Jill Culton
Jill Culton | |
|---|---|
 Culton in 2010 | |
| Education | California Institute of the Arts |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1993–present |
| Employers |
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| Notable work | Monsters, Inc. Open Season Abominable |
Jill Culton is an American animator, storyboard artist, director, and screenwriter. With her directorial debut on Sony Pictures Animation's first animated film, Open Season, she became the first female principal director of a big budget, computer-generated feature film.
Education and career
Previously, she studied at the Character Animation program at the California Institute of the Arts, where she later taught animation.
She was also a storyboard artist for various Pixar films such as Toy Story, Toy Story 2, A Bug's Life and also co-wrote the original treatment for Monsters, Inc., and continued to become the Head of Development.
She animated on Toy Story and served as a Directing Animator at Turner Features for the film Cats Don't Dance.
Along with Anthony Stacchi, she helped to develop Curious George while working at Industrial Light & Magic.
In 2003, Culton joined Sony Pictures Animation, which launched a year before to produce CG animated films. During her years at Sony, Culton, along with directing Open Season and executive producing Open Season 2, also developed Hotel Transylvania.
As of 2010, Culton was at DreamWorks Animation. For some time, she was writing and directing an animated film (now titled Abominable) about a little girl and a Yeti, tentatively titled Everest, but by 2016, she had left the project. However, in 2018, she came back to the project to write and direct once again.
In June 2024, it was announced that Culton would serve as the co-director of Warner Bros. Pictures Animation's adaptation of Oh, the Places You'll Go!.
Filmography
- The Princess and the Cobbler (1993) (animator: Calvert/Cobbler Productions)
- Toy Story (1995) (story artist)
- Cats Don't Dance (1997) (supervising animator: Supporting Animal Characters, storyboard artist)
- A Bug's Life (1998) (additional storyboard artist)
- Toy Story 2 (1999) (character designer: new characters, story artist)
- Shrek (2001) (story artist)
- Monsters, Inc. (2001) (story, story supervisor, visual development)
- Open Season (2006) (director, story)
- Boog and Elliot's Midnight Bun Run (2006) (director, writer)
- Surf's Up (2007) (special thanks)
- Open Season 2 (2009) (executive producer)
- Shrek Forever After (2010) (special thanks, character designer: new characters, story artist)
- Abominable (2019) (director, writer)
- Oh, the Places You'll Go! (2028) (co-director)
References
- ↑ Stein, Ruthe (September 27, 2006). "DATE LINES / News, notes and updates from the Bay Area arts and culture scene compiled by Chronicle staff writers and critics". SFGate. Retrieved December 21, 2013.
- ↑ Harris, Dana (May 8, 2003). "Sony tooning new animation unit". Variety. Retrieved July 31, 2014.
- ↑ Eller, Claudia (May 12, 2003). "Lucas Starts Animation Division". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 31, 2014.
Later, Universal -- concerned about a budget that topped $100 million -- scrapped plans to enlist ILM in making an animated adaptation of the children's classic "Curious George."
- ↑ Wolfe, Jennifer (July 10, 2014). "Emails, Court Docs Show Sony Resisted Wage-Fixing Cartel". Animation World Network. Retrieved July 31, 2014.
- ↑ "Two in One Interview: NY Illustrators – Character Designers". CTN Animation Expo. Archived from the original on December 24, 2013. Retrieved December 21, 2013.
- ↑ Gachman, Dina (March 21, 2013). "Bringing 'The Croods' to Life: A Spotlight Interview with Producers Kristine Belson and Jane Hartwell". Studio System News. Archived from the original on December 24, 2013. Retrieved December 21, 2013.
We have a project tentatively titled Everest, but that's a temp title. It's about a little girl and a Yeti, and the writer-director is Jill Culton.
- ↑ Milligan, Mercedes (March 26, 2014). "DreamWorks Adopts FLIX for Story Development". Animation Magazine. Retrieved March 27, 2014.
Culton, who made her directorial debut with Sony's Open Season, is currently writing and directing a film about a young girl and a Yeti for DWA with the working title Everest.
- ↑ D'Alessandro, Anthony (December 5, 2016). "'How To Train Your Dragon 3' Flies To 2019; Uni's DWA To Scale 'Everest'". Deadline. Retrieved December 6, 2016.
- ↑ Frater, Patrick (February 2, 2018). "CMC Takes Over Universal's Stake in Oriental DreamWorks".
- ↑ Fleming, Mike Jr. (June 10, 2024). "Jill Culton Joins Jon M. Chu To Co-Direct Dr. Seuss' 'Oh, The Places You'll Go!' For Warner Bros Pictures Animation & Bad Robot; Benj Pasek & Justin Paul Writing Original Tunes". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved June 19, 2024.
- ↑ Gajewski, Ryan (2025-01-27). "Dr. Seuss' 'Oh, the Places You'll Go!' Lands 2028 Release From Director Jon M. Chu and Warner Bros". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2025-03-07.
External links
- Jill Culton at IMDb
