It looks like Paramount Animation is all set to go ahead with the production of The Spongebob Movie: It’s a Wonderful Sponge. The movie which will be an origin story of Spongebob which will offer moviegoers the first-ever full-CG (characters and environments) version of the universe, and there will also be hybrid sequences with the characters in the live world, similar to the previous Spongebob Movie.

A listings report coming off from Production Weekly has revealed that The Spongebob Movie: It’s a Wonderful Sponge will go into production on January 22 which is today in Newhall, CA. The work on CG animation has been handed over to Mikros animation, a Paris and Montreal based company.

Mikros Image has the project up on their website and are also recruiting to fill up several roles such as Production Assistant, Artist layout/animators and more.

The Spongebob Movie; Its a Wonderful Sponge will be directed by show veteran Tim Hill. Hans Zimmer is scoring and will be handling the overall musical direction for the project which would mean the movie would include songs produced by other artists.

An earlier report from December revealed that Batman v Superman cinematographer Larry Fong is on board the project as well.

In other news, Spongebob has been making headlines since the start of this year thanks to a petition which calls for a Spongebob Super Bowl tribute for the late Stephen Hillenburg. In a recent development, it looks like Maroon 5 might have something planned for a Spongebob Superbowl tribute as hinted by the rock band in a recent video tweet. Check it out below.

The Spongebob Movie: It’s a Wonderful Sponge release also seems to have been moved up by a few days. Originally, Paramount Animation announced at CinemaCon last year that the movie would release on July 22, 2020. But the listings says it is set to hit theatres on July 17.