Comic book entertainment company Platinum Studios will team up with First Family to produce the Platinum Studios graphic novels MEET THE HAUNTEDS and SPACED for half-hour television series and direct-to-DVD premiere movies.
First Family head Dean Valentine, the former president of UPN and of Walt Disney Television, Touchstone Television and Walt Disney TV Animation (the only Disney exec to ever supervise all three divisions), will exec produce both projects along with Platinum chairman Scott Mitchell Rosenberg and First Family exec Scott Imergut.
The deal is Platinums foray into half-hour sitcoms and DVD premieres. First Family Ent. was formed in April 2004 to develop and produce niche-oriented programming for family audiences that will premiere on DVD. First Family has an exclusive worldwide, multiyear output deal with MGM.
In SPACED, teenager Danny Mason finally gets his shot at popularity after a teenage alien called Bok pops into his body. Danny still looks normal, and he now has great strength, speed and even the ability to defy gravity... but he's sharing his body with the rowdy, impetuous Bok, who sometimes makes him bend and twist in embarrassing ways.
Adam Rifkin will be directing and writing the pilot for SPACED. Rifkins past writing credits include MOUSEHUNT and SMALL SOLDIERS, as well as the upcoming WHERES WALDO for Paramount/Nickelodeon, UNDERDOG FOR SPYGLASS and ZOOMS ACADEMY for Revolution Studios. The upcoming Platinum Studios graphic novel will be written by Rob Moran.
MEET THE HAUNTEDS is a family comedy and a supernatural culture clash, about a white family that has just moved into an old mansion that turns out to be haunted by the ghosts of an African-American family. The upcoming comic book is written by Chris Wichtendahl. First Family and Platinum plan to take MEET THE HAUNTEDS to television as a half-hour sitcom, and also to produce a series of two-hour, direct-to-DVD movies.
Platinum, which controls the largest independent library of comics in the world with development deals at all major studios, is known for tent pole, live-action comics-to-film adaptations including COWBOYS & ALIENS at Sony (where Rosenberg also brought the MIB franchise from his Malibu Comics label), UNIQUE at Disney and MAL CHANCE at Miramax. Its live-action series on Showtime, JEREMIAH, returns to Friday nights starting September 3 to complete its 35-hour saga.
The First Family deal comes on the heels of Platinums acquisition and development of film and television rights to leading independent comics publisher Top Cow Productions Inc. The graphic novels for both SPACED and MEET THE HAUNTEDS will be released in 2005 as part of Platinum's arrangement with Top Cow.
Platinum recently entered into an exclusive agreement with UFO MAGAZINE, the worlds premier UFO and phenomenology publication, to develop the magazines extensive library for feature films, videogames and comic books. Platinum also has an exclusive deal with noted military expert Colonel John B. Alexander (technical advisor to Tom Clancy and Michael Crichton) and A-list game designers Blue Shift and Handheld Inc. to create graphic novels and interactive games based on Col. Alexanders scenarios and expertise, which Platinum will develop for film and television.
Platinum Studios is known for comic book-to-film adaptations and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California, Rosenberg founded Platinum Studios in 1997 following a career in the comic book industry as creator and head of Malibu Comics, which he sold amidst other offers to Ronald Perelman of Marvel Comics. For more information, visit www.platinumstudios.com.
