‘Cerulia’ Director Sofia Carrillo, ‘Roma’ Producer Nicolas Celis Team on ‘Insectario’ (EXCLUSIVE)

variety.com:

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent ANNECY —  In major news for Mexican animation as it comes under the spotlight at Annecy, director Sofia Carrillo (“The Sad House,” “Cerulia”) is teaming with “Roma” producer Nicolas Celis and  ‘Dance of the 41’ writer Monika Revilla to make “Insectario,” which bids fair to become one of the first stop motion features from Mexico.

Targeting family audiences, and written by Revilla, “Insectario” is set up at Celis’ Pimienta Films. Carrillo, who worked on the Mexican second unit on “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio,” based out of Guadalajara’s El Taller del Chucho, told Variety that “Insectario” will build on the same aesthetic universe of “Cerulia” using the same puppets and sometimes the same sets.  “To a certain extent, ‘Insectario’ is a prolongation of the world of ‘Cerulia,’ but with an independent story which stands by itself,” she said.

In “Cerulia,” Carrillo’s crowning triumph which made her one of the most sought-after directors in Mexico, a little girl plays in her grandparents’ house, then revisits it years later when they are deceased and the house is up for sale.

Returning, her childhood memories are still literally alive in the house, part of a world of animals and pets which is dying out in urban existence, as the short recounts in the case of the girl’s family, gaining a larger bigger-world resonance, rising to a new thought-provoking level. “Insectario,” Carrillo said, asks as its premise: What would happen if all the insects in the world come to life?