The immensely talented Tim Minchin is now going to add director to his already impressive multi-hyphenate career of musical comedian-composer-actor.
You might know how great Minchin is from his Nerdist podcast episode as well as his inspired run of improvised musical stand-up on Set List. Now, Dreamworks Animation has bumped Minchin up from composing songs to directing the upcoming animated feature Larrikins. The movie follows the adventures of a rabbit-like Aussie critter known as a “bilby”; Minchin, of course, is from Australia, and has composed the music and lyrics for another project based on a children’s novel, the Tony Award-winning stage musical version of Roald Dahl’s Matilda.
Minchin described the film to the Sydney Morning Herald’s Karl Quinn as “…a bit Star Wars, a bit (The) Gods Must Be Crazy, a big road journey,” adding that Dreamworks “started going, ‘Holy shit, let’s get a producer on this. Then they started saying, ‘Why don’t you direct this?’ and I was like, ‘You’re f—ing joking’. And then I realized they were serious.”
Love Tim Minchin!!! Can’t wait for this.
They’ll also bring a co-director on board a bit further into the project.
Wow. Directing an animated movie isn’t an easy task. I’m surprised they’d want someone untested at the helm.