Global Courant
EXCLUSIVE: Ramsey Naito, President, Paramount Animation and Nickelodeon Animation, has a big remit, overseeing all of the groups’ operations from development through release. The respected veteran also has big hopes for an upcoming slate of franchise installments as well as original features.
At CinemaCon in April, she whet the exhibition’s appetite for the August release of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, bringing writer and producer Seth Rogen to the stage for an extended look. Tonight at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, Naito and the movie’s director and co-screenwriter, Jeff Rowe, will present a work-in-progress screening to the audience.
Deadline recently caught up with the exec to talk about the new-look take on the Heroes on the Half-Shell as well as Transformers One, the first animated Transformers film in nearly 40 years which is due in September 2024 and features a starry voice cast . We also discussed Paramount and Nickelodeon’s franchise strategy, and the evolving and inspiring role of women in the industry. “When I started my career,” Naito says below, “I was often the only woman in the room let alone Asian American woman in the room. Now, there are so many women at the table.”
(This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity)
DEADLINE: You’re bringing a work-in-progress version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem to Annecy this year. After debuting footage at CinemaCon in April, what made you want to show the whole film at this festival?
RAMSEY NAITO: I’m so confident about it. We love the film, it’s one of the films personally in my career that I’m so proud of, I’m so proud of the team.
I’ve been going (to Annecy) for years, and have become really close with the whole leadership of the festival… I feel like it’s the Cannes of animation festivals. Because of their love of animation and inspiring the community and really picking topics that are meaningful, all the majors go and show their wares and bring talent to talk about their wares and the making of… The thing I really love is the real audience are the students, so all of this adds up to connecting the world and inspiring animators which is the next generation of makers. We feel like it’s a safe place to show a work-in-progress.
DEADLINE: Mutant Mayhem has a unique animation style. What was the process like developing the project? And bringing the team on board including Seth Rogen and Jeff Rowe?
NAITO: I remember when I first started at Nickelodeon in 2018, Brian (Robbins, Paramount Pictures President and CEO) and I were in his office and we were talking about who are we gonna invite into Turtles, it’s such a great title, and we both said, ‘Seth Rogen.’ Then, lucky for us, Seth was a superfan; he grew up with Turtles and really loved it. Then Jeff came in and it was the same thing, that love really amounted to so many great things in the film which is the look. And they really wanted to tell a story that embraced the teenage part — and to our surprise there hadn’t been any stories told about the teenage part which was weird.
Jeff in particular gravitated towards teenage doodles, high school doodles that kids start doing in their notebooks… Those doodles are infused and inspired and embraced by raw budding hormones and dreams of empowerment and the desire of being accepted. All of those things combined really inspired the look of the film which is so tactile, and ended up also then along the way of being infused with the spirit of New York — the smells of the subway, grit, grime, energy. It has so much energy look-wise.
The development was born out of the teenage part of TMNT that was really organic. And because of the coming-of-age part of it, Seth being the comic genius that he is through these unique characters brought voice and comedy and heart.
DEADLINE: How would you categorize it within the franchise?
NAITO: It’s a reimagining relaunch with new creators that are coming in through the door with these characters being teenagers. It embraces more that coming-of-age spirit and is really kind of an origins story of how these turtles became ninja and how they became mutants and heroes.
DEADLINE: It’s been almost two years since Paramount and Nickelodeon Animation combined forces under one roof. How has this alignment helped the growth of the content and your overall vision for the studio?
NAITO: Five years ago, when I joined Brian at Nickelodeon, it was a reunion because I started my career there. My blood is a little orange and always has been because I love the brand so much and what it stands for. When I started, we had like nine productions and very quickly we scaled to nearly 60 across movies and series and digital content.
When Nickelodeon and Paramount came together, it really then solidified Paramount Pictures in a way; it also solidified us being a world class studio because we not only had linear and Paramount+, but we also had Paramount Pictures’ distribution platforms under our control. It solidified our presence, but also fired up our culture, our talent relationships and gave us so many opportunities in terms of telling stories.
Going back to Turtles, it’s a really great example about how Paramount Pictures anchored Turtles as a real theatrical play that we could control and plan for. But also, Seth Rogen and that whole team coming in and embracing Turtles knowing that it was theatrical really was meaningful.
The bottom line is that the inclusion really did mean something to us and opened up so many doors. There is nothing like a theatrical play.
DEADLINE: With Mutant Mayhem, that makes six new upcoming installments to major animated franchises including PAW Patrol, Smurfs, SpongeBob, Avatar and Transformers that you have added to your theatrical slate since taking on your current role in September 2021. How important are franchise films to your business strategy for the studio?
NAITO: The strength of every franchise comes from the talent behind those franchises telling those stories. Outside of the business of reinvigorating these titles there is an art matching these titles with creators that love them and that is the real secret sauce to the success of any franchise strategy.
We are also very invested in originals and our ability to be able to launch original titles theatrically that allows us to add to our incredible library of franchise titles which is really important to creating the next franchise of the future.
DEADLINE: What to you makes a theatrical film?
NAITO: I think the bottom line is really great characters, really great stories, but talent that can tell a story that is impactful and has heart and soul and also embraces the genre whether its comedy or action or action/comedy in a way that feels fresh and cinematic.
I think theatricals have to really make a mark out there, they have to speak to audiences in a way that makes them want to get up and go out and leave their living room or their phone and see something that feels like an experience.
And in animation, I think the look really has to feel different, it has to be something they can’t get on TV or on their devices and has to deliver of a quality that is sensational.
DEADLINE: Can you speak a bit more about Transformers One, the first animated Transformers movie in 40 years that you announced at CinemaCon with a voice cast that features Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry, Scarlett Johansson, Keegan-Michael Key, Jon Hamm and Laurence Fishburne?
NAITO: It is truly a resonant cast. It’s an origins story that tells the backstory of Megatron and Optimus, it’s really a brother-to-foe type of story. It takes place on Cybertron which is the planet that they all speak to and the planet we see in the live-action movies being destroyed. So here, being that it’s an origin and it’s when they are young, this planet is beautiful, alive, a spectacle, a personality and a character in itself.
What I understand fans have always been interested in is knowing more about their backstory and knowing about Cybertron; and in live-action, let’s face it, it would be a very hard thing to create. In animation, it’s a perfect thing to create because in animation everything is created.
DEADLINE: At Annecy, you’re also involved in the Women in Animation World Summit. How have you seen the evolution of women working in animation throughout your career?
NAITO: When I started my career, I was often the only woman in the room let alone Asian American woman in the room. Now, there are so many women at the table. It’s really great and inspiring and empowering. I feel like there’s more support for women in our industry than ever before. I’m so glad I can be a part of it because when I was younger that support wasn’t there, the dialogue wasn’t there.
Women are coming into the workforce in a really big way and that’s great. I think there’s lots of opportunity for women, and women are talking and mentoring women and connecting and changing culture to include everybody. A big part of the culture is changing in general. In a world of inclusion, we are providing opportunities for everyone. We also have to provide a culture to keep developing opportunities along the way.
DEADLINE: Turning back to animation in general, I’m always fascinated how feature animation manages to hit notes that resonate for both kids and adults. How do you work to strike that balance?
NAITO: It’s a big part of our development process across the board; that we are telling stories, but more specifically when it comes to comedy, relating to the parents in the room and also to the kids. When those jokes can ring bells on both sides of the fence in different ways, that’s the real goal. And it does require really smart clever writing by writers who have wit and language.
DEADLINE: And particularly when films are being dubbed into different languages…
NAITO: The people who have the jobs to translate and make that sing across the globe are geniuses.
DEADLINE: What was the first animated movie you remember seeing?
NAITO: Fantasia, I love Fantasia.
DEADLINE: Do you think that experience had any impact on what you do today?
NAITO: Yes and no. I never thought I would work in animation, I went to school to be an artist, but I loved animation. Why I loved Fantasia and why I still do is it made such an impression on me in terms of moving picture and music and the ability to have a narrative without language and how moving and awesome that would be for a kid who may not be able to speak yet, that’s great.
DEADLINE: It’s funny that we were just talking about how to hit notes in different languages, yet you referenced a film that has essentially no spoken dialogue…
NAITO: In some weird way there is a beauty to animation that can do that all the time.
