Darkmouth

#IrishTalent: Animated feature film of Shane Hegarty’s Darkmouth adds directors

Alcon Entertainment has hired directors, David Pimentel and Douglas Sweetland, to work on the animated feature adaptation of Shane Hegarty’s children’s fantasy series Darkmouth.

The novels follow a 12-year-old boy who must battle man-eating monsters called Legends. Unfortunately for Finn, despite being descended from a clan of warriors, he is among the worst legend hunters in history. The cinematic version of the first book is being adapted by Lloyd Taylor (Pigeon Impossible).

Hegarty, the former arts editor of The Irish Times, secured a publishing deal with HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2013, with the first three instalments of the series already bestsellers.

Darkmouth marks the first feature animation to be directed by Pimentel, but he has strong industry experience having worked as head-of-story on Disney’s Moana, and story artist for Big Hero 6 and How to Train Your Dragon. Sweetland directed last year’s Storks for Warner Bros. Animation and has worked on Monsters Inc., Cars, The Incredibles, and Toy Story.

Simon Brooks of Canyon Creek Films, Kira Davis of 8:38 and Craig Peck (Chalk for Walt Disney Animation Studios) produce, together with Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson for Alcon.