Cornerstone of production

Whitaker to helm toon feature

By DAVID BLOOM

Production company Cornerstone Animation has acquired rights to the comicbook "Meridian," a coming-of-age adventure about the youthful leader of a mythical island who is struggling against her evil uncle for control of her powers, said Cornerstone prexy-CEO Jason VanBorssum.

The acquisition is Glendale-based Cornerstone's first venture into feature project acquisition.

Cornerstone chief creative officer Larry Whitaker ("The Iron Giant," "The Tigger Movie") will co-write and is planning to direct the project as an animated film, with Michael Uslan, exec producer of "Batman" TV and film franchises and "Carmen Sandiego," attached as exec producer. Cornerstone execs are shopping the project to studios.

"Meridian" is a long-running series from Cross Generation Comics, a No. 1 seller for the fourth-largest comicbook publisher. In addition to a monthly serial publication, three "Meridian" trade paperbacks have been published.

"It's a contemporary mythology that evokes 'Peter Pan,' 'Pinocchio' and even 'Return of the Jedi,' " said Uslan, a principal at Branded Entertainment.

Cornerstone is best known for animation direction on Disney's recent toon sequel "Return to Neverland." It also produced "Larryboy" for Big Ideas Prods. and created other toon work for Disney, Mattel, Fox TV and Focus on the Family.