Mike Mitchell to Direct TROLLS With Anna Kendrick

Comedy director to bring the iconic dolls to the big screen.

It has been announced that director Mike Mitchell (‘Shrek Forever After,’ ‘Sky High’) and Emmy Award winning writer Erica Rivinoja (‘South Park,’ ‘Grounded For Life’) are teaming up for a fun-filled adventure based on the iconic troll dolls for DreamWorks Animation.

The film, which will be a grand scale musical comedy centring around how the Trolls came into their vibrant and colourful hair, will be produced by Gina Shay (‘Shrek Forever After’).

“Mike and Erica are the perfect team to re-imagine this film,” said DreamWorks’s Chief Creative Officer Bill Damaschke. “Mike’s pedigree in shaping stories with already beloved characters is second to none, and Erica’s amazing sense of comedy will introduce the Trolls to a new generation of fans while keeping the spirit and appeal audiences have loved for years.”

Heading up the voice cast will be ‘Pitch Perfect’ star Anna Kendrick. The Oscar-nominated actress will lend her voice to Poppy, the relentlessly upbeat princess at the centre of the animated tale.

“Anna has proven herself to be a brilliant actress with an amazing singing voice. She’ll inject Poppy with the exact mix of spirit, sass and song that will no doubt give a whole new life to the iconic Troll dolls,” said Mitchell.

The Troll doll phenomenon was born in 1959 when Danish fisherman and woodcutter Thomas Dam, too poor to afford a Christmas present for his young daughter Lajla, carved a doll for her based on the legendary Scandinavian troll. This modern-day Geppetto couldn’t have imagined that the Troll dolls would soon become one of the biggest toy crazes of the 1960s. The Trolls experienced a resurgence in the 1990s and their uniquely endearing faces and shocks of colourful hair continue to capture the hearts and imaginations of fans around the world.