A new feature film prodco spins out of Monster! Entertainment

Andrew Fitzpatrick is in the business of making movies again. The CEO of Monster! Entertainment, a longtime fixture in the kids TV business, has founded Outfoxed! Films and plans to begin production on an original big-screen project in January 2025. 

Fitzpatrick describes his CG-animated film Outfoxed! as a “comedy chase movie” with an US$8.7-million budget that features a family of urban foxes who leave the big city to visit the countryside home of their patriarch—a place he swore he’d never return to again. Of course things quickly start to go wrong, justifying his initial reluctance to leave their familiar urban environment. 

As Fitzpatrick explains, the preteen boy of the family is particularly unfamiliar with what rural life entails, which leads to some great comedy. “The kid doesn’t know anything. He’s used to being fed very nice leftovers the dad gets from beside the chip shop. And he doesn’t realize where the chicken comes from in the snack box. [The fox family] sees these chickens, and the chickens are freaking out. The son goes, ‘What’s wrong with them? They don’t seem to like us.’ And then they hear a bugle, and they see the foxhunt running towards them. The boy asks: ‘Are they your friends, dad? They seem to know us.’ The dad says: ‘Run, son, run.’ 

Fitzpatrick estimates that he has 96% of the financing for Outfoxed! in place, including an Irish tax credit and a contribution from Screen Ireland. Funding is also coming from Belgium (leveraging another tax credit) and Luxembourg, thanks to the involvement of co-production partners Walking the Dog and Doghouse Films. 

As for the remaining gap, Fitzpatrick has applied to a second Irish fund, but is also open to a variety of other options if that doesn’t come through. “We have a distributor and a sales agent on board, but we might consider a possible financial co-producer, or we could also just look at a straightforward investment,” he says. The film is being sold by France’s mk2 Films, which already has deals in place in several territories. 

Fitzpatrick, who previously set up financing for a number of animated films from Don Bluth Entertainment (including An American Tail, All Dogs Go to Heaven and Thumbelina) hadn’t intended to get back into movie-making. Monster! was busy working on new animated series such as Doodle Girl (26 x seven minutes), Reggie Rex (104 x six minutes), Tiny Toot (26 x seven minutes), Holt (26 x 11 minutes) and Sandbox (52 x three minutes) with various international partners. But then he was presented with the script for Outfoxed! by Paul Bolger, the film’s producer and director. 

Says Fitzpatrick: “I knew Paul from years ago—and he asked: “Can you help us get this made?” It’s not really what I do, but I read the script and thought, ‘This is brilliant. I really have to help them make this happen.’” In addition to Bolger, Irish screenwriter and musician Barry Devlin is also attached to the project and wrote the script that piqued Fitzpatrick’s interest. 

The plan is to have well-known Irish and British comedians and actors do the voice work, and there is already one “high-profile person” signed on, but Fitzpatrick isn’t ready to reveal who it is just yet. 

Even though the return to filmmaking wasn’t an intentional plan, Fitzpatrick hopes Outfoxed! will be just the first pic to come out of the new banner.  “If this works, then we will make Eyeballed! next.” In this Celtic fable, a king is cursed with an eyeball that sets fire to every object it sees. He is helped out by some young inventors who create a device to prevent him from torching everything in sight, and while his life improves at first, trouble soon ensues.

If Fitzpatrick waits until Outfoxed! is released in theaters before making the call to greenlight Eyeballed!, he likely won’t have to decide until spring or summer 2027.