Sylvain Chomet is re-teaming with Paris-based animation house Les Armateurs for a prequel to Belleville Rendez-vous (Les Triplettes de Belleville).

Didier Brummer’s Armateurs is back in Cannes this year with Directors’ Fortnight title Ernest & Celestine.

Chomet’s new animation, Swing Popa Swing, will go back to the childhood of the elderly triplet singing trio at the heart of Belleville Rendez-vous.

Chomet, who made his last film The Illusionist with Pathé, has written a synopsis for the prequel and outlined a number of new characters. He is expected to deliver a script over the summer.

Other Les Armateurs projects include French Riviera, an action-adventure animation set against the backdrop of the South of France to be co-directed by famed French illustrator Richard Zielenkiewicz, or Monsieur Z.

The company is also in the final stages of production on Michel Ocelot’s Kirikou et les hommes et les femmes.