Karey Kirkpatrick

Karey Kirkpatrick is an American screenwriter, film director, and producer. His films include Over the Hedge, The Spiderwick Chronicles, Charlotte's Web, and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, along with writing contributions to The Rescuers Down Under, James and the Giant Peach, and Chicken Run. He has also directed the films Imagine That starring Eddie Murphy as well as Smallfoot. Kirkpatrick wrote the English-language screenplays for the U.S. releases of the Studio Ghibli films The Secret World of Arrietty in 2012 and From Up on Poppy Hill in 2013.

Karey Kirkpatrick
Kirkpatrick in 2006
Occupation	Writer, director, producer
Children	3
Relatives	Wayne Kirkpatrick (brother)

His older brother is American songwriter and musician Wayne Kirkpatrick, with whom he wrote the 2015 musical Something Rotten!

Life and career

Kirkpatrick began his career as a staff writer at Walt Disney Feature Animation, where he worked for more than three years. During that time, he earned his first screenwriting credit as a co-writer on The Rescuers Down Under. He went to become a freelance screenwriter. His early writing credits include Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves and James and the Giant Peach, and The Little Vampire. In 1997, Kirkpatrick wrote the screenplay for Aardman's Chicken Run from a story by Peter Lord and Nick Park. Kirkpatrick also wrote the screenplay adaptation of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy for Touchstone Pictures and Spyglass Entertainment.

Kirkpatrick has a longstanding relationship with DreamWorks Animation, where he has contributed as a writer or story consultant on The Road to El Dorado and Madagascar. In May 2006, DreamWorks Animation released Over the Hedge, for which Kirkpatrick co-wrote the screenplay and made his directorial debut, sharing directing credits with Tim Johnson. That same year, Kirkpatrick co-wrote the screenplay of the live-action adaptation of E.B. White's classic Charlotte's Web for Paramount Pictures/Walden Media/Nickelodeon Movies. He produced and co-wrote, with partner Chris Poche, the comedy Flakes. He directed the Eddie Murphy dramedy Imagine That for Paramount Pictures.

Kirkpatrick wrote the English-language screenplay for the U.S. releases of the Japanese animated films The Secret World of Arrietty in 2012 and From Up on Poppy Hill in 2013, both of which were produced by Studio Ghibli. The same year, he contributed to the screenplay for Sony Pictures Animation's The Smurfs 2, and was announced as the writer and director of an original comedy film from DreamWorks Animation about a "dim-witted blue-footed booby"[1]

Around 2010, Karey and his brother Wayne began working on the musical Something Rotten!.[2] In 2015, they were nominated for a Tony Award for Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre.[3] Karey was also nominated for Best Book of a Musical along with John O'Farrell.[4]

Kirkpatrick wrote and directed the animated musical comedy Smallfoot (2018), which was produced by the Warner Animation Group and animated by Sony Pictures Imageworks.[5][6] Kirkpatrick and his Chicken Run co-writer John O'Farrell in 2018 were hired to script a sequel film.[7]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Producer	Notes
1996	James and the Giant Peach	No	Yes	No
1997	Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves	No	Yes	No
2000	Chicken Run	No	Yes	No
	The Little Vampire	No	Yes	No
2005	The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy	No	Yes	No
2006	Over the Hedge	Yes	Yes	No
	Charlotte's Web	No	Yes	No
2007	Flakes	No	Yes	Yes
2008	The Spiderwick Chronicles	No	Yes	Yes
2009	Imagine That	Yes	No	No	Also music department (producer, writer, performer)
2011	From Up on Poppy Hill	No	Yes	No	US adaptation
2012	The Secret World of Arrietty	No	Yes	No	US adaptation; Also additional voices
2013	The Smurfs 2	No	Yes	No
2018	Smallfoot	Yes	Yes	Executive	Also lyricist

Television

Year	Title	Notes
1995	Timon and Pumbaa	Episode "Okay Bayou?"
2015	The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon	Queen Latifah/Sam Rockwell/Something Rotten! (Uncredited)

Other credits

Year	Title	Role
1990	The Rescuers Down Under	Animation screenplay
2000	The Road to El Dorado	Additional dialogue
2004	Laws of Attraction	Additional script
2005	Madagascar	Creative consultant
2006	Hammy's Boomerang Adventure	Short; creative consultant
2015	69th Tony Awards	Lyricist: "A Musical"
	Strange Magic	Special thanks
2017	The True Don Quixote	Executive producer
	71st Tony Awards	Lyricist: Opening Number
2018	Early Man	Story consultant
2019	The Addams Family	Special thanks
	A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon
2020	Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Candace Against the Universe	Songwriter: "Such a Beautiful Day"[8]

References

1. "Blue-Footed Booby Bird Descends Upon Southern California In Record Numbers To Celebrate Announcement Of New Dreamworks Animation Project" (Press release). Dreamworks Animation. September 20, 2013. Archived from the original on September 21, 2013. Retrieved September 21, 2013 – via PR Newswire.
2. "How 3 Broadway Novices Wrote 'Something Rotten!'". The New York Times. 2015-03-23. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2015-07-12.
3. "The Tony Award Nominees - Artists". TonyAwards.com. Retrieved 2015-07-12.
4. "The Tony Award Nominees - Artists". TonyAwards.com. Retrieved 2015-07-12.
5. Romano, Nick (November 22, 2017). "Channing Tatum's yeti has a tall tale in animated Smallfoot trailer". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved November 26, 2017.
6. Evry, Max (November 21, 2017). "Smallfoot Posters Provide First Look at Animated Feature". ComingSoon.net. Archived from the original on April 1, 2019. Retrieved November 21, 2017.
7. Ritman, Alex (April 26, 2018). "'Chicken Run' Sequel in Works at Aardman (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on January 8, 2020. Retrieved June 25, 2020.
8. Aquilina, Tyler (May 28, 2020). "Phineas and Ferb is back — creators preview new movie coming to Disney+ this summer". EntertainmentWeekly. Archived from the original on June 10, 2020. Retrieved June 25, 2020.

External links

• Karey Kirkpatrick at IMDb