Sony Taps Lauren Faust to Direct ‘Medusa’ Feature
Sony Pictures Animation today announced that they’ve acquired an original comedy pitch entitled Medusa from screenwriter Todd Alcott (Antz) and reality TV producer Holly Golden (Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura). More interesting: Lauren Faust (My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Super Best Friends Forever) is attached to direct.
Faust said in an official Sony statement:
“Todd and Holly’s version of the tale of Medusa is filled with so many of my favorite ideas to work with: magic, mythology, humor and strong, funny, extremely relatable characters. I was excited by the idea of showing the comedy behind an otherwise horrific monster, and I was really drawn to the writer’s unique re-imagining of Greek mythology. In our story, we meet Medusa as a young human, who, like so many of us, is overwhelmed with trying to fit a certain mold to please others. Her resulting popularity ticks off the wrong Goddess who turns her into the snake-haired monster we all know and fear. Medusa sets out on a quest to reverse this curse with the help of a goofy team of oddball and misfit mythological creatures who help her learn that what makes you different is, in fact, what makes you strong.”
It’s important to point out that the film hasn’t been greenlit for production yet, and Sony has struggled more than any other major studio in trusting its directors with original ideas. The studio’s last original film was Hotel Transylvania in 2012, and that film shuffled through multiple directors before settling on Genndy Tartakovsky. The studio’s next two films will be based on existing franchises—Hotel Transylvania 2 and a Smurfs reboot—and the earliest possible slot for another original idea is currently fall 2016 (though that’s likely too early for Medusa). In other words, while this announcement is a positive bit of news, Sony has proven to be a consistently difficult environment for directors to express a complete vision. We’ll have to wait a while longer to see how this project unfolds.
