Animation veterans Fergal Reilly, Clay Kaytis to helm "Angry Birds"

PanARMENIAN.Net - "Angry Birds" has got its directors. Fergal Reilly and Clay Kaytis are billed to helm the big screen animation take on Rovio's wildly-popular game app. The script will be penned by "The Simpsons" writer Jon Vitti. The movie is slated for a July 1, 2016 release, AceShowbiz said.

Reilly and Kaytis are both animation veterans. Reilly joined Sony Pictures Animation in 2003 as a storyboard artist, contributing to "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs", "Hotel Transylvania" and "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2". He was also a storyboard artist on films like "Spider-Man 2" and "The Iron Giant".

Kaytis began his career as an animator at Walt Disney Animation Studios. He served as animation supervisor of "Tangled" and its follow-up short, "Tangled Ever After". He also conceived and oversaw the end credits sequence of "Wreck-It Ralph", and became the supervising animator of the character Rhino in "Bolt". Kaytis' most recent project is "Frozen (2013)" due November 27.

Rovio Entertainment CEO Mikael Hed said, "I'm very excited that Fergal and Clay have joined us, bringing with them their vast expertise. They are two of the brightest rising talents in animation, and I'm confident we are building the right team to tell the story of Angry Birds and deliver an amazing movie experience to our fans."

Producer John Cohen commented, "David, Catherine and I are thrilled to welcome Fergal and Clay to the Angry Birds filmmaking team. They both have an extraordinary range of talents, and we're looking forward to working with them to bring the birds and pigs to life on the big screen."

"Angry Birds" will mark Fergal and Clay's directorial debut and Rovio's first foray into feature films. To pave the way for a big-screen treatment, Rovio has launched a weekly Angry Birds Toons animated series. It reportedly surpassed one billion views in its first seven months of release.