Despite finding huge success with Oscar-nominated modern holiday classic Klaus a few years ago, Netflix has scrapped director Sergio Pablos‘ follow-up project, Ember.
The film was set to be a hand-drawn animated film, but is now the latest animated project the streamer has stopped production on, following Ava DuVernay‘s Wings of Fire, and kid-friendly projects Antiracist Baby and With Kind Regards From Kindergarten.
Like those decisions, sources tell Variety that the choice to cut ties with the project are creative-based and not cost related like the recently maligned decisions being made over at Warner Bros. regarding HBO Max content.
Fortunately, Pablos retains the rights to Ember and will be able to shop it elsewhere. Having developed the concepts for hits like Despicable Me and Smallfoot, as well as directing the aforementioned Klaus, there should be interest from other streamers and studios in Ember.
So what’s it about? Th story is described as an epic adventure tale revolving around humankind’s quest for fire, told through the eyes of a young protagonist who embarks on an impossible race to a distant volcano to retrieve the precious spark that will save her tribe.
Hopefully Pablos can find a new home for Ember. Whether Netflix’s decision to scrap production on the film and its fellow in-development animated projects was indeed creative-driven or not, it’s clear that, with the streaming world more competitive than ever, more and more projects will be abruptly scrapped if streamers don’t believe there’s a path to profit in them.
#Peace.Love.Ember
