EXCLUSIVE: Oscar-nominated Brazilian filmmaker Carlos Saldanha has signed with Range Media Partners. Saldanha is one of the principle creative forces behind the Ice Age and Rio franchises during his time at Blue Sky Studios, where his films grossed over $2 billion at box offices worldwide. He is a two-time Academy Award nominee, first for the animated short Gone Nutty and more recently, the animated feature Ferdinand.
Saldanha was one of the first animators to join the Blue Sky Studios team of artists. After three years, he was the Supervising Animator for the talking and dancing roaches in the feature film Joe’s Apartment, and served as director of animation for the computer-generated characters in Fight Club. Soon thereafter, he teamed up with Chris Wedge to co-direct Blue Sky’s first animated features, Ice Age and Robots. After the success of Ice Age, Saldanha took the directorial reins on Ice Age: The Meltdown and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, the latter becoming one of largest grossing animated films of all time, earning over $887 million worldwide. In 2011, Saldanha created and directed Rio, a love letter to his hometown, and the sequel, Rio 2 hit the theaters and was highly received worldwide.
Saldanha continues to foster and develop projects for the Brazilian and American markets. Most recently, he created the Brazilian Netflix series Invisible City. The global success of the series led to its renewal for a second season, currently slated for 2022.
“We’re thrilled and humbled to be working with Carlos. Carlos is a unique visionary with immense talent which is matched by his generosity of love and spirit. We’re incredibly grateful to be a part of this next chapter of his career working alongside WME,” said Range Partner Rich Cook.
He is also repped by WME and Nancy Newhouse-Porter at Newhouse / Porter / Hubbard.