Eva Longoria, Nicholas Galitzine to Lead Voice Cast of Studiocanal’s Animated Film ‘Wings of Freedom’ From ‘Ballerina’ Creators (EXCLUSIVE)

Eva Longoria (“Only Murders in the Building,” “Land of Women”) and Nicholas Galitzine (“The Idea of You”) are set to lead the voice cast of Studiocanal’s “Wings of Freedom,” a Mexico-set animated adventure film from the creators of “Ballerina” (titled “Leap!” in the U.S.).

A heartwarming action-comedy feature, “Wings of Freedom” is directed and co-written by Laurent Zeitoun, the well-established French screenwriter and producer behind some of Europe’s biggest local hits in recent history, from the Omar Sy comedy “Intouchables” to animated features “Ballerina” and “Fireheart,” both of which he directed.

“Wings of Freedom” features Longoria as Salana, a home-loving Eagle who lives in the safety of her hidden bird colony until a twist of fate propels her out of her comfort zone. Galitzine plays Lieutenant Pirro, a fearless Swift and member the Animal Air Force. Together, they must confront Eternity, a malevolent AI determined to seize control of the world.

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Studiocanal, which is preparing to release “Paddington in Peru” on Nov. 8 in the U.K., will tease “Wings of Freedom” to prospective buyers at the American Film Market starting on Nov. 5 in Las Vegas. In addition to representing the ambitious animated feature in international markets, Studiocanal is also co-producing it with Gregory Ouanhon and Zeitoun’s Paris-based company Good Hero, and will distribute “Wings of Freedom” in all territories where it runs direct distribution operations, including in France, the U.K., Germany, Austria, Benelux, Poland, Australia and New Zealand.

“Wings of Freedom” is the first project developed by Zeitoun and Ouanhon under their banner Good Hero, which launched in 2020 with a strategic partnership with Mediawan. Like Zeitoun, who lived in Montreal for several years and ran a thriving animation studio there, Ouanhon has an international track record, having worked in senior roles at the Shanghai-based producer-distributor Fundamental Films. He also sat on the board of directors at EuropaCorp for three years until 2019.

Zeitoun penned the script for “Wings of Freedom” with Nick Luddington, who co-produced and co-wrote episodes of Netflix’s Emmy-winning animated show “Arcane,” and Toby Davies (“The Adventures of Paddington”).

In an interview with Variety ahead of the AFM, Zeitoun and Ouanhon said Good Hero’s mantra is to build innovative IP in-house and in collaboration with a wide range of experts in different fields. As such, “Wings of Freedom” introduces a new, futuristic world where humans have turned to AI to combat their global warming problem, but the plan backfires when AI drones identify mankind as the main enemy to earth’s survival. By 2340, an army of drones has taken over the planet and humans are nearly extinct. But a new resistance rises up, and courageous birds and animals around the world come together to create humanity’s last hope for survival: The Animal Air Force.

“We believe there’s room for fresh new IPs, because we’re going around in circles and there’s a demand for original ideas,” Zeitoun says. “‘Wings of Freedom’ is one of the narrative worlds we’ve developed in-house; it’s the fruit of an ultra collaborative and creative research within Good Hero to create universes that resonate widely.”

The banner “worked a lot with universities, philosophers and anthropologists to compile long-term trends and anticipate things that haven’t been developed yet,” Zeitoun says. When they kicked off the research four years ago, they found that the underlying trends were concerns over global warming and artificial intelligence. “We took these two trends and said to ourselves: How can we find a universe that works at the crossroads of these two trends? And the mix gave birth to ‘Wings of Freedom,'” he says.

Ouanhon, meanwhile, says the company aims at delivering “adventure films, high concepts and mainstream family entertainment.”

“We’re very inspired by those films from the 1990s and by directors like Steven Spielberg who have created imperfect but inspiring heroes and mainstream, entertaining movies packed with adventure for the whole family,” Ouanhon says.

Regarding the cast, Zeitoun says he “wanted to find a renowned actress who had charisma and warmth, and at the same time someone who had a lot of strength, and Eva has it all,” Zeitoun says. “She’s extremely funny, warm and she’s a powerhouse.”

Galitzine was chosen to play Lieutenant Pirro because he “has a certain panache, elegance and a presence, in addition to a great sense of humor,” Ouanhon says.

What sets Good Hero apart from other banners producing animation is that both founders come from live-action and are “obsessed by the script,” says Zeitoun, whose credits include many movies that have been remade in other languages, including “Heartbreaker,” “Le plan parfait” and “Intouchables.”

Through their various roles at previous companies, Ouanhon claims that he and Zeitoun have either written, directed, produced, bought or co-financed many of the French movies that have sold the most tickets in cinemas overseas for 12 years, ranging from “Taken” to “Transformers,” “Intouchables,” “Ballerina” and “Fireheart.”

While the character-driven project boasts top-notch animation and a fully developed script, it’s produced with a more modest budget than an Illumination movie like “Despicable Me,” which is made in France but produced by Universal.

“With this film, we want to show that we can create and produce really high-profile animation and mainstream entertainment in France, because we have some of the best talent, the best schools and many animators who have been trained working on U.S. productions,” Zeitoun says. “We’re lucky to have several members of our team who have worked for Illumination and they come with another mindset and different skills, which are really valuable.”

“Wings of Freedom” is expected to hit theaters in 2026.