Karey Kirkpatrick is an American screenwriter, film director, and producer. His films include Over the Hedge, The Spiderwick Chronicles, Charlotte's Web, and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, along with writing contributions to The Rescuers Down Under, James and the Giant Peach, and Chicken Run. He has also directed the films Imagine That starring Eddie Murphy as well as Smallfoot. Kirkpatrick wrote the English-language screenplays for the U.S. releases of the Studio Ghibli films The Secret World of Arrietty, in 2012 and From Up on Poppy Hill in 2013. His older brother is American songwriter and musician Wayne Kirkpatrick, with whom he wrote the 2015 musical Something Rotten!.
Life and career
Kirkpatrick began his career as a staff writer at Walt Disney Feature Animation, where he worked for more than three years. During that time, he earned his first screenwriting credit as a co-writer on The Rescuers Down Under. He went to become a freelance screenwriter. His early writing credits include Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves and James and the Giant Peach, and The Little Vampire. In 1997, Kirkpatrick wrote the screenplay for Aardman's Chicken Run from a story by Peter Lord and Nick Park. Kirkpatrick also wrote the screenplay adaptation of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy for Touchstone Pictures and Spyglass Entertainment. Kirkpatrick has a longstanding relationship with DreamWorks Animation, where he has contributed as a writer or story consultant on The Road to El Dorado and Madagascar. In May 2006, DreamWorks Animation released Over the Hedge, for which Kirkpatrick co-wrote the screenplay and made his directorial debut, sharing directing credits with Tim Johnson. That same year, Kirkpatrick co-wrote the screenplay of the live-action adaptation of E.B. White's classic Charlotte's Web for Paramount Pictures/Walden Media/Nickelodeon Movies. He produced and co-wrote, with partner Chris Poche, the comedy Flakes. He directed the Eddie Murphy dramedy Imagine That for Paramount Pictures. Kirkpatrick wrote the English-language screenplay for the U.S. releases of the Japanese animated filmsThe Secret World of Arrietty in 2012 and From Up on Poppy Hill in 2013, both of which were produced by Studio Ghibli. The same year, he contributed to the screenplay for Sony Pictures Animation's The Smurfs 2, and was announced as the writer and director of an original comedy film from DreamWorks Animation about a "dim-witted blue-footed booby" Around 2010, Karey and his brother Wayne began working on the musical Something Rotten!. In 2015, they were nominated for a Tony Award for Best Original Score Written for the Theatre. Karey was also nominated for Best Book of a Musical along with John O'Farrell. Kirkpatrick wrote and directed the animated musical comedySmallfoot, which was produced by the Warner Animation Group and animated by Sony Pictures Imageworks. Kirkpatrick and his Chicken Run co-writer John O'Farrell in 2018 were hired to script asequel film.
