Ratchet And Clank is a feature film that is a co-production with CNHK, Rainmaker and Blockade. Ratchet and his robot pal Clank, the stars of the popular Sony PlayStation® sci-fi/adventure game, go back to their roots in this fun and action-filled origin story about the two unlikeliest heroes in the Solana Galaxy. When the pair discovers a nefarious plot to destroy every planet in the galaxy, they enlist a team of colorful warriors known as The Galactic Rangers to stop the evil Chairman Drek from carrying out his deadly plot. Along the way, they learn the value of true friendship, what it really means to be a hero and the importance of knowing yourself. Ratchet and Clank features the voice talents of Bella Thorne, Sylvester Stallone, Rosario Dawson, Paul Giamatti, John Goodman, James Arnold Taylor, David Kaye and Jim Ward.
ABOUT PENNEY FINKELMAN COX, CO-PRESIDENT
A multifaceted producer with more than a dozen credits in both live-action and animated features, Penney Finkelman Cox draws upon her extensive background in creative and physical production and her years of experience in the executive ranks to develop and produce high-profile entertainment projects.
In May 2002, Finkelman Cox, along with longtime producing partner Sandra Rabins, started Sony Pictures Animation for Sony Pictures Entertainment. As executive vice-president, she shepherded the development and production of the new division's projects, including its first two features, 2006's Open Season and 2007's Academy Award®-nominated Surf's Up, as well as later hits Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and Hotel Transylvania. She and Rabins also brought the animated series "The Boondocks" to Sony and Cartoon Network, and developed Open Season 2 for DVD.
Finkelman Cox began her animation career at DreamWorks SKG as both a producer and an executive, starting the animation division with Rabins in 1994 and producing The Prince of Egypt, which won an Academy Award for Best Music, Original Song. Finkelman Cox served as executive producer on the Academy Award-winning blockbuster Shrek and on DreamWorks' first computer-generated film, 1998's Antz. In addition, she worked with Aardman Animations on its first stop-motion feature, 2000's Chicken Run, and was executive producer on Joseph: King of Dreams, DreamWorks' first direct-to-video animated release, also in 2000.
Finkelman Cox came to animation with a background in live-action features, having produced Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael and 'Til There Was You. She served as the executive producer for James L. Brooks' I'll Do Anything, and co-produced Brook's Academy Award® winning Terms of Endearment and Broadcast News.
Under her and Rabins' production company, Patchwork Productions, Finkelman Cox has also developed a slate of features that includes the 2006 cult sensation Snakes on a Plane, starring Samuel L. Jackson. Other projects currently in development are At Large, to be directed by Ritchie Mehta, Naked Shakespeare, to be directed by Jon Amiel for Voltage Pictures, and Enchantment, based on the novel by Orson Scott Card.
A graduate of Barnard College, Finkelman Cox began her career as a press assistant for the Joffrey Ballet and went on to manage a number of nonprofit dance, theater and music companies. She began focusing on film when she was accepted to the Directors Guild of America Assistant Director Training Program in New York.
Finkelman Cox is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, the Producers Guild of America (PGA) and the Association Internationale du Film d'Animation (ASIFA). She's also a professor at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles, where she teaches classes in film producing. She is also on the Board of Directors of Dance Camera West, an organization devoted to dance in media.
ABOUT SANDRA RABINS, CO-PRESIDENT
Sandra Rabins is one of the most respected live-action and animation film executives in the entertainment industry. Along with producing partner and fellow Original Force Co-President Penney Finkelman Cox, Rabins creates, markets and distributes top-tier original content in animation and family entertainment for worldwide markets.
In 2010 Rabins joined DreamWorks Animation Television as co-executive producer for "Dragons: Riders of Berk," a series on Cartoon Network for which she has produced 21 aired episodes. Rabins had previously helped build the studio's animation division from scratch and was instrumental in the purchase of PDI, helping to build it into a digital-effects giant. She produced DreamWorks' first traditionally animated feature The Prince of Egypt, as well as its first computer-generated film, 1998's Antz. In addition, Rabins served as executive producer on the Academy Award®-winning box office hit, Shrek.
From 2002 to 2009 Rabins was senior executive vice president for Sony Pictures Animation, a new animation division of Sony Studios that she launched with partner Penney Finkelman Cox. During her tenure she developed and produced the hit comedies Open Season in 2006, 2007's Academy Award®-nominated Surf's Up and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, as well as acquiring and developing the hit Hotel Transylvania.
From 1990 to 1993 Rabins was senior vice president of Production and Finance for Buena Vista Pictures, where she worked on more than 60 films, including The Joy Luck Club and Blank Check. She was also an independent executive producer on the 1995 summer hit Dangerous Minds, starring Michelle Pfeiffer, for Walt Disney Pictures.
A Hollywood native, Rabins began her career at Paramount Pictures. In 1985 she moved to Walt Disney Studios, where she was responsible for establishing the production entities to create and animate Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach. She was also instrumental in helping Pixar establish itself as a digital film entity to create Toy Story, and oversaw traditional animation as well as Theme Park Films.
Rabins and Finkelman Cox have an independent production entity, Patchwork Productions, which executive produced the 2006 horror cult hit, Snakes on a Plane. Patchwork Productions is currently developing projects with studios in Japan and China, and will release its first movie in 2016.
Rabins served as Production Consultant on Khalil Gibran's The Prophet, releasing in 2015. In 2014, Rabins produced the award winning short Last Days of Ivory with Kathryn Bigelow directing, created to grow awareness of the killing of elephants for ivory.
Rabins is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, as well as the Producers Guild of America (PGA) and the Association Internationale du Film d'Animation (ASIFA).
ABOUT HARLEY ZHAO
Harley Zhao is the president and CEO of Original Force, which he founded in Nanjing, China, in 1999. From its humble yet ambitious beginnings when Zhao had a staff of four and did much of the art himself, Original Force has expanded to a global operation with offices in Los Angeles, Nanjing, Beijing, Chengdu and Shanghai.
Zhao's concept for Original Force was borne out of his powerful desire to make movies from a young age. He taught himself animation while still in college at Southeast University. After graduating in 1996, he spent several years in IT at the Agriculture Bank of China . But his strong creative impulses led him to strike out on his own. After starting Original Force, he surveyed the animation landscape in China and discovered there was a limited market for animated film production. So he focused the studio on producing high-quality 3D art and animation for game developers and publishers, eventually leading Original Force to become one of the foremost animation outsourcing companies, producing work for Electronic Arts, Microsoft, Activision, Sony, Rockstar Games, Disney and many others.
