Frederik Du Chau (born 15 May 1965) is a Belgian

film director A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...

screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...

and

animator An animator is an artist who creates images, known as frames, which give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, and video games. Animat ...

Career

Du Chau attended the Academy of Fine Arts in his hometown of Ghent, where he studied film and majored in animation under

Raoul Servais Raoul Servais (1 May 1928 – 17 March 2023) was a Belgian filmmaker, animator and comics artist. He was born in Ostend, Belgium, and is a fundamental figure of the Belgian animation scene, as well as the founder of the animation faculty of the ...

. After graduation, he worked for Walt Disney Animation France and later as a freelance animator and directed several local commercials, combining live-action and animation. The selection of his student film, ''The Mystery of the Lamb'' (''Het mysterie van het lam''), for the Los Angeles Animation Celebration Conference brought him to

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...

where he was offered a job as an animator and later as a visual development and storyboard artist for

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

, and Universal. Du Chau's break as a director came when Sony offered him to co-direct a short film with Hoyt Yeatman for

Sony Wonder Sony Pictures Kids Zone is the kids and family entertainment label of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and the former record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment. Despite the similarity in name, Sony Wonder is not directly related to the fo ...

. This was followed with a stint as a storyboard artist for

Chuck Jones Charles Martin Jones (September 21, 1912 – February 22, 2002) was an American animator, painter, voice actor and filmmaker, best known for his work with Warner Bros. Cartoons on the ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' series of shorts. He ...

where he learned everything he could about gags, timing and funny business from the master himself. After a job as the animation director for Universal's '' The Land Before Time III: The Time of the Great Giving'', Du Chau was then offered a position as a visual development artist at the newly formed Warner Bros. Feature Animation department, where he sold two screenplays. He was attached to one of them as a director and was soon offered to direct the first animated feature for Warner Bros. '' Quest for Camelot''. Du Chau wrote and sold a couple of screenplays with

Kirk DeMicco Kirk DeMicco (born May 15, 1969) is an American filmmaker. He is best known for his work on animated films, such as writing and directing ''Space Chimps'' (2008), ''The Croods'' (2013), ''Vivo (film), Vivo'' (2021), and ''Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kr ...

. One of the screenplays, titled '' Sky Boys'', is a drama about two

Irish immigrants The Irish diaspora () refers to ethnic Irish people and their descendants who live outside the island of Ireland. The phenomenon of migration from Ireland is recorded since the Early Middle Ages,Flechner, Roy; Meeder, Sven (2017). The Irish ...

who fight over the love of one girl while building the

Empire State Building The Empire State Building is a 102-story, Art Deco-style supertall skyscraper in the Midtown South neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, United States. The building was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931. Its n ...

. Another screenplay was titled '' Hong Kong Phooey'', based on the popular cartoon and was sold to

Alcon Alcon Inc. () is a Swiss-American pharmaceutical and medical device company specializing in eye care products. It has a paper headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland but its operational headquarters are in Fort Worth, Texas, United States, where it ...

and Warner Bros. This led to the opportunity to write and direct '' Racing Stripes'' for

The moderate success of '' Racing Stripes'' led to the job of directing the American feature film titled, ''

Underdog An underdog is a person or group in a competition, usually in sports and creative works, who is largely expected to lose. The party, team, or individual expected to win is called the favorite or wikt:top dog, top dog. In the case where an under ...

'', for

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16 ...

, based on the popular 60s cartoon of a flying dog that becomes a superhero. It starred James Belushi, Jason Lee and

Amy Adams Amy Lou Adams (born August 20, 1974) is an American actress. Known for both her comedic and dramatic roles, she has been featured three times in annual rankings of the world's highest-paid actresses. She has received List of awards and nom ...

. The film was extremely negatively received by critics. He is currently attached to three different movies at several major studios. He just started filming ''The Krostons'', based on the popular Belgian comic book series by Paul Deliege, his first

Stereoscopic 3D Stereoscopy, also called stereoscopics or stereo imaging, is a technique for creating or enhancing the illusion of depth in an image by means of stereopsis for binocular vision. The word ''stereoscopy'' derives . Any stereoscopic image is ...

movie for which he also wrote the screenplay. When not directing Du Chau draws and develops his own series of

graphic novel A graphic novel is a self-contained, book-length form of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and Anthology, anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comics sc ...

s ''Fish Out of Water''. His graphic novel work was recently selected at the Festival d'Angouleme 2008 to be exhibited as one of the Unpublished Young talents. He currently lives and works in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, California.

Filmography

References

External links

*
Frederik Du Chau's biographyAir-Edel Associates Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Du Chau, Frederik 1965 births Living people People from Ghent Belgian film directors 21st-century Belgian screenwriters Belgian animators Belgian storyboard artists Belgian animated film directors Warner Bros. Animation people Belgian expatriates in the United States Belgian male screenwriters