Illumination Entertainment, the company behind Despicable Me, has brought on two execs as it ramps up production.
Chris Meledandri is bringing on board Brooke Breton as a senior production executive and Kit Giordano as director of development. Kristin Wong-Ward, who was Meledandri’s executive assistant, has been promoted into the creative executive role.
Breton is currently producing a Despicable Me theme park that is slated to open in 2012 in Universal Studios Orlando. An established exec, she worked at James Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment, co-producing Avatar, co-produced Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, and was a producer on DreamWorks Animation The Road to El Dorado, among other credits.
Giordano most recently worked at Ben Stiller’s Red Hour Films, where she served as vp and acted as an associate producer on the recent Ruben Fleischer action comedy 30 Minutes of Less. She was also a development exec at Gunn Films.
Illumination saw the animated comedy Hop release this past spring and is in production on a 3D animated feature of Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, featuring the voices of Danny DeVito, Ed Helms, Zac Efron, Rob Riggle, Taylor Swift, and Betty White.
