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Category: Television

Headline News

Starz Media Brings Wow! to MIPCOM

Starz Media has announced its slate of programs for MIPCOM.

* WOW! WOW! WUBBZY!_ Flash-animated pre-school series (26x22 or 52x11). Wubbzy, who just wants to have fun, and his best pals Widget (she just wants to build) and Walden (he just wants to think) face the challenges of each day with the best resource they've got -- friendship! The second season has been renewed on Nick Jr. in the U.S., launching in 2009._

Licensing Headline News

Canal+ Brings The Imp to France

French broadcaster Canal+ has acquired all broadcast rights -- including pay TV, cable TV, Internet and mobile -- to distributor BRB Internacional's devilish animation series THE IMP. Canal+ will also act as the licensing agent in France.

Produced by Red Kite, Screen 21, and TVC, THE IMP (65x90) is a comedy produced in black-and-white HD3D targeted at young adults. Winner of the MIPCOM Jr. Licensing Challenge, THE IMP has been specifically designed to easily adapt to new multimedia formats, as well as to more traditional products such as toys, textile, stationery, etc.

Headline News

Michael, Knight Rider Back on NBC

By Rick DeMott | Thursday, September 27, 2007 at 12:00am

In the light of the shine off the coin TRANSFORMERS made, NBC has decided to revive its super car franchise, KNIGHT RIDER, reports VARIETY. Doug Liman is set to produce the revamp of the 1980s hit, which starred David Hasselhoff.

Dave Andron is penning the script for a two-hour pilot, which will be launched as a telepic later this season. Andron will also serve as supervising producer with Liman and Dave Bartis (THE O.C., HEIST) as exec producers. Liman may direct the pilot if his schedule permits.

Canada Headline News

Nelvana To Produce New Episodes of Grossology, Di-Gata

Nelvana Enterprises has announced that it is producing 26 new episodes each of the animated series GROSSOLOGY and DI-GATA DEFENDERS. Both shows have developed a growing international fan base, which has helped to fuel the demand for additional episodes.

Channel Headline News

Treehouse Challenged by Playhouse Disney

Corus Entertainment's 24/7 preschool channel Treehouse will no longer be the only network of its kind in Canada when Astral Media's Family Channel launches Playhouse Disney at the end of November. The channel will feature programming from Disney, together with such original Canadian content as FRANNY'S FEET, THE SECRET WORLD OF BENJAMIN BEAR and KING.

Series Headline News

Cartoon Network Orders New Skatoony Series

Cartoon Network announced that it has commissioned a third series of SKATOONY, the animated game show that pits real-life kid contestants against cartoon characters. The re-commission reflects the unprecedented success of the show, which first aired on CN in November 2006. Series two was produced earlier this year and is due to air beginning September 28, 2007.

The news follows CN's recent international distribution deal with Target Entertainment to represent sales of SKATOONY's format and program rights.

Producers Headline News

Producers Re-Tool Masters of Horror for NBC

By Rick DeMott | Tuesday, September 25, 2007 at 12:00am

MASTER OF HORROR producers Lionsgate and Industry Ent. will retool their horror anthology series for NBC as the 13-episode series, FEAR ITSELF, reports VARIETY. The network hopes to have the series ready for next summer.

MASTERS OF HORROR exec producers Keith Addis, Andrew Deane and Mick Garris will produce.

The producers hope to attract an all-star lineup of horror writers and directors for the production, which will start filming early next year.

Headline News

Nelvana & Puff TV Offer The Backyardigans In VOD

By Rick DeMott | Tuesday, September 25, 2007 at 12:00am

Puff TV Ltd., a pre-school interactive video-on-demand (VOD) channel based in Tel Aviv, has signed a VOD deal with Nelvana Enterprises for THE BACKYARDIGANS, the hit co-production from Nick Jr. and Nelvana.

The deal covers 40 episodes available to a number of major Western European territories including France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands, as well as to Israel, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Headline News

Superman Returns Scribe, Hostel Helmer Pen Heroes: Origins

HEROES: ORIGINS, an anthology spinoff of the NBC series HEROES, has added SUPERMAN RETURNS co-writer Michael Dougherty and HOSTEL writer/director Eli Roth to their roster of writers penning episodes, according the trades. Roth will also direct his episode. Dougherty, who makes his directorial debut on the horror flick TRICK 'R TREAT, and Roth will join other high-profile talents, which include Kevin Smith, who will also write and direct an episode of Universal Media Studios series, which tells the origin of new individuals discovering their powers.

Headline News

FlickerLab Animates Tek Jansen for Colbert Report

By Rick DeMott | Thursday, September 20, 2007 at 12:00am

FlickerLab has animated the first of eight new Tek Jansen adventures that will be part of THE COLBERT REPORT over the course of the season. Each episode of "Stephen Colbert Presents Stephen Colbert's Alpha Squad 7: The New Tek Jansen Adventures" is each approximately three minutes in length. The first of the new adventures, "Beginning's: First Dawn," aired on THE COLBERT REPORT on Comedy Central, Wednesday, Sept. 12.

Series Headline News

TV-Loonland To Distribute Nippon's Penelope

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, September 19, 2007 at 12:00am

TV-Loonland announced its appointment by Japanese production company Nippon Animation to handle multi-territory distribution for its pre-school property PENELOPE (26x5).

Under the deal, TV-Loonland will handle rights for TV, home video, VOD, broadband, IPTV and mobile sales to Western and Eastern Europe, Russia, Baltic States, Scandinavia, Israel, the Middle East as well as Africa, including South Africa.

Movie Headline News

Live-Action Ben 10 Movie Hits Cartoon Network

By Rick DeMott | Tuesday, September 18, 2007 at 12:00am

Cartoon Network announced today it has completed production on BEN 10: RACE AGAINST TIME, a live-action made-for-TV movie based on its hit animated series. Alex Winter of BILL AND TED'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE takes the helm as director for CN's first action-adventure movie, which will air in November.

Series Headline News

CatDog Creator Sells Wally Chapter Book to Cartoon Network

By Rick DeMott | Tuesday, September 18, 2007 at 12:00am

Peter Hannan, creator of Nickelodeon's CATDOG, has inked a development deal with Cartoon Network to turn his chapter book series -- WALLY, KING OF FLURB -- into an animated TV show. Hannan is in the process of writing and illustrating the series for HarperCollins. Hannan's other HarperCollins series of chapter books, SUPER GOOFBALLS, continues with an all-new issue on Oct. 2, 2007.

Series Headline News

Cartoon Network Goes Live with David Duchovny

Cartoon Network has greenlit a pilot presentation for a new live-action project from exec producers David Duchovny, Matt Dearborn and Robert Mora. Written by Dearborn, the untitled show follows a junior high student, whose family is filled with newsmen, who turns the audio-visual club into a serious citywide news program.

Super Headline News

Decode Acquires Distribution of Super Why

Decode Ent. augments its slate of third-party programming with the acquisition of worldwide TV distribution rights (excluding the U.S.) to Out of the Blue Ent.'s preschool literacy series SUPER WHY. The 65x22 show is a co-venture between BLUE'S CLUES producer Out of the Blue, co-founded by Angela C. Santomero and Samantha Freeman, and Decode. SUPER WHY is already airing on PBS in the U.S. and has also been picked up by Canada's CBC.

Season Headline News

France 3 Picks Up Angus & Cheryl

French public channel France 3 has acquired the broadcast rights to BRB's new hi-def 3D series ANGUS & CHERYL (104x2). The dialogueless program co-produced by BRB Internacional, Screen 21, Televisió de Catalunya and Tuba Entertainment will also be available for download from the channel's kids website at www.toowarm.fr. Broadcast of the first season will begin worldwide fall 2007. The second season will be presented, along with plans for games and interactive features, this week at Cartoon Forum in Girona, Spain.

Series Headline News

Stars Shine in Disney's Phineas and Ferb VO Cast

By Rick DeMott | Thursday, September 13, 2007 at 12:00am

Disney Channel has secured a star-studded cast of recurring and guest voice-over actors for its new animated series PHINEAS AND FERB, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. Malcolm McDowell, Allison Janney, John O'Hurley, Jane Carr and Barry Bostwick will have recurring roles on the musical 2D series. Sandra Oh, Steve Zahn, Billy Ray Cyrus, J.K. Simmons, French Stewart, Vicki Lawrence, Tim Curry, Geraldo Rivera, Evander Holyfield and father-and-daughter Joel and Jennifer Grey are set to make guest appearances. The regular VO cast includes Ashley Tisdale, Caroline Rhea and Kelly Hu.

Headline News

Spielberg Needs New Talisman to Protect King Adaptation

By Rick DeMott | Thursday, September 13, 2007 at 12:00am

Once again, Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy's planned mini-series version of Stephen King's THE TALISMAN has come to a halt, says THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. Sources tell the trade paper that after scripts were turned in, the budget bloomed on the six-hour mini. Based on King and Peter Staub's novel, the project was set to air in the summer of 2008.

The story follows a boy's journey in a parallel universe called the Territories in search of a talisman that can save his mother's life.

Star Headline News

Walliams To Star in Storyman Adaptation

U.K.-based independent production company Brown Eyed Boy and animation studio Lupus Films are teaming up to produce an animated version of BBC Radio 4's celebrity improv show STORYMAN, C21 MEDIA reports. The pilot will star LITTLE BRITAIN'S David Walliams and actor/comedian Andrew Clover will take on the role of Storyman, conducting interviews in which celebrities share the "innermost workings of their psyches" through the medium of storytelling. The show features designs and animation by Airside and a soundtrack by Fred Deakin of Lemon Jelly fame.

Cartoon Headline News

Beijing Kaku TV Begins Nationwide Cartoon Satellite Broadcast

Three-year-old Beijing Kaku TV (www.kaku.tv), China's first dedicated cartoon channel, began nationwide broadcasting via satellite network in September. One of three satellite cartoon channels licensed by the Station Administration of Radio Film and Television (SARFT), Kaku TV airs 20 hours of programming daily to a large Beijing audience aged 4-14. It has over 2,500 hours of cartoons and other animated content in its library.

Cartoon Headline News

Alcuni To Debut Pre-Teen Series

In a departure from its previous shows geared to younger kids, Italian animation producer Gruppo Alcuni will unveil a new adventure series about teenagers at Cartoon Forum next week, C21 MEDIA reports. The older-skewing 2D SLASH:// (26x26), coproduced with broadcaster Rai Fiction, follows a diverse group of teenagers who discover how to travel through the Internet. Each episode of SLASH:// will revolve around a specific website that will provide real-world information for its pre-teen audience.

Headline News

Loonland's Owl Flies to BBC

TV-Loonland has announced that its multiplatform CGI series THE OWL (52x1) has been acquired by BBC for its re-branded children's channel, CBBC. The show launched on Sept. 4 and will air every weekday at 7:55 am and 3:40 pm.

Already broadcast with huge success by France 3, THE OWL was the second-most-watched children's show in July. The hilarious comedy was picked up to support the CBBC goal of attracting a wider audience of boys and girl aged six to 12 years old and to contribute to the BBC's repositioning as a multiplatform brand.

Anime Headline News

Anime Network Expands U.K. Programming

Following its successful debut on Propeller TV, Anime Network's edgy, two-hour injection of anime is now airing nightly on SKY Channel 195 between 8:00-10:00 pm, with new content shown on weekends. Positive viewer feedback to the block launched in early June encouraged the network to beef up its programming.

"We received a tremendous response to the Anime Network block during its 13-week debut," said Andrew McKinnon, Propeller TV Commercial Director. "This is clearly content our viewers are demanding, so we're happy to give them what they want."

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