The Criterion Collection

French animator Sylvain Chomet, whose idiosyncratic, elegant, hand-drawn style and quirky approach to narrative were introduced to American viewers in 2003’s The Triplets of Belleville, is returning to screens with another largely wordless feature—this one based on an unproduced screenplay by Jacques Tati. Chomet’s The Illusionist, which he has called an homage to the Playtime filmmaker, has just been picked up for U.S. theatrical distribution by Sony Pictures Classics, indieWIRE reports. Its 1950s-set story of an aging magician baffled by drastically changing times certainly sounds Hulot-esque, and something tells us Chomet is the perfect artist to carry the Tati torch. Sony plans to release the film in North America before the end of the year.