WMA says aloha to 'Lilo' co-creators
Duo now looks to form own company
The duo, who created, wrote and directed the quirky hit about an alien and a Hawaiian girl, soon will be looking to establish a more formal pairing by forming a company, with multiple studios looking to land them.
It is heady territory for two relatively anonymous junior animators and scribes who came up through the Disney system, hatched the "Lilo & Stitch" concept and were given a tight budget on which to make it.
They bucked the trend toward sophisticated and costly animation and proved a hand-drawn feature could compete in a CGI-dominated marketplace. At $80 million, "Lilo & Stitch" cost about half what most studio animated efforts do.
Sanders and DeBlois had been repped solely by attorney Peter Nichols, but their new reps at WMA will move quickly on followup business.
The pair intend to continue working in animation but also aspire to write and direct live-action features, as well as to help produce the efforts of the next Sanders & DeBlois.
