Vancouver, Canada-based Rainmaker Entertainment and The Weinstein Company have named Ed Jones as a producer for upcoming CGI feature film Escape From Planet Earth. Additionally, Steve Nichols, lead animator on the last two Pirates of the Caribbean films, has joined the project as animation director. The film marks the first theatrical animated feature for Rainmaker. (The Weinstein Company is financing the comedy and handling worldwide distribution.)

Prior to joining Rainmaker, Jones contributed to more than 200 projects as the former CEO of ESC Entertainment, a Time Warner subsidiary founded to create the visual effects for Matrix: Reloaded and Matrix: Revolutions. And Nichols is a former ILM animator who has worked on Dragonheart and the three Star Wars prequels.

Escape From Planet Earth is scheduled for theatrical release in 2008.