Veteran production executive will supervise upcoming studio features from inception through production, as well as acquiring new creative IP and recruiting talent.
Karen Toliver.
Sony Pictures Animation has announced the promotion of Karen Toliver to the role of executive vice president of creative. Toliver, who joined the studio in 2017 as senior vice president of creative development, will be responsible for the creative supervision of a number of upcoming features for the studio, from inception to script, and through production. She will also be in charge of recruiting key storytelling talent, and discovering and acquiring new creative material and intellectual property aligned with Sony Pictures Animation’s vision including original concepts, books, comics, video games, shorts, websites, and toys.
According to a Deadline report, Sony Pictures Animation president Kristine Belson said, “Karen is an outstanding and deeply experienced executive with a unique ability to bring out the best in our storytellers. At Sony Animation, we are a community designed to support filmmakers bringing big, bold films to the world, and we are thrilled to have Karen as a leader in this quest.”
The studio just recently announced an aggressive slate of animated feature film and TV projects during a big “reveal” at the Annecy Animation Festival; two Genndy Tartakovsky films, including Fixed, the studio’s first R-Rated film, plus a new Boondocks TV series and anthology based on an Anthony Bourdain graphic novel, are some of the projects currently in development.
-- Read about Sony Pictures Animation production slate reveal at Annecy 2019 --
Prior to joining Sony Pictures Animation, the production and development veteran spent 10 years at Fox Animation, where she supervised the production of the Rio film franchise and the latest three films in the Ice Age series, which grossed a combined $3.1 billion at the worldwide box office. Toliver also spearheaded the Oscar-nominated Ferdinand. During her tenure as a production executive at Walt Disney Animation Studios, she worked on such films as Brother Bear, Chicken Little and Meet the Robinsons. Sher began her career as an assistant at Walt Disney Pictures working on the Mighty Ducks franchise.
Source: Deadline
Dan Sarto is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.
