Rulers of the City

For the 1976 Italian film sometimes titled "Rulers of the City", see Mister Scarface.
Rulers of the City is a 2004 animated crime comedy-drama film directed and written by Robert Fredrickson in his directorial debut. It was also produced by Brian Grazer and Ron Howard and stars the voices of Sarah Jessica Parker, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, Paul Rudd, Garry Shandling, Shawn Ashmore, and James Cromwell. The film is set in a dystopian city known as Paxshire, which the North and South sides of are ruled by two warring mafias, with a handful of people making sure to keep things from going out of hand. When a man named Stuart Bourn (Rudd) ends up unknowingly helping the daughters of the rulers of each side, Andrea Richardson (Jessica Parker) and Scarlett Gutierrez (Williams-Paisley), he ends up in a love triangle between them that he needs to figure out how to get out of before it causes all hell to break loose.
Produced by Paramount Pictures, Imagine Entertainment and Mosaic Media Group, the animation for the film was done by Studio Deen in Tokyo, Japan, similar to how Robert Fredrickson's father, Garrett Fredrickson, outsourced his animation to Japanese companies. It was Paramount's first original animated film since The Writer in 1997 as well as Imagine's first animated film.
Rulers of the City was released theatrically by Paramount Pictures on June 18, 2004. It received generally positive reviews from critics and grossed $140 million against a $35 million budget. It overperformed in the home video market, generating more than $12 million in home video sales and $17 million in home video rentals. It was nominated at the 2005 Teen Choice Awards for Choice Movie: Animated, but lost to Shrek 2, and was also nominated at the 2005 MTV Movie Awards for Best Action Sequence, but lost to The Day After Tomorrow. The film's success ultimately kickstarted Robert Fredrickson's career, and became the namesake for his later production company, Paxshire Films.
== Plot ==
Coming soon!
== Cast ==
* Sarah Jessica Parker as Andrea Richardson
* Kimberly Williams-Paisley as Scarlett Gutierrez
* Paul Rudd as Stuart Bourn
* Garry Shandling as Oswald Mason
* Shawn Ashmore as Alexander Beck
* James Cromwell as Captain Ford
* Amy Smart as Noelle Tucker
* Leonard Nimoy as Gilbert Richardson
* Vin Diesel as Mark Gutierrez
* Sandra Bullock as Danielle Bourn
* Jon Stewart as Keith Perry
* Diane Keaton as Sirena Fletcher
* Clancy Brown as Dorian Blake
* Keith David as Jerome Harris
* Candi Milo as Pearl
* Gregg Sulkin as Simon
* Michael Angelis as Simon's Father
* Jack Palance as the industry guard
* Clint Howard as a Gutierrez family supporter
=== Additional Voices ===
* Keith Ferguson
* Jennifer Darling
* Jess Harnell
* Richard Epcar
* Steve Blum
* Peter Renaday
* Wendy Hoffmann
* Mickie McGowan
* Sherry Lynn
* Danny Mann
* Scott Menville
* Lex Lang
* Jack Angel
* Dee Bradley Baker
* Rick Zieff
* Mona Marshall
* Tony Pope
* Ken Danziger
* Cam Clarke
* Grey DeLisle
* Tom Fahn
* John DeMita
== Release ==
=== Theatrical ===
Rulers of the City premiered on June 13, 2004, at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles. It then went into general release on June 18th. There was consideration for an IMAX format release of the film, but this was ultimately scrapped for due to both technical and budgetary reasons.
=== Home media ===
Rulers of the City was released as a "Special Collector's Edition" DVD in both widescreen and full screen formats, as well as on VHS, on October 12, 2004. The film proved to be very successful on home video, generating more than $12 million in home video sales and $17 million in home video rentals. Bonus features on the DVD release include an audio commentary from Robert Fredrickson, Ron Howard, Brian Grazer and Peter Teschner, three featurettes on the film, two deleted scenes, a stills gallery, and the film's theatrical trailer.
Rulers of the City became a launch title for the Paramount High Definition label, alongside Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Sleepy Hollow, Aeon Flux and Four Brothers, with the film being released on both HD DVD and Blu-ray on September 26, 2006. These releases contained the same bonus features as the DVD release, but with two additional trailers, along with the trailers and film itself being in high definition. Paramount later rereleased the film on Blu-ray in 2010, after the HD DVD format was discontinued in 2008.
Category:2004 films
Category:English-language films
Category:2004 animated films
Category:Crime films
Category:Gangster films
Category:Columbia
Category:Studio Deen
Category:Anime-influenced animated films
Category:Paramount
Category:Paramount Pictures
Category:Paramount Pictures animated films
Category:Paramount Pictures films