Concept Art From A Kung Fu Space Western By The Book Of Life Director

Jorge R. Gutierrez has signed long term deal with Reel FX.

By Brendon Connelly /

Jorge R. Gutierrez made his feature directorial debut with Book of Life, a charmingly designed, beautifully sincere musical comedy about The Day of the Dead. It's a good picture, and will be remembered for more than scooping Pixar and their similar film. As reported at Deadline, Gutierrez has made a deal to keep working with animation house Reel FX. Their next project doesn't yet have a title, but it has a genre. In fact, it has several. It's going to be a Kung Fu Space Western. Here's some concept art, which suggests the film will take place on some kind of Old West style generation starship. Where the Kung Fu comes into it isn't at all obvious from this image. The storyline apparently revolves around "the galaxy€™s most charming outlaws, the leader of a funny, ragtag crew of rebel bandits that are put on a collision course with a legendary villain to determine the fate of the galaxy" which all sounds very, very Guardians of the Galaxy. A lot of films will be sounding very, very Guardians in the coming years, I think. Gutierrez will be sticking around for more than just this one movie too, so he should have a chance to work in the small handful of remaining genres later on. How about a film noir sports crime story? I can only think of one of those... Am I wrong? "No you're not wrong." Am I wrong? "No, you're not wrong, you're just..." Sorry. It's all too easy to just start quoting The Big Lebowski and not notice until it's too late..