Jill Culton Joins Jon M. Chu To Co-Direct Dr. Seuss’ ‘Oh, The Places You’ll Go!’ For Warner Bros Animation & Bad Robot

EXCLUSIVE: Animation vet Jill Culton has joined Jon M. Chu as directing partner of the Warner Bros Pictures Animation adaptation of Dr. Seuss’ classic Oh, the Places You’ll Go! Pic is a big priority for the studio, being done with Dr. Seuss Enterprises and Bad Robot.

Benj Pasek and Justin Paul will write original songs for the film adaptation. Rob Lieber (Peter Rabbit) is writing the screenplay based on Dr. Seuss’ final book. The book is the blueprint for a globetrotting animated musical following a young adventurer as they journey through the joys and heartaches, and the peaks and valleys, of life.

Bad Robot’s J.J. Abrams is producing along with Hannah Minghella, Bad Robot’s Head of Motion Pictures.

Culton is a 30-year veteran in the animated feature film space and is best known for both writing and directing Abominable (2019), a co-production with Dreamworks Animation and Pearl Studios. She is a computer animation pioneer, spending a decade at Pixar working on their early classics – Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2 — and she has an ‘original story by’ credit on Monster’s Inc. where she was the head of story development.  She also designed Jessie, the cowgirl doll in the Toy Story franchise. She separately directed Sony Pictures’ first animated feature, Open Season, and was an executive producing Open Season 2. 

Culton is represented by Verve.