Animated short to be produced in The Shreve

Shreveport’s movie industry is opening a new frontier.

Children’s author and moviemaker William Joyce has teamed with producers Lampton Enochs and Alissa Kantrow to found DigiLou Studios. The animation studio will produce a short animated film called “The Fantastic Flying Books of Morris Lessmore.” The project is early in development.

According to a press release, DigiLou Studios is a cooperative effort between the founders, LSU-Shreveport and the Louisiana Economic Development Department. The project is being developed with the help of seasoned animators John Miralles and Raffaele Scaduto-Mendola, who teach in LSUS’s animation and visual effects program.

Joyce, an acclaimed children’s author and TV producer living Shreveport, carries an expanding movie résumé. He helped conceive characters for “Toy Story” (1995) and “A Bug’s Life” (1998), and took on producing roles for “Robots” (2005) and “Meet the Robinsons” (2007).

Enochs and Kantrow cofounded Louisiana Production Consultants, a Shreveport-based company that has lured numerous movie and TV projects to northwest Louisiana. Titles include “The Mist,” “Wonderful World,” “The Killing Room” and “Tekken.”

“The Fantastic Flying Books of Morris Lessmore” should be completed in 2010, according to the release.

There is no further information at this time. When more details become available, I'll let you know.