Pixar veteran Kelsey Mann, who most recently directed Pixar’s Inside Out 2, has signed with UTA for representation in all areas.

It is the latest animation get for the agency, which in the summer signed longtime Dreamworks and Forgotten Island co-director Januel Mercado.

And it continues a trend of animators stepping out of their animation companies to test of the waters of a wider entertainment industry, sometimes beyond straight animation. In September, for example, Minions creator and Despicable Me filmmaker Pierre Coffin signed with WME.

Mann’s last movie was Inside Out 2, one of the biggest critical and commercial successes of 2024. It earned a 98 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes and grossed $1.7 billion worldwide, earning him an Academy Award nomination for best animated feature while setting the record for the highest-grossing directorial debut in film history.

A storyboard artist who earned his stripes on Cartoon Network, Warner Bros., and Lucasfilm Animation shows, Mann joined in Pixar in 2009, serving as story supervisor on Monsters University, The Good Dinosaur, which he also co-wrote, and Onward. He also contributed to Pixar’s senior creative team across recent hits including Toy Story 5, Hoppers, Elemental, and Turning Red. He made his directorial debut with the Monsters University theatrical short Party Central.

Mann is now focusing on his next chapter as an independent director and creator.

Prime Video has ordered a new series about Karen Read, starring and executive produced by Elizabeth Banks (Cocaine Bear, Pitch Perfect). The as-yet-untitled project is inspired by the Law&Crime and Audible Original podcast Karen, about the woman who was at the center of a high-profile murder case that accused Read of killing her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, on a snowy night in 2002.

Following a highly watched and discussed trial, Read was acquitted of second-degree murder and manslaughter, but was found guilty of other charges.

Deadline exclusively announced the project was in development back in August.

The drama series will be written, showrun, and executive produced by Justin Noble (The Sex Lives of College Girls, Brooklyn Nine-Nine) and hails from Warner Bros. Television, Brownstone Productions, David E. Kelley Productions, Audible, and Law&Crime.

Based on a true story, the series tells the story of a Boston police officer who is found dead in the snow during a blizzard; all eyes are on his girlfriend, Karen Read. But when she and her legal team claim she’s not only innocent, but that she’s the victim of a conspiracy protecting the real assailants, the story spreads like wildfire, dividing a community in ways they’ve never seen. As endless suspicion mounts in multiple directions, this genre-bending true crime series explores society’s explosive obsession with true crime.

“I grew up in Massachusetts, and like so many people there, we watched this case divide families, friends, and entire towns,” said Banks. “We have spent years with this material because the questions it raises go far beyond one courtroom: why we choose the stories we believe, and what happens when trust in our institutions breaks down. Justin has written a series that respects and treats with care the complexity of what happened and the public reaction to it,” she added.

Adding, Noble said, “This case has more twists and turns than any story I’ve ever consumed, real or fictional. “It makes M. Night Shyamalan look like Nora Ephron. But the reason this story resonates and must be told is because of the profound takeaways it leaves us with: about a deeply imperfect justice system that urgently needs change, about the mistreatment of women by those who weaponize and abuse their power, and about a victim who deserves to be remembered.”

In addition to Banks and Noble, the project is executive produced by Max Handelman, as well as Krissy Wall via Brownstone Productions; David E. Kelley and Matthew Tinker via David E. Kelley Productions (Presumed Innocent, Big Little Lies); Aaron Hart, Marshall Lewy, Jeni Mulein and Jen Sargent via Audible (Dying For Sex, Dr. Death); and Rachel Stockman and Dan Abrams via Law&Crime.