The Lion King Director Joins Tilly Norwood Creator for AI-Assisted Film Storm Dogs

The Lion King co-director Rob Minkoff is joining forces with the company behind AI performer Tilly Norwood for a new family film that will use human performances, photorealistic animation and emerging AI technology.

Minkoff is in advanced discussions to develop and executive produce Storm Dogs for London-based Particle6, working with founder Eline van der Velden as the film’s creative lead. Production is planned for 2027. 

The story follows two-year-old Poppy, who becomes separated from her caregiver during a devastating storm in an English village. Five very different dogs must carry her across flooded fields, damaged bridges and storm-hit countryside during a 24-hour journey home.

Human roles will be filmed conventionally, but Poppy and the five dogs will be created as photorealistic animated characters using a combination of live-action performances, traditional filmmaking and emerging AI tools. 

Particle6 is developing a performance-driven process that translates an actor’s facial expressions, physical movement, timing and emotional choices into those animated characters. The intention is for performers to shape the finished performances rather than simply asking an AI model to generate them.

That approach gives Storm Dogs an interesting connection to Minkoff’s previous work. He co-directed Disney’s original animated The Lion King and later directed Stuart Little, giving him considerable experience creating animal characters around human performances.

Particle6 has become one of the more closely watched companies experimenting with AI filmmaking after creating Tilly Norwood. It is separately developing Misaligned, a feature built around the digital performer. 

For Storm Dogs, that challenge is particularly obvious: five photorealistic dogs, a toddler, extreme weather, floods and hazardous locations carrying much of a feature-length story.