Mark Osborne | |
|---|---|
 Osborne in 2016 | |
| Born | Mark Randolph Osborne (1970-09-17)September 17, 1970 (age 55) Trenton, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Occupations | |
| Years active | 1993–present |
| Notable work | More Kung Fu Panda The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie The Little Prince |
| Children | Riley Maddie |
| Relatives | Kent Osborne (brother) |
Mark Randolph Osborne (born September 17, 1970) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and animator. He is best known for directing the animated filmsKung Fu Panda (2008) andThe Little Prince (2015), the former of which was nominated for theAcademy Award for Best Animated Feature. He also directed the stop-motion short filmMore (1998), which was nominated forAcademy Award for Best Animated Short Film.
Born inTrenton, New Jersey,[1] Osborne grew up inWoodstock, Vermont until at age 14 he moved toFlemington, New Jersey and graduated fromHunterdon Central Regional High School in 1988.[2] He began his career by studying Foundation Art atPratt Institute in New York before receiving his Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Experimental Animation from theCalifornia Institute of the Arts in June 1992. His thesis film,Greener, won numerous awards and was screened at more than 40 film festivals worldwide. He has received twoAcademy Award nominations, including one for Best Animated Feature of the year for the 2008 critically acclaimedKung Fu Panda which he directed alongsideJohn Stevenson.[3]Kung Fu Panda has netted more than $630 million worldwide to-date. The action-comedy was Osborne's first major studio project. It also won him and Stevenson theAnnie Award for Directing in an Animated Feature Production.[4]
Osborne's other most well-known work to date, the award-winningstop motion animated shortMore, has been screened at over 150 film festivals worldwide. It was the firstIMAX animation film to ever be nominated for anAcademy Award (1999).More garnered anOscar nomination for Best Animated Short, Special Jury Prize for Short Films at theSundance Film Festival (1999), The SXSW Best Animated Short (1999), the ResFest Grand Prize (1999), the Critics Week selection for CANNES (1999), among many others.[5]
Osborne has also directed a majority of the live-action material for the popular animated TV seriesSpongeBob SquarePants featuring Patchy the Pirate, as well as all of the live-action sequences forThe SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, featuring David Hasselhoff. He was classmates with the television show's creator,Stephen Hillenburg, while a student at CalArts. He worked as director onSpongeBob episodes such as "The Sponge Who Could Fly" and "SpongeBob B.C."[citation needed]
His other live-action directing credits include his independent feature filmDropping Out, which premiered at theSundance Film Festival in 2000 and has developed a cult following.Bachelor Pad was also a short live-action comedy Mark made with his brotherKent along with Dylan Haggerty in the late 1980s. Parts ofBachelor Pad can be seen in the unaired second episode ofTaterhole, which was a spin-off ofThe Rudy and Gogo World Famous Cartoon Show in 1997. His short filmGreener was broadcast onTNT'sRudy and GoGo's New Year's Eve Flaming Cheese Ball special on New Year's Eve (1995–96).
Osborne taught stop-motion at his alma mater CalArts, but left to pursue his professional aspirations. In 2004, Osborne was awarded theGuggenheim Fellowship to assist in the production of another personal stop-motion short film,The Better Half. Between 2010 and 2015, Osborne was directing an animated film,The Little Prince.[6] In November 2016, it was reported that Osborne had been hired to direct and co-write an animated film adaptation ofJeff Smith's comic books,Bone.[7]
In April 2017,20th Century Fox Animation andBlue Sky Studios announced they would produceEscape from Hat, an animated film adaptation of Adam Kline's fantasy book of the same title, with Osborne set to direct and co-write the script with Kline, and Jinko Gotoh producing the film along with Osborne.[8] However, in November 2018,Netflix acquired the film rights and Melissa Cobb joined the production team.[9][10] As of August 2023, the film was no longer in development at Netflix.[11]
Osborne, along with singerChris Martin, wrote the story ofColdplay'sMylo Xylotoconcept album and directed the video for its track "Hurts Like Heaven". He wrote the first issue of thecomic adaptation and still hopes to turn the album into a film.[12]
Osborne is the brother of TV writer and producerKent Osborne.[13] Osborne's son, Riley, voiced the Little Prince in the 2015 filmThe Little Prince, which was directed by Osborne.[14]
In their feature debut, helmer Mark Osborne and his brother, scripter-star Kent Osborne,...
