Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema have signed “Moana 2” co-director David Derrick Jr. and “Ultraman: Rising” co-director John Aoshima to direct their upcoming film adaptation of Sanrio’s “Hello Kitty” franchise, which will be released July 21, 2028.
Ramsay Naito, the former head of Paramount and Nickelodeon Animation, has also joined the project as a producer alongside Beau Flynn. Shelby Thomas is overseeing for FlynnPictureCo.
“Moana 2” was Derrick Jr.’s directorial debut, having previously served as a story artist on the first “Moana,” most notably storyboarding the sequence for the Oscar-nominated song “How Far I’ll Go.” During his time at Disney, he also served as a story artist for “Raya and the Last Dragon,” “Encanto” and “Strange World.” Prior to that, he worked as a story artist at DreamWorks Animation for films like “How to Train Your Dragon” and “Megamind.”
Aoshima also recently made his feature directorial debut with “Ultraman: Rising,” which was released by Netflix in 2024. He has previously served as a TV animation director on shows like “American Dad” and “DuckTales,” and served on the story department for Laika’s 2016 Oscar-nominated feature film “Kubo and the Two Strings.”