Astro Boy

About The Filmmakers

DAVID BOWERS (Writer and Director) shared a BAFTA nomination for Flushed Away, the DreamWorks / Aardman Animation co-production on which he contributed writing and directing services.

Originally from Stockport, Cheshire in the U.K., Bowers studied animation at West Surrey College of Art and Design in Farnham but left after his first year to work on Who Framed Roger Rabbit under Oscar®-winning animator Richard Williams. Next, he worked at the famed British studio Cosgrove Hall on the cult television shows "Danger Mouse" and "Count Duckula" before moving to London to join Steven Spielberg's Amblimation, a studio set up to take advantage of European talent Amblin discovered during the making of Roger Rabbit.

Bowers next worked as an animator on An American Tail: Fievel Goes West before going freelance and working on commercials and features. He returned to Amblimation as a story artist and served as a supervising animator on Balto.

When DreamWorks was founded, Bowers relocated to Los Angeles and worked as a story artist on The Prince of Egypt and The Road to El Dorado. During this period, he met filmmakers Nick Park and Peter Lord, who needed help storyboarding their feature Chicken Run. It was the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship with Aardman Animation. A six-week contract became 14 months as Bowers helped conceive and storyboard many of the film's major set-pieces, including its climax.

After the completion of Chicken Run, Bowers moved between Los Angeles and Bristol as a key creative on various DreamWorks and Aardman projects including Shark Tale and the Oscar® winner Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.

TIMOTHY HYDE HARRIS (Writer), credited with such box office hits as Space Jam, Kindergarten Cop, Twins and Trading Places, has been authoring screenplays for almost 30 years. His credits also include three noir novels featuring a Los Angeles private detective, Kyd for Hire, Goodnight and Good-Bye and Unfaithful Servant. In addition, Harris produced Falling Down, directed by Joel Schumacher, which was selected for the official competition at the 1993 Cannes International Film Festival.

MARYANN GARGER (Producer) was a co-producer of Flushed Away. She began her career in animation as production coordinator on Pocahontas. She was the 14th employee hired at DreamWorks in 1995 and served as a production supervisor on The Prince of Egypt, production manager on Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron and Madagascar and production executive on Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas. She also produced the DreamWorks short film First Flight.

GARGER hails from New Hampshire and attended Syracuse University.

CECIL KRAMER (Executive Producer) has more than 20 years of production experience in various fields within the entertainment industry. She produced the critically acclaimed animated feature Flushed Away and recently served as an executive producer on the 2005 Academy Award-winning stop-motion comedy Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (Best Animated Feature). Previously, she held the post of co-head of production for DreamWorks Animation, where she oversaw the development of such animated features as Antz, The Prince of Egypt, The Road to El Dorado, Chicken Run and the Oscar®-winning smash Shrek.

Previously, Kramer produced visual effects for live-action films such as Crimson Tide and Cabin Boy. She also served as the post-production supervisor on Honey, I Blew Up the Kid. She was also a production executive at Buena Vista Pictures, Walt Disney Imagineering and Film Finances.

Kramer began her career as a feature film costumer and later worked as a production manager on TV commercials and in the field of public broadcasting.

KEN TSUMURA (Executive Producer) is executive vice president, production, Hong Kong, at Imagi Studios. Prior to joining Imagi, he was senior vice president, production & technology at Vancouver-based Mainframe Entertainment (now Rainmaker Animation).

A 22-year animation veteran, Tsumura's numerous production credits include executive producer on Universal Pictures' feature Curious George, producer on DreamWorks' CG-animated television series Father of the Pride and executive producer on Columbia Pictures' Adam Sandler's Eight Crazy Nights. He also served as animation co-producer on the Fox Television series The Simpsons and The Critic.

PAUL WANG (Executive Producer) has been involved in filmmaking and computer graphics for the last 20 years. After running Four-D, his own boutique animation house in New York, Wang entered the computer-generated visual effects industry, where he created special visual effects for such movies as Batman Forever and The Peacemaker. He went on to PDI / DreamWorks, where he did pioneering work on animated motion pictures such as Antz, Shrek and Madagascar. He also worked on the theme park ride Shrek 4-D and DreamWorks Television's CG-animated television series Father of the Pride. Wang was a producer on Imagi Studios' hit feature TMNT and is executive vice president, development at Imagi.

FRANCIS KAO (Executive Producer) is the founder and chief creative officer of Imagi Studios. He founded Imagi in 2000, bringing to life his vision of a world-class CG animation studio in Asia. Kao sets the creative direction for Imagi Studios and is the ultimate decision-maker for its movie slate. Focusing on motion picture development and production, he is also responsible for the management of the company's intellectual properties. Presently, Kao is also supervising the development of Gatchaman, based on the hit 1970s television series.

Kao served as executive producer on Imagi Studios' first feature film, TMNT (2007), which opened number one at the U.S. box office, and on Highlander: The Search for Vengeance (2006), the critically acclaimed action-fantasy film from Japanese anime master Yoshiaki Kawajiri.

Kao graduated from California State University, Sacramento with a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance Management. He then joined Boto, Imagi's predecessor company, in 1999 to embark on a number of new initiatives designed to create a brand for the manufacturing company.

PILAR FLYNN (Line Producer) began her animation career at DreamWorks, where she worked for eight years on the development and production of such films as The Road to El Dorado, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, Madagascar and Flushed Away. She also co-produced DreamWorks' first CG-animated short, the multiple award-winning First Flight.

Most recently, Flynn served as associate producer of the animated feature film Mean Margaret for IDT / Starz Media.