Vivo (Sony Pictures Animation, 2020)

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‘Croods’ Director Kirk DeMicco Jumps to Sony For Lin-Manuel Miranda’s ‘Vivo’.

Now that Dreamworks has killed the Croods sequel, the directors of the film—Chris Sanders and Kirk DeMicco—have to look for new jobs. The dessert-loving DeMicco seems to have found his next gig: directing an animated musical by Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda (Music MOANA) at Sony Pictures Animation.

The film, entitled Vivo, was announced today and has been fast-tracked by Sony Pictures Animation president Kristine Belson, who herself left Dreamworks after the film she was producing, B.O.O.: Bureau of Otherworldly Operations, was canned.

According to Deadline, which broke the news, Miranda’s Vivo was also set up at Dreamworks around six years ago, before the Pulitzer-winning playwright had hit it big with Hamilton, but was garnering Hollywood’s attention for an earlier stage production, In The Heights. The story follows a music-loving capuchin monkey who travels from Havana, Cuba to Miami to become a musical star. The film will contain 11 songs written by Miranda.

The original idea for the film came from High School Musical franchise creator Peter Barsocchini, and the new film script is being written by Miranda’s stage collaborator Quiara Alegría Hudes (In the Heights)

Lisa Stewart (Turbo, Monsters vs Aliens) will produce; Laurence Mark will exec produce. Artist-turned-exec Mike Moon, who is now Sony Animation’s senior vice president of creative affairs, will oversee the project for the studio along with Belson.

Sony is eyeing a December 18, 2020 release date for Vivo.