Fergal Reilly

Fergal Reilly is an Irish film director, storyboard artist, voice actor and animator best known for directing the animated film The Angry Birds Movie.

Fergal Reilly
Born
Ardee, Ireland
NationalityIrish-American
OccupationFilm Director, storyboard artist, voice actor, animator
Years active1996 – present

Early life and career

Reilly was born in Ardee, Ireland, and moved to the United States at the age of nineteen.[1] He started working at the Walt Disney Studios in Los Angeles, and Dale Baer Animation as an animator and story board artist.[1] He was a story artist on the Warner Brothers animated and hybrid movies The Iron Giant, Space Jam, and Osmosis Jones.

He is an alumnus of Gormanston College a former boarding school in Ireland where he drew comics, cartoons and caricatures in lieu of any formal art classes. He attended the Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology where he initially studied graphic design, but always suspected that he did not want to spend his life "pushing type around reports for banks".[2]

Reilly was among the first animation artists to worked on both live-action and animated movies. He left Warner's to work on Stuart Little and The Haunted Mansion creating storyboards and concept art. In 2002 he helped visualize the action set pieces for Spider-Man 2, including the train battle between Spider-Man and Doc Ock.[3]

In 2003 he joined Sony Pictures new animation division and spent 10 years there as a story artist and story supervisor helping develop projects for their family entertainment slate. He also worked with Jon Favreau and Richard Linklater as a story supervisor on special projects.[4]

In 2011 he was slated to direct a film adaptation of The Familiars with Doug Sweetland and Sam Raimi producing for Sony/Columbia Pictures.[5] The film was cancelled.

In 2012 Reilly was picked by the Irish Technology Leadership Group (ITLG) as one of the most influential Irish Americans influencing the worlds of entertainment and technology alongside Kathleen Kennedy producer of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.[6]

Reilly made his feature film directing debut in 2013 with The Angry Birds Movie, which he co-directed with Clay Kaytis for Sony Pictures Entertainment.[7] The film was based on the Rovio Entertainment's video game Angry Birds. Jon Vitti wrote the screenplay for the film, which was released in the United States on May 20, 2016.[8][9] In a 2016 interview for Collider, when asked about the challenge of turning a game app into a blockbuster animated movie he said "We didn’t think about the intimidation factor. There was a lot of noise about how do you turn an app into a movie. But, for us, as soon as we see the creative problem, we just start to focus on it. Both our trainings, I mean, we’ve spent our whole careers creating character. It’s an intense process, but that’s what we’ve done." [10] The movie opened at number one in over 50 countries and the US, toppling Marvel's Captain America: Civil War off the top spot and setting records for May. It was Sony's top grossing blockbuster of 2016 at the box office, grossing 353 million dollars on a 73 million dollar budget. It also opened number 1 in digital downloads on ITunes and on DVDs and Blu-ray.

In 2019 it was announced in The Hollywood Reporter that Reilly would direct Pete and Goat, an R-rated, live-action dramedy.[11] Mike Vukadinovich is behind the original screenplay. Daniel Dubiecki (Juno, Thank You for Smoking) and Lara Alameddine (Money Monster) will produce the pic under their Allegiance Theater banner, with Stuart Ford's AGC Studios financing.

Filmography

As Director

As Actor

Story Artist /Animator

References
  1. "Ardee's Fergal Reilly talks making Angry Birds". This is Ardee. December 23, 2015. Retrieved May 18, 2016.
  2. Clarke, Donald. "We're not in Ardee any more: meet the Irish director of the Angry Birds Movie". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2020-02-24.
  3. DP/30: Angry Birds, director Fergal Reilly, retrieved 2020-02-24
  4. Hipes, Patrick (April 26, 2016). "'Angry Birds' Director Fergal Reilly Inks With UTA". Deadline. Retrieved May 18, 2016.
  5. "IADT graduate to co-direct big budget animated feature in LA". siliconrepublic.com. 2011-08-25. Retrieved 2020-12-12.
  6. Kennedy, John (2012-09-22). "ITLG announces Hollywood 50 at Sony Pictures Studios - Irish-American execs take centre stage". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2020-02-23.
  7. Roxborough, Scott (October 10, 2013). "Rovio Names Directors for 'Angry Birds' Movie". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved May 18, 2016.
  8. Roberts, Sheila (May 15, 2016). "'The Angry Birds Movie': Fergal Reilly & Clay Kaytis on Transitioning from Animators to Directors". Retrieved May 17, 2016.
  9. Amidi, Amid (October 9, 2013). "Animation Vets Clay Kaytis and Fergal Reilly Will Direct "Angry Birds" Feature". Cartoon Brew. Retrieved May 17, 2016.
  10. Roberts, Sheila (2016-05-22). "'The Angry Birds Movie': Fergal Reilly & Clay Kaytis on Adapting the Game for the Big Screen". Collider. Retrieved 2020-02-24.
  11. "'Angry Birds Movie' Director Tackling Road Trip Dramedy 'Pete and Goat'". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2020-02-23.
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