin and the Chipmunks, The Simpsons Movie and Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who!.

Before joining 20th Century Fox, Meledandri was president of Dawn Steel Pictures at Walt Disney Pictures, where he served as an executive producer of Cool Runnings.

JANET HEALY (Produced by) started her career in live-action films with such great directors as Stanley Kramer, Hal Ashby and Sam Peckinpah. She worked with Steven Spielberg on Close Encounters of the Third Kind and 1941, serving as associate producer on the latter. She then joined George Lucas’ premier visual effects company, Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), as a co-head of production.

At ILM, Healy produced some of the era’s most groundbreaking visual effects work, including the Academy Award®-winning visual effects for Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Jurassic Park. While producing the digital character work for Casper, Healy fell in love with character animation. She joined Walt Disney Feature Animation as the head of digital production and oversaw work on the films Tarzan, Dinosaur and Mulan. She moved to DreamWorks Animation to serve as head of production for several years and, while there, produced Shark Tale.

In 2008, Healy joined Chris Meledandri as he was beginning his new venture, Illumination Entertainment, for Universal Pictures. Along with Meledandri, Healy is the producer of Despicable Me and the upcoming Despicable Me 2.

AUDREY GEISEL (Executive Producer) is the CEO of Dr. Seuss Enterprises. Formed in 1993 to maintain the quality and integrity of the Dr. Seuss trademark, Dr. Seuss Enterprises has overseen the production of all licensed, posthumous adaptations of Dr. Seuss’ work.

Geisel is also president of the Dr. Seuss Fund and Dr. Seuss Foundation, which donate funds to a variety of causes and institutions that promote literacy, including Family Literacy Foundation, National Center for Family Literacy, Rolling Readers and the San Diego Council on Literacy. In addition, the Dr. Seuss Fund and the Dr. Seuss Foundation have donated funds to numerous other
organizations and foundations.

Geisel oversees the many literary and entertainment projects based on Dr. Seuss’ works, as well as philanthropic endeavors that pay tribute to the late author. In 2008, she served as executive producer on Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who!.

As 3D productions are on the way to becoming the norm, KEN DAURIO (Screenplay by/Executive Producer) is right on trend with two high-profile 3D animated films on his résumé.

Daurio and his writing partner, Cinco Paul, are the hot Hollywood screenwriting team who penned Despicable Me for Illumination Entertainment/Universal Pictures and Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who! for executive Chris Meledandri during his tenure at 20th Century Fox. After Paul and Daurio’s work on Horton led to a box-office gross of nearly $300 million worldwide, the duo found themselves in demand in the animation world. Daurio and Paul further forged their strategic relationship with Meledandri when Meledandri formed the film production company Illumination Entertainment, which specializes in animation. It’s no coincidence that Illumination’s first three movies given the green light were all written by Daurio and Paul (Despicable Me, Hop and Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax), something unheard of in the history of animation.

Daurio and Paul are known throughout the entertainment industry for their unique pitching style, often singing their pitches to high-level studio executives. For the Disney film College Road Trip, they belted out the ’80s tune “Double Dutch Bus,” complete with harmony and melody. An estimated 90 percent of their pitches in the last nine years have involved musical performances.

Daurio met Paul while working on a church musical and they bonded immediately. In 1999, they sold their first screenplay, Special, which they later turned into a short film that played the festival circuit due to its dark comedic story line. Next came the 2001 cult classic Bubble Boy, which starred Jake Gyllenhaal as Jimmy Livingston (a boy without an immune system), a twisted take on the John Travolta television movie The Boy in the Plastic Bubble. Paul and Daurio also had the distinct honor of being handpicked by Audrey Geisel (the widow of Theodor Seuss Geisel) to pen the Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who! and Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax film projects on behalf of the estate of Dr. Seuss. Daurio and Paul are currently working on Despicable Me 2.

Upon graduating from high school, Daurio began directing music videos for up-and-coming bands like Blink 182, AFI and Jimmy Eat World. More than 100 music videos later, he teamed up with Paul to write his first feature script. Daurio and Paul are now one of Hollywood’s most sought-after screenwriting teams.

As 3D productions are on the way to becoming the norm, CINCO PAUL (Screenplay by/Executive Producer/Songs by) is right on trend with two highprofile 3D animated films on his résumé. Along with Ken Daurio, he wrote the surprise blockbuster Despicable Me, which has made more than $540 million worldwide.

Paul and his writing partner, Ken Daurio, are the hot Hollywood screenwriting team who also penned the Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who! screenplay for executive Chris Meledandri during his tenure at 20th Century Fox. When Horton led to a box-office gross of nearly $300 million worldwide, Meledandri formed the film production company Illumination Entertainment, which specializes in animation. Illumination’s first three movies given the green light were all written by Paul and Daurio: Despicable Me, Hop and Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax.

Paul and Daurio are known throughout the entertainment industry for their unique pitching style, often singing their pitches to high-level studio executives. For the Disney film College Road Trip, they belted out the ’80s tune “Double Dutch Bus” complete with harmony and melody. An estimated 90 percent of their pitches in the last nine years have involved musical performances.

Paul met Daurio while working on a church musical and they bonded immediately. In 1999, they sold their first screenplay, Special; later, they turned it into a short film that went on to play the festival circuit due to its dark comedic story line. Next came the 2001 cult classic

Bubble Boy, which starred Jake Gyllenhaal as Jimmy Livingston (a boy without an immune system), a twisted take on the John Travolta television movie The Boy in the Plastic Bubble. Paul also recently turned Bubble Boy into a full-length musical, for which he wrote the music and lyrics. His other film credits include Disney’s megahit The Santa Clause 2. Paul and Daurio are currently working on Despicable Me 2.

Paul studied at Yale University, where he graduated summa cum laude with a degree in English. Upon moving to Los Angeles, he received his MFA in screenwriting from the University of Southern California, winning a fellowship grant to pay for his second year.

A frequent creative collaborator with director Paul Greengrass, JOHN POWELL (Music by/Songs by) composed the scores for United 93, The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum and Green Zone.

Powell’s work spans many genres. He received an Annie Award nomination for his Rio score in 2012; won an Annie Award and received Academy Award® and BAFTA nominations for his How to Train Your Dragon score in 2011; received an Annie Award nomination for his Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs score in 2010; received a BAFTA nomination for his Happy Feet score in 2007 and a Grammy Award nomination for the Happy Feet soundtrack in 2008; and won an Annie Award for his score to Kung Fu Panda in 2009. He has composed music for other top animated films including Happy Feet Two, Kung Fu Panda 2, Mars Needs Moms, Robots, Bolt, Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who!, Chicken Run and Antz. His score for Shrek was BAFTA-nominated in 2002.

His additional film credits include Knight and Day, Fair Game, Hancock, Stop-Loss, P.S. I Love You, X-Men: The Last Stand, Mr. & Mrs. Smith and The Italian Job. Powell began his career composing music for commercials and television at London’s Air-Edel in 1988. Later, he started his own jingle house and worked on many mixed-media art-installation works with artist Michael Petry, as well as the opera An Englishman, an Irishman and a Frenchman.

His score for Face/Off, starring Nicolas Cage and John Travolta, marked the beginning of a prolific filmcomposing career.

In 2011, KEN SCHRETZMANN, ACE (Edited by) was awarded an American Cinema Editors Eddie Award for his work on Pixar’s Toy Story 3. His other credits include Cars and Monsters, Inc. He lives in Northern California.

CLAIRE DODGSON (Edited by) is a National Film and Television School graduate who has worked in animation for the last nine years. In addition to Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, her feature-animation credits include Despicable Me (additional editor), The Tale of Despereaux (associate editor), Fantastic Mr. Fox (first assistant editor) and Corpse Bride (second assistant editor).

Her television editing credits include the BAFTAwinning children’s series Charlie and Lola and Tinga Tinga Tales, a children’s series made in Kenya, where she trained local editors.

Dodgson is currently an editor on Despicable Me 2.

STEVEN LIU’s (Edited by) previous film credits include Open Season 2 and Kung Phooey!, and he served as an additional editor on Illumination Entertainment’s Despicable Me.

Liu also worked on Toy Story (second assistant editor), A Bug’s Life (assistant editor), Open Season (first assistant editor), Surf’s Up (associate editor) and Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (associate editor).

ERIC GUILLON (Art Director) previously art directed Illumination Entertainment’s box-office hit Despicable Me, and is currently in production on the film’s sequel, Despicable Me 2. For his work on Despicable Me, Guillon received an Annie Award nomination for Production Design in a Feature Production.

YARROW CHENEY (Production Designer) attended the California Institute of the Arts from 1992 to 1995, before beginning his career as a character animator at Turner Feature Animation/Warner Bros. Feature Animation on Cats Don’t Dance, Quest for Camelot and The Iron Giant.

In 1999, he won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Main Title Design for his opening title sequence to Sony’s Dilbert series. Cheney went on to design Sony Pictures Imageworks’ Academy Award®-winning theatrical short The Chubbchubbs! and Universal Pictures’ Curious George.

In 2006, he directed, produced, edited and production designed The Very First Noel holiday special.

In 2008, Cheney joined Illumination Entertainment as production designer for Despicable Me and is currently working on Despicable Me 2.

—dr. seuss’ the lorax—

Source: The Lorax Movie | Official Site for the The Lorax Film