Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank
Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank (formerly known as Blazing Samurai) is an upcoming computer-animated martial arts comedy film directed by Rob Minkoff and Mark Koetsier. Written by Ed Stone and Nate Hopper, the film is loosely inspired by the 1974 Mel Brooks film "Blazing Saddles". It features the voices of Michael Cera, Ricky Gervais, George Takei, Gabriel Iglesias, Michelle Yeoh, and Samuel L. Jackson. The film is scheduled to be released in the United States on July 15, 2022, by Paramount Pictures. Premise. A down-on-his-luck dog, Hank , is trained to be a samurai by a cat mentor, Jimbo, all while a villainous cat, Ika Chu, wants to destroy their village. Production. Development. "Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank", then known as "Blazing Samurai", was announced in November 2014, with GFM Films handling international sales and Rob Minkoff and Yair Landau of Mass Animation set to produce. The film was scripted by Ed Stone and Nate Hopper. In February 2015, Open Road Films acquired the U.S. distribution rights with Chris Bailey and Mark Koetsier attached to direct. Susan Purcell also joined the production as a producer. In  November 2019, the film was re-announced after Aniventure joined the production. The budget was $45 million ($16 million was categorized as "original equity" while the rest of the $29 million came from Aniventure and Canadian tax credits). In August 2020, Align announced it would help finance the film. In February 2021, a first-look revealed Landau and Purcell had been replaced by Adam Nagle and Guy Collins as producers. Animation. Arc Productions was set to provide most of the film's animation, until the company's closure in 2016. In November 2019, it was revealed that  Cinesite would take over animation duties. Release. The original release date was for April 14, 2017. In November 2019, "Screen Daily" said the film was "at first animatic stage" at animation studio Cinesite, with a planned release for 2021. In January 2022, Paramount Pictures acquired the film from GFM Animation and scheduled it to be released in theaters under the Paramount Animation banner on July 22, 2022, taking the release date of Paramount Animation's own "Under the Boardwalk". In April 2022, the release date was moved up to July 15, 2022. A poster revealed the film would be distributed  by Paramount under Nickelodeon Movies instead of Paramount Animation.