Paris, Hong Kong and L.A-based sales company All Rights Entertainment has picked up worldwide rights for “The Defects,” a 3D animated sci-fi comedy that drew significant buzz as this year’s Cartoon Movie, which ran from March 5 – 7 in Bordeaux.
Directed by Federico Milella (“The Fairy Princess & the Unicorn”) and produced by Luxembourg-based Fabrique d’Images (“Luis and the Aliens,” “Tally Ho!”), the family adventure will enter production later this year with budget of €10 million ($10.9 million) with an intended 2027 delivery date.
France’s Fantabulous and Belgium’s Freaks Factory will co-produce, while Belgian artist Stéphane Halleux – whose steampunk influence shaped the Oscar winning short “Mr. Hublot” – will oversee the film’s look and feel.
Described as kind of “Blade Runner” given a family friendly polish, “The Defects” takes place in a retro-futuristic suburbia where faulty humans are replaced by perfect robotic clones. When 12-year-old tech-head Hope falls in with a gang of likeminded outcasts, the misfit posse will have to foil a plot to replace the community’s children en masse, while grappling with deeper existential concerns: Just how ‘real’ are any of them?
“We are thrilled to bring worldwide distributors this bold and exciting new film,” says All Right managing director Aymeric Desfontaines. “And we are all the more thrilled to forge links with La Fabrique d’Images. Their professionalism and experience will give ‘The Defects’ the production value of films more than twice the budget.”
The project marks the first of three titles produced by Fabrique d’Images and backed by All Rights, with the next two set to roll and launch sales at Cannes. Desfontaines also tells PvNew that “The Defects” has already attracted international interest and offers.
