Sony Pictures Animation continues to advance its development slate with the hiring of veteran animation writer/director Kelly Asbury to write Pooch Café. The CG-animated feature is based on Paul Gilligan’s popular syndicated comic strip, Pooch Café. The strip stars Poncho, a cheese-loving, squirrel-fearing, toilet-drinking mutt who joins his canine friends at the Pooch Café, a neighborhood hangout where dogs can be dogs – comparing notes on such weighty issues as avoiding baths, zebra-flavored kibble, and the construction of a giant catapult with which to hurl all the Earth’s cats into the Sun. The strip was nominated for the National Cartoonists Society’s Reuben Award for Best Comic Strip in 2008.