Animated adventure Fireheart lines up ensemble cast including Cooke & more
L’Atelier Animation’s upcoming animated adventure, Fireheart, has begun assembling an all-star roster of talent for its voice cast including Ready Player One‘s Olivia Cooke and five-time Oscar nominee Kenneth Branagh (Death on the Nile), according to Variety.
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The film, written by Laurent Zeitoun (Leap!), Daphne Ballon (Life with Derek) and Jennica Harper (Some Assembly Acquired), is set in the roaring twenties and revolves around sixteen-year-old Georgia Nolan (Cooke) who has the impossible dream of becoming a firefighter at a time when women are not allowed to serve. When a mysterious arsonist starts burning down Broadway, one by one all the firemen in the city disappear. Georgia’s beloved father, Shawn (Branagh), is called out of retirement by the Mayor of NY (William Shatner) to lead the investigation as Captain in the FDNY. Desperate to help her father and save her city, Georgia resorts to disguising herself as a young man called “Joe” and joins the small group of misfit firefighters trying to stop the arsonist, risking everything she loves to do it.
In addition to Branagh and Cooke, the cast for the film will include William Shatner (Star Trek), who stars as the Mayor of New York, and The Walking Dead and The Americans alum Laurie Holden. The film is being produced and created by Zeitoun and Yann Zenou for their Montreal-based L’Atelier Animation studios alongside Main Journey (Leap!), Anton (Paddington, His Dark Materials) and Caramel Films, with a slated completion of 2021.
“Fireheart is one of the most highly anticipated independent animated features amongst our buyers and the studio-level quality of L’Atelier Animation’s work is outstanding,” Cecile Gaget, President of International Production and Distribution for Anton, said in a statement. Gaget previously collaborated with Zeitoun and Zenou during her time at Gaumont, where she handled the international sales of the duo’s previous hit film Leap!
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In addition to co-creating and co-writing the script, Zeitoun will co-direct the film alongside Ted Ty (How to Train Your Dragon 2), who previously was the animation director on Leap!.