Fans of Pixar's beloved Finding Nemo might want to sit up and take notice as one of the film's writers, David Reynolds, is set to write the script for an original, yet-to-be-titled animated film which was just picked up by Sony Pictures Animation.

Heat Vision has the news of the new animated film, the plot of which is being kept under wraps for the time being. Along with the news of Reynolds writing the script, animation veteran Stephan Franck will direct the film.

Franck has been working in animation for years, with some of his most notable work being as a storyboard artist on Despicable Me, a story artist on How To Train Your Dragon and an animator on The Iron Giant and Space Jam. Franck actually came up with the original story for this new Sony project, which Reynolds will form into a script. It's always good when the director of a film, particularly in animation, has a real grasp of the story they're trying to successfully translate to the screen.

Along with Finding Nemo, Reynolds has also worked on the scripts and stories for such other animated films as A Bug's Life, Tarzan, The Emperor's New Groove and Mulan.

David Reynolds and Stephan Franck previous animation work

The untitled film is the first in a four-picture deal Sony signed with the Gotham Group in 2009. Exec producing via Gotham is Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Peter McHugh and Eric Robinson. Also exec producing is Karen Dufilho-Rosen who produced two Academy Award-winning Pixar shorts, For the Birds (which was shown alongside Monsters, Inc.) and Geri's Game (shown alongside A Bug's Life).

As stated, the plot for this new animated flick is being kept secret so it's anyone's guess what sort of form it will take. Sony Pictures Animation is a relatively young animation studio with their first film, Monster House, only being released in 2006. Since then it has delivered that harmless and "safe" brand of animated film like Surf's Up, Open Season and Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. The studio's latest film is The Smurfs (groan...), which employs the technique of mixing live-action with CGI, a la Garfield and Alvin and the Chipmunks.

Sony Pictures Animation previous films - Monster House, Meatballs, Smurfs

There are no more details on Sony's new animated project at this stage - but, as always, be sure to check back at Screen Rant for updates.

Source: Heat Vision