Rome production and distribution company Medusa Films has acquired financially strapped Italian toon house Lanterna Magica. The 20-year-old animation factory will remain under the watchful eye of executive producer Maria Fares and stay in its home in northern Turin. As part of the deal, Lanterna will produce an animated feature each year and an animated TV series for Medusa sister firm Mediaset every two years. Medusa CEO Federico di Chio will serve as president with Lanterna's Guido Manuli and Maurizio Forrestieri remaining in their roles as artistic and creative directors respectively. The first feature to be released under the Medusa name will be Manuli's AIDA OF THE TREES, a re-envisioned version of Verdi's opera of the same name this time starring jungle beasts. "We want to devote our attention to research and technological innovation," said Fares. "We want our company to become a factory for young authors and artists who will experiment [with] new ways of making cartoons." Di Chico said, "We had been wanting to enter the cartoon world for quite some time, and with Lanterna Magica we have found the ideal partner."





Read more about the innovative work being done at Lanterna Magica in two Animation World Magazine articles:The Man of the Hour: Enzo D'Alò and Lanterna Magica: The Story of a Seagull and a Studio Who Learnt To Fly.