According to sources at Deadline & Variety… Ahead of the debut of DC’s animated Max series “Creature Commandos,” the studio is mounting its first animated feature project, “Dynamic Duo,” with Warner Bros. Pictures Animation. But rather than focus on Batman and Robin, the film will serve as an origin story for Robin and Robin — a.k.a. Dick Grayson and Jason Todd.
DC Studios co-chief JAMES GUNN announced on social media Tuesday afternoon.
“Over the moon excited to announce the newest DC Studios/Warner Bros Pictures Animation greenlit film for theaters, DYNAMIC DUO, the story of Robin… or should I say, Robins, as in Dick Grayson and Jason Todd,” Gunn posted on X. “The first feature film from the visionary Swaybox, a mix of animation, puppetry, and CGI, a script from the wonderfully talented Matt Aldrich, produced with our partners at Matt Reeves’ 6th & Idaho. This is something special.”
Matthew Aldrich (“Coco,” “Lightyear”) is writing the film, which will be produced by MATT REEVES’ production company, 6th & Idaho — but the story will be separate from Reeves’ ongoing Gotham-verse with “The Batman” and “The Penguin.” Instead, it will depict how the friendship between Grayson and Todd as youths becomes tested by their diverging ideas for what their future should be.
In the DC comics, after their respective stints as Batman’s sidekick, Robin, Dick becomes the superhero Nightwing, while Jason transforms into the violent vigilante Red Hood.
The 6th & Idaho movie scripted by Matthew Aldrich is being made by a new animation studio out of New Orleans named SWAYBOX, and that studio’s husband-and-wife creators Arthur Mintz and Theresa Andersson. Mintz will direct this movie, which follows the early days of Dick Grayson and Jason Todd aka the Robins.
Swaybox uses a technology known as “Momo animation,” which is a cross between CGI animation, practical elements of stop-motion, and live-action real-time performance. The result is long-form storytelling billed as visually breathtaking, dynamically expressive and more human.