A proof-of-concept trailer dropped today for Germany-based Telescope Animation’s planned feature The Last Whale Singer, which will be made using a newly-created workflow centered on Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 5 real-time game engine through funding by two Epic MegaGrants and a grant from the EU’s Creative Europe Media. The trailer debuts today online and will be featured next week as part of Epic’s exhibition at the Annecy International Animation Festival in France.
The Last Whale Singer is a planned multi-platform project that would also include a prequel video game, episodic series, and AR/VR projects, each created using the same assets designed for the film. Telescope is targeting 2025 for the release of the feature as well as the prequel game, currently in development for PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation and Xbox. The feature follows Vincent, a rebellious teenage humpback whale who must confront his destiny and save the oceans from destruction by an ancient evil.
Additional details about the funding of the production were not immediately available.
In a released statement, Reza Memari (Richard the Stork), Telescope’s co-founder/co-CEO, as well as the movie’s writer and director, said, “Our plans for The Last Whale Singer required us to look at how we create content in a different way, which meant we needed to develop a new pipeline from scratch.”
According to the company, Telescope’s pipeline streamlines the process by enabling assets to be created in real-time and then shared to other projects. Telescope also reports that artists can storyboard in 2D and 3D within Unreal Engine.