Chris Pine will play the role of Jack Frost in DreamWorks Animation's 3D movie Rise of the Guardians, which also stars Alec Baldwin as North (Santa Claus), Hugh Jackman as Bunnymund (Easter Bunny), Isla Fisher as Tooth (Tooth Fairy) and Jude Law as Pitch (the Boogeyman). Peter Ramsey is directing the project--scheduled for release November 21, 2012--from a script by Pulitzer Prize-winner David Lindsay-Abaire. Christina Steinberg and Nancy Bernstein are producing, and the film's executive producers are Guillermo del Toro and Michael Siegel.
The movie is based on William Joyce's upcoming Guardians of Childhood series, which will be launched next fall by Atheneum Books for Young Readers--an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing--with two titles: The Man in the Moon, a picture book written and illustrated by Joyce; and Nicholas St. North and the Battle of the Nightmare King, a chapter book co-authored by Joyce and Laura Geringer, with illustrations by Joyce. 
The Guardians of Childhood series of seven picture books and six chapter books, Joyce’s first children’s titles published in more than a decade, tells the formative stories of several classic childhood legends. Laura Geringer of Laura Geringer Books will edit the picture books, with Caitlyn Dlouhy as in-house editor. Caitlyn Dlouhy will edit the chapter books.
In 2012, the next three books are scheduled for publication to coincide with the release of the film Rise of the Guardians, which Joyce will co-direct with Ramsey.
"I've been working on a unified mythology for the icons of childhood since my daughter was born in 1991," said Joyce of his new series. "As a parent I felt that Santa Claus, the Man in the Moon, all of them had become a little diminished. They deserve to be thought of as grand. Heroic. Epic. If Spiderman has an origins mythology then why not the characters we actually believed in? Their stories became my mission. It's great to see it finally taking shape."
Joyce's award-winning picture books include George Shrinks, Dinosaur Bob and His Adventures With the Family Lazardo, and Santa Calls. He has won three Emmy Awards for his Rolie Polie Olie animated series, developed character concepts for Toy Story and A Bug's Life, and made animated films including Robots and Meet the Robinsons.