The creators of the film “Nimona”, adaptation of the eponymous graphic novel, were present at the Annecy Festival to discuss the upcoming release of the feature film on Netflix!
“Everything was going well, we had assembled the perfect team and suddenly…the movie was cancelled!” A few days before its event release on Netflix, the Nimona team returned to the long road traveled by the production of the feature film adapted from the eponymous graphic novels by ND Stevenson.
The latter imagined his heroine at the age of nineteen, when he was going through a deep identity crisis. It is only thanks to the codes of American comic books that the latter managed to find his voice by sketching a character who would become over time the Nimona as we know her.
A comic strip inspired by the identity crisis of its author
“I first drew a page, then three, then ten, and suddenly I realized that this story could give rise to a web-comic, and so I opened the websiteremembers the author on the sidelines of the panel dedicated by the Annecy Festival to the backstage of the Netflix film. It was also important to me that she wasn’t perfect, because the special thing about her appearance is that she chose to look like that!”
Nimona indeed has the superpower to change her appearance at will, including to borrow the traits of various animals (whale, mouse, rhinoceros etc….). “When she becomes a giant dragon, she is only inspired by the monstrous image that the rest of society sends back to her” thus explains the creator of the character.
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“To succeed the character, it was to succeed the film” summarizes Nick Bruno, the co-director of the film. That’s why Nimona’s appearance took a lot of prep work, and lots of reels – or trial animations – before the project could finally move forward. “The other essential point was to remain faithful to the humorous tone of comics, and to the values LGBTQIA+ defended by the work” continues the latter.
Nimona’s story takes place in a futuristic medieval world. An original setting, allowing to represent the reactionary ideas of a world where a character who does not correspond to the standards set by society does not manage to find his place.
“Our film was conceived as a conceived love letter addressed to all those who feel different and excluded” summarizes the second co-director of the film, Troy Quane.
Goodbye Disney, hello Netflix
Despite the progress of the project, Nimona was canceled overnight in February 2021 following the closure of the iconic Blue Sky studios (the Ice Age saga) by Disney. Overnight, the film crews found themselves out of work, and their farewells had to be done remotely due to the confinement imposed by the Covid-19 epidemic.
Behind the scenes, the producers and directors have nevertheless decided not to give up. “We called everyone, our relatives, our friends, looking for the person who could help us finish the film.explains producer Karen Ryan, before the role of the savior takes on the features of producer Megan Ellison, founder of the Annapurna Pictures studio.
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“This meeting was closely followed by the arrival in the project of DNEG Animation, and then suddenly we only needed a broadcaster”, summarizes Karen Ryan. A round of applause was also launched by the small hall of the Bonlieu center in Annecy, to greet the presence of part of the teams from the English studio.
Netflix was then the one and only choice of directors because of the promise made by the platform to grant them all the necessary means so that the film could be completed in the best conditions. “They said yes to all our requests except unlimited access to cappuccinos” concluded with humor Troy Quane.
The entire team now agrees that the chaotic path traveled by production – as well as its happy ending – form the perfect metaphor to echo Nimona’s message, available from June 30th exclusively on Netflix!