Though the box office is usually dominated by the behemoths of animation – your Pixars, your DreamWorks, your Illumination, 20th Century Fox and Sony Animation, etc. – there’s always a chance for indie ‘toon directors to slip through once in a while. A case in point ins Peter Lepeniotis, who has dragooned Will Arnett, Katherine Heigl, Brendan Fraser, Stephen Lang, Sarah Gadon and Jeff Dunham to star in The Nut Job.
Based on his 2005 short Surly Squirrel (which you can watch at the bottom of the page), **Job **is set a fictional 1950s town called Oakton. There, Surly the squirrel and rat pal Buddy plot a nut store heist that quickly gets out of hand.
Lepeniotis is a Pixar and ILM veteran, and he’s got a script by ‘toon writer Lorne Cameron, who worked on both **Brother Bear **and Over The Hedge (which is what the poster below makes the movie most resemble, albeit with just a touch of Remy from Ratatouille in Buddy).
Canadian company ToonBox Entertainment is producing this one, and the plan is to have it out in 2013.