EXCLUSIVE: Fresh off his Academy Award for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, co-director Bob Persichetti has signed on to direct DreamWorks Animation’s next installment of Puss in Boots, the follow-up to 2011’s blockbuster Oscar-nominated film that grossed more than $550 million worldwide.

Bob Persichetti on right

Persichetti, a veteran of animation for more than two decades, has worked in various capacities on films with DreamWorks Animation. He served as the Head of Story and voiced a role in the original Puss in Boots.

Latifa Ouaou, who was a producer on the original Puss in Boots, which was a spinoff of DWA’s Shrek franchise—will oversee development of the sequel on behalf of Illumination and Chris Meledandri, working closely with the DWA leadership team.

The first Puss in Boots received an Oscar nomination in 2012 for Best Animated Feature. The DWA take on Puss was first introduced in 2004’s Shrek 2, voiced by Antonio Banderas. The character continued to be featured in subsequent Shrek sequels and TV shorts. The original Puss in Boots starred the voiceover cast of Salma Hayek (Kitty Softpaws), Zach Galifianakis (Humpty Alexander Dumpty), Billy Bob Thorton (Jack), Amy Sedaris (Jill) and Constance Marie (Imelda).

No release date has been set and animation on the film will take place on the DWA lot in Glendale, CA.

Persichetti is represented by UTA.

To date Spider-Verse has racked up close to $360M at the global box office. DreamWorks Animation, under its first film in its new deal with the Universal Studios umbrella, recently opened How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World to the No. 1 spot at the domestic B.O. with $55M. To date, the threequel has racked up $277.3M worldwide with the Dragon franchise’s running total at $1.39 billion.