Pixar Veteran Mary Coleman Joins Locksmith Animation as Chief Creative Officer

thewrap.com:

th Century and has several projects in development with Warner Bros. Locksmith CEO Natalie Fischer announced the news Tuesday and confirmed that Coleman officially will join the studio in July.Coleman spent 23 years at Pixar, having first been recruited by Ed Catmull in 1999 to start its creative development department. (Catmull had known her from her work as the Associate Artistic Director at San Francisco’s Magic Theatre.) At the time Pixar had just released two movies (“Toy Story” and “A Bug’s Life”) and were about to release their third (1999’s “Toy Story 2”).

She was the first woman who served on Pixar’s storied Brain Trust, a group of creative people who advise on each film the studio produces, and she founded with producer Nicole Grindle The Story Artistas, Animation Artistas and Art Artistas, which was meant to empower female story artists and filmmakers.Over her time at Pixar, she worked on every feature from “Monsters, Inc.” (2001) to “Turning Red” (2022) and oversaw some of the more painful projects in Pixar’s development history, including the Henry Selick stop-motion project “The Shadow King” and the low-budget romantic comedy “Newt” from Gary Rydstrom.In 2015, a profile in Filmmaker Magazine stated that Coleman, “she has worked with directors and writers to dig into their personal memories and create stories that adults and kids can relate to.”“Having someone of Mary Coleman’s professional stature come on board Locksmith as Chief Creative Officer is a milestone in our company’s journey,” said Locksmith CEO Fischer in an official statement.