Tara Nicole Whitaker to direct animated musical comedy feature ‘Pierre the Pigeon-Hawk’

will.i.am, Jennifer Hudson and Snoop Dogg to executive produce star-studded musically driven animated comedy which promotes diversity, inclusion and community

Tara Nicole Whitaker will make her feature directorial debut with the animated feature Pierre the Pigeon-Hawk, which she will co-direct alongside John D. Eraklis. The star-studded cast includes Academy Award winner Whoopi Goldberg, Jennifer Coolidge, Emmy Award winner Kenan Thompson, Emmy-nominated Howie Mandel, Luis Guzmán, Paul Blackthorne, Jamal Trulove, Domenick Lombardozzi, Evan Ross and Ashlee Simpson.  Grammy Award Winner will.i.am, Grammy and Academy Award winner Jennifer Hudson and Grammy Award nominee Snoop Dogg recently boarded and will executive produce Pierre The Pigeon-Hawk, which is a musically driven animated comedy that promotes diversity, inclusion, and community.  

Set in NYC and born as a product of forbidden love between a hawk (Goldberg) and a pigeon (Mandel) …Pierre (will.i.am) is rejected by both communities.  Tired of not fitting in, Pierre sets out on a mission to discover where he truly belongs.  During his adventure, he unites with a band of unlikely friends including a recently escaped bear from the Central Park Zoo, Ophelia the owl (Hudson) whose genius is outweighed only by her madness, and a pair of rag tag, pop-cultured city squirrels, Scratch (Snoop) and Sniff (Thompson).  Amidst a journey of self-discovery, Pierre finds the courage to inspire animals from all backgrounds to change their ways and open their minds to a new way of thinking.  It will take a hybrid bird to unite a hybrid world.  

Whitaker is currently working at Disney + directing on “The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder” which is set for a 2022 release and will be joining the Pierre team at years end.  She has been responsible for designing and helping bring characters to life at studios such as Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, and Netflix. She has also illustrated several children’s books, including the “My Baby Loves” series, and New York Times best seller “Shady Baby”.  Born in Brooklyn, New York, Whitaker earned her BFA in Character Animation from CalArts in 2002.

John D. Eraklis is producing alongside Toonz Media Group, Ciaran Crampton and Chase Muratore’s Sugar Water Entertainment.  Sugar Water Entertainment is providing financing in partnership with Toonz Media Group.  Jamal Trulove and Delbert Whetter are executive producing with co-executive producers Sentwali Holder and Jennifer Fowler.   The film is being produced and directed remotely and is in pre-production at Toonz Media Group studio in Spain. CAA Media Finance handling domestic sales with Highland Film Group handling international sales.

“We are thrilled to have Tara coming onboard.  She is an incredibly talented artist, animator and director, whose voice was the missing piece of our puzzle,” said Eraklis.

Said Tara Nicole Whitaker, “I am beyond delighted to join this incredible team of artists, musicians and storytellers to explore Pierre’s world and bring this wonderfully vibrant and inspiring tale of self-discovery to life.”

Exodus Film Group recently partnered with Pearl Street Films on the groundbreaking film Flash Before the Bang, a funny, touching and ultimately exhilarating coming-of-age drama which tells the true story of an all-deaf high school track & field team from the small-sized Oregon School. Told through the authentic lens of a deaf writer/director, Jevon Whetter, the film will star Troy Kotsur, the break-out lead from the award-winning 2021 Sundance Film Festival film CODA which Apple TV+ released, will star alongside Nyle DiMarco and Deanne Bray.

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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