Former Pixar vet directs new project at Laika

In 1993, Jan Pinkava came to the US to work at a little known animation company named Pixar. Four years later, his short “Geri’s Game” won the Oscar for Best Animated Short and he was part of the venerated Pixar braintrust that included John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter and the late Joe Ranft. He would have been one of only a handful of directors to lead a Pixar animated film with RATATOUILLE. But that all changed in 2005.

Pinkava was replaced as director of the film after five years of work on the film and was replaced by INCREDIBLES director Brad Bird (Pinkava shared a co-directing credit for his earlier work on the film). While he never spoke publicly about it, his persistent refusal to comment and his departure from Pixar spoke volumes.

But now Pinkava has returned to work at another upstart animation studio, Laika (CORALINE), to direct another original project. Pinkava will direct LITTLE WHITE LIE, a project he’s been working on for the past two years. Little is known about the film other than it’s based on experience from Pinkava’s childhood. Unlike CORALINE, Laiki will be a computer animated film not unlike what Pixar or DreamWorks Animation releases. The studio, which is funded in part by Nike founder Phil Knight, is hoping to keep the film more modestly budgeted though than a Pixar film.