Sony Pictures Animation e Amazon are about to sign a deal for over $ 100 million for the animated film Hotel Transylvania 4: Transformania, which will be streamed on Amazon Prime Video, as Variety exclusively learned.
Agreement between Amazon and Sony for Hotel Transylvania 4
Hotel Transylvania is a family-friendly franchise from Sony, with i first three films that have grossed more than $ 1,3 billion in cinemas around the world since 2012. However, the surge in COVID-19 cases - led by delta variant highly contagious which predominantly infects unvaccinated people - it is not allowing families to enjoy the cinema.
With New York City issuing a vaccination warrant for indoor venues on Tuesday and other major cities seriously considering doing the same, sources say in early August the Sony started thinking about an alternative release for the fourth Hotel Transylvania film, which was originally supposed to hit theaters on 1 October.
As the only major studio without a dedicated streaming service, Sony has made deals for films scheduled for 2020 and 2021 in the whole streaming ecosystem. In 2020, Sony placed “Greyhound” with Apple TV Plus, “An American Pickle” with HBO Max and “Happiest Season” with Hulu.
This year, the studio worked with Netflix on “Fatherhood,” “The Mitchells vs. the Machines ”and“ Vivo ”and with Amazon for“ Cinderella ”, which will debut on 3 September.
Billed as the "final chapter" of the Hotel Transylvania series, Transformania is directed by Derek Drymon and Jennifer Kluska from a screenplay by Amos Vernon, Nunzio Randazzo and executive producer Genndy Tartakovsky. Brian Hull and Brad Abrell voice the roles of Dracula and Frankenstein respectively.
The rest of the cast returns, including Selena Gomez, Andy Samberg, David Spade, Steve Buscemi, Kathryn Hahn, Jim Gaffigan, Molly Shannon, Keegan-Michael Key and Fran Drescher. Gomez is also executive producer, along with Michelle Murdocca.
The spokespersons for Sony and Amazon have not yet commented.