Cory Edwards

As one-third of the writing and directing team of the sleeper hit animated film, "Hoodwinked" (2005), Cory Edwards, along with brother Todd Edwards and friend Tony Leech, achieved success after years of struggle. Having always been fascinated by the possibilities of animation, Edwards teamed up with his brother and Leech to make the live action "Chillicothe" (1999), a coming-of-age drama about college men transitioning to real life, which they used as their calling card at the Sundance Film Festival. After meeting a financier, they were able to start work on an animated version of Little Red Riding Hood centered around a police investigation. The result was "Hoodwinked!" (2005), one of the first computer-animated films to be fully financed by independent funds. The film earned respectable reviews on its way to becoming a box office hit, allowing the trio admission into Hollywood. From there, they wrote the sequel "Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil" (2011) and the alien adventure "Escape from Planet Earth" (2013), while other animated projects remained on the horizon for the directing talent.