News > Favreau to Direct Mo-Cap Neanderthals

Written by David Morgan

Iron Man director Jon Favreau is beginning to talk about his next project, which he's apparently been developing for the past four years. It's a motion capture animated film called Neanderthals, and he's hoping to begin filming before the potential actors strike in June. He clarified his intentions and vision a bit to MTV:

Mo-cap is a misleading term because the animation won’t resemble the animation of Polar Express or Monster House. That was very lifelike. This will be comedic and stylized. The animation will appear more like a traditional animated film. The mo-cap will be used simply as a basis for animation and to allow the performers to all be in one space together. Hopefully, it will inherit some of their spontaneity.

I think he may have Monster House confused with something else as that picture was rather cartoony, but you get the idea. MTV asks if he is thinking about casting his buddy and frequent collaborator Vince Vaughn.

We haven’t cast it yet, but I like working with people who have a background in improvisation. I don’t want to follow the paradigm of a [traditional] animated film.

Favreau's got just enough clout and connections to get pretty much anybody he wants these days. It should be interesting to see who he gets together and how the whole thing turns out.