Gringo Films does not sound like the kind of company that muscles its way into the global animation business. The Cologne-based outfit is literally a mom-and-pop shop, run by partners Steve Hudson and Sonja Ewers. When they optioned Stitch Head a decade ago, after listening to the audiobook version of Guy Bass’ children’s book on a family car ride, their plan was charmingly modest: Adapt Bass’ gothic tale, about a distracted mad professor who zaps new creatures into life only to immediately abandon them, as a classic European co-production.
Their pitch was simple: a four-quadrant family comedy that winked at horror tropes — the mad scientist, the monsters, the mob of angry villagers — without ever becoming too scary. “It’s a family film about horror movies, but it’s not a horror movie,” says Hudson, who adapted Stitch Head for the screen. “The great thing about Guy’s book is that, with so many kids’ books you have to spend so much time explaining the rules of the world — why the adventurers have to find the key to the thing to unlock the magic whatever. But you say ‘mad scientist in a castle,’ and everyone knows immediately what you’re talking about.”
Bass’ book reads like a mash-up of Frankenstein and Monsters, Inc. Stitch Head, the pint-sized, patchwork protagonist, was the first creature brought to “almost life” by mad professor Erasmus. In the years since, he’s become nursemaid to the master’s ever-growing menagerie of neglected creatures, tasked with teaching them to suppress their “inner monster” and hide out in the castle — away from the prying eyes, and itchy pitchfork fingers, of the village mob in the valley below. But when a grubby circus impresario, Fulbert Freakfinder, arrives offering Stitch Head a starring role in his freak show, our hero is tempted by the promise of love and acceptance.
The husband and wife team behind Gringo Films’ optioned ‘Stitch Head’ a decade ago after listening to the audio book version of Guy Bass’ children’s book on a family car ride.
Gringo-Films-Senator-Film-Produktion
Ewers and co-producer Mark Mertens cobbled together funding from regional and European backers and closed their budget at €8 million ($9.3 million). Veteran German animation director Toby Genkel (The Amazing Maurice, The Ogglies) was brought on to help Hudson with his first-ever animated project. (Hudson directed the 2006 live-action feature True North starring Peter Mullan and Martin Compston, as well as several episodes of the Emmy-winning TV series Cranford.)
“I had zero technical experience,” admits Hudson. But having spent much of his career as a voice-over artist for European cartoons and animated features, and before that in live comedy, he did understand audio performance — the key to making animation funny.
“90 percent of comedic timing is sound. Animation starts as a radio play. You have to get all that stuff — timing, laughs, emotions — right before you start with the visuals,” he says.
Hudson’s script kept the core of Bass’ story but expanded on its themes, adding plenty of sight gags and film references, including family-friendly nods to A Clockwork Orange and 2001: A Space Odyssey. “It’s the old jokes-for-the-dads thing,” he says, citing influences running from classic Asterix comics to early Pixar films to Nick Park’s claymation shorts. “For me, [Park’s] The Wrong Trousers is basically Citizen Kane,” he quips.
In early 2020, when Stitch Head was ready to roll, COVID hit and, in the global scramble for content, Gringo got an unexpected boost: New financing that promised to supersize their budget, from roughly €8 million to €26 million (about $30 million).
Suddenly, this scrappy European co-pro had studio trappings: Grammy-nominated composer Nick Urata (Paddington, Little Miss Sunshine), and a top-tier British voice cast led by Sex Education star Asa Butterfield. There was time and money for bigger and more elaborate set pieces, more polished animation — even a proper needle drop involving a classic bit of ’80s soft-rock cheese.
Briarcliff Entertainment will release ‘Stitch Head’ theatrically in the U.S. on Oct. 29.
Gringo-Films-Senator-Film-Produktion
But, post-COVID, the ground shifted. There was a budget gap, and if Ewers couldn’t close it, Stitch Head would die on the table.
The producers turned to the companies that had believed in the project from the start — Germany’s Wild Bunch, Senator Film and Traumhaus Studios, and Luxembourg’s Fabrique d’Images — and they stepped up. “Luckily, we still had our original partners, the ones who were with us from the beginning, and they all stepped up,” says Ewers. “That’s a lesson about staying true to the partners you trust.”
To finish the finance plan, Gringo approached GFM Animation, the U.K.-based world sales group that last year helped drum up international sales for the orphaned animated feature The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie. GFM brought in London-based animation studio Aniventure (Klaus, Animal Farm), who put up a big minimum guarantee against all worldwide rights to the film, outside of those held by Wild Bunch in Europe.
“Aniventure was our white knight. They saved the film,” says Ewers.
The final stress test came with a proof-of-concept screening in the summer of 2023 in Burbank, featuring black-and-white storyboards and sketches. “When the first image went up, I heard a kid in the audience say, ‘Oh no, it’s in black and white!’” Hudson recalls. “But by the end, you could have heard a pin drop.”
Hudson took over as sole director, with animation overseen by David Nasser (Despicable Me, Hotel Transylvania). Production was a global affair. Fabrique d’Images in Luxembourg did much of the heavy lifting, including production design, Germany’s Studio Rakete handled lighting, and the bulk of the animation work was run through Assemblage Entertainment in India.
“There’s extraordinary talent all over the world,” says Hudson, “they just rarely get the chance to show it at this scale.”
The final result, seen when Stitch Head premiered at Annecy in June, is a marvel: A combination of gothic, expressionist imagery with candy-colored spectacle that manages to give the film a tactile, slightly frayed look that makes the largely 3D CGI animation feel jerry-rigged. It’s that rarest of creatures: A studio-scale crowd-pleaser with the handmade heart of an indie. Impressed, Briarcliff Entertainment snatched up U.S. rights and is releasing the film theatrically Oct. 29.
Against the odds, this little Cologne company built something big — a monster with a beating heart, and maybe a new Halloween classic.
