Co-producers Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures Television have increased the production slate for THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN series from 13 to 26 half-hours, reports KIDSCREEN. The first 13 episodes are scheduled to debut on The CW in early 2008.
Licensing and merchandising is in the hands of Spider-Man Merchandising LP, which is presently in discussions regarding all major categories.
BACK AT THE BARNYARD will move from the big screen to Nickelodeon television this fall in a new CG-animated series based on the hit Nickelodeon Movies/Paramount Pictures' movie. The show premieres on Nickelodeon on Saturday, September 29 at 9:00 pm (ET/PT) and on Nicktoons Network the following day at 9:00 pm (ET). The regular airtime will be Saturdays at 10:30 am (ET/PT) on Nickelodeon
PBS Kids Sprout, the 24-hour preschool channel, has expanded its reach to 34 million homes in the U.S. with a new deal with Time Warner Cable, reports KIDSCREEN. Time Warner will now carry the channel as part of its digital cable offerings. It has carried it as a VOD service since 2005.
Time Warner, as the second largest cable provider in the U.S., reaches 13.4 million basic cable subscribers. PBS Kids Sprout is already offered on basic cable via Comcast, DirecTV, Cox, RCN, Insight, AT&T and Verizon.
Teletoon is seeking pitches for surreal, irreverent and hilarious cartoons for The Detour on Teletoon Pilot Project. Canadian producers are invited to submit proposals to produce a pilot in either English or French to be broadcast on The Detour on Teletoon, the network's popular teen/adult orientated programming block. TELETOON announces the first production to be greenlit by the Pilot Project is NERDLAND, a 22-minute, stop-motion comedy from Toronto-based Cuppa Coffee. More information on the Pilot Project and complete submission information can be found at corp.teletoon.com.
U.K. kids company Ludorum has announced the start of production for its first property, a $7.3 million CGI-animated series for the BBC. Targeting kids 3-6, CHUGGINGTON (52x10) is based around a group of talking trains, each with its own personality and style. The series is being directed by Sarah Ball, who won a BAFTA for her work as a director and writer on BOB THE BUILDER. Shanghai-based Motion Magic Digital Ent. will animate the series, and writers have been drafted from the U.K., the U.S. and China to ensure the scripts are international in scope.
BIONIC WOMAN showrunner Glen Morgan has left the new NBC production, VARIETY reports. The trade pub states that creative differences were the reason for the former X-FILES showrunner to ankle the fledgling series.
David Eick is now the sole showrunner on the sci-fi production. Jason Smilovic is the exec producer.
The network made a statement congratulating Morgan for helping build a foundation for the series, which debuts later this month.
KidsCo, the joint venture channel owned by leading media companies Sparrowhawk Media, DIC Ent. (DIC) and Corus Ent. Inc.'s Nelvana Enterprises, goes on air today in Romania, Hungary, Russia, Turkey and Poland carried by local cable operators. Deals have also been signed in Ukraine, where KidsCo will launch next month, and in Asia Pacific, where viewers will be able to tune in by early 2008.
HIT Ent. has announced that the upcoming sixth series of FIREMAN SAM will be produced in high-definition CGI animation. Since acquiring the property from S4C in March 2007, HIT has teamed up with London-based Hibbert Ralph Animation (HRTV), who in turn joined forces with Beijing-based animation studio Xing Xing to produce the series. Delivery of the new FIREMAN SAM will commence in May 2008.
4Kids Ent. has announced that Jetix has licensed the U.S. cable and Latin American pay satellite rights for CHAOTIC. The popular trading card game-themed series will air on the Jetix Block and is anticipated to launch October 2007. CHAOTIC will continue to air on weekends in the U.S. on 4Kids TV on Fox Network and is also available for viewing on the Comcast VOD Channel.
The Jim Henson Company will partner with Los Angeles PBS station KCET to produce WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA?, a new animated TV series to debut on PBS KIDS in 2008. The educational preschool series, which will promote science readiness by encouraging kids' instinctive curiosity about the world around them, is the latest in a long line of Henson-KCET co-productions, which include FRAGGLE ROCK, BEAR IN THE BIG BLUE HOUSE and MUPPET BABIES.
4Kids Ent. celebrates its sixth year programming the 4-hour Saturday morning kids block on Fox with the most action-packed slate of original shows to date. Dubbed "The Game Station," the block will sport an all-new look and an all-new attitude when it's unveiled on Saturday, September 8.The three new series -- DINOSAUR KING, THE ADRENALINE PROJECT and YU-GI-OH! GX -- join such popular returnees as CHAOTIC, TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: FAST FORWARD, VIVA PIÃATA, SONIC X and WINX CLUB.
The U.K.'s Nick Jr will unveil a new CGI version of the classic animated series THE MAGIC ROUNDABOUT on Monday, October 22, 2007 at 8:00 am, with simultaneous on-air and online presentations. The world premiere of the first episode will air on cable and satellite preschool TV channels Nick Jr and Nick Jr 2, as well as on the Nick Jr on TMF programming block, available in all digital TV homes on music channel TMF. The episode can also be watched online via Nick Jr Video, the free broadband video player on Nick Jr's website, www.nickjr.co.uk.
9 Story Ent. has announced that production has been completed on the first 26 episodes of its new animated comedy series FUTZ! The Teletoon Original Production is scheduled to premiere as part of the network's new fall programming lineup in September.
Targeting nine- to14-year-olds, the wacky comedy is a retro nonverbal cartoon based on the misadventures of its title character, who is ready for anything, prepared for nothing and always able to severely mess things up in just 180 seconds -- the length of each episode.
The epic third season of the hit series AVATAR and Bill Cosby's half-hour animated children's series LITTLE BILL will both return in Nickelodeon's fall lineup, the top-rated children's network announced.
HBO has picked up MOLOTOV'S DISPATCHES IN SEARCH OF THE CREATOR: A SECOND LIFE ODYSSEY, a documentary made completely within the virtual world of SECOND LIFE, the trades report. The doc, directed by Douglas Gayeton, follows avatar, Molotov Alva as he traverses the SECOND LIFE world, chronicling the various levels of social interaction engaged by the users.
HBO plans to qualify the 35-minute film for the Oscars in the animated short-subject category. The cable channel will air the production in 2008. The film was produced by Amsterdam-based Submarine.
Teletoon Retro, a new digital specialty channel featuring classic cartoon characters like Bugs Bunny, The Flintstones, Scooby-Doo, The Jetsons, Fat Albert, Tom & Jerry, Rocky and Bullwinkle and Superfriends, will premiere across Canada on Oct. 1, 2007 at 6:00 pm. The channel will be available as part of the Digital standard package on Bell ExpressVu, with additional carriers expected to be finalized by launch. Beginning today, Sept. 4, a special Teletoon Retro hour will air every evening at 7:30 pm ET/PT to promote the launch.
CARL2 (CARL SQUARED), Portfolio Ent.'s clone-themed animated comedy series for tweens, will make its Latin American debut on HBO Latin America in October 2007. HBO Latin America acquired the first two seasons of CARL2, totaling 39 half-hour episodes, for broadcast in Spanish and Portuguese.
The sale was brokered by Portfolio Ent.'s Latin American agent, Katherine O'Brien of KO Film Distribution.
Disney and mioTV have teamed to bring Jetix programming to video-on-demand services in Singapore, reports VARIETY. Jetix OnDemand will be the first VOD offering for the brand in Asia.
Subscribers will pay 6.42 Singapore dollars ($4.20) per month for 20 hours of content. More than a quarter of the programming will replaced with new content every 30 days. Programming will include W.I.T.C.H., GET ED, SUPER ROBOT MONKEY TEAM HYPERFORCE GO! and ALPHA TEENS ON MACHINES.
Alphanim's ZAP JR. HIGH will have its free-TV premiere September 2 on France's M6, where it will join the French network's Sunday morning kids block. M6, which will show two 13-minute episodes back-to-back for the kickoff, replaces Canal J as the series' exclusive purveyor. Beginning in February 2008, the series will air on both channels.
International licenser and distributor Mediatoon has signed new deals for several of its popular properties, including TWO OF A KIND -- SPIROU & FANTASIO; TIME JAM -- VALERIAN & LAURELINE; YAKARI; and THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN.
SPIROU & FANTASIO (26x30), which has received top ratings on France's M6, has been sold to companies in Switzerland (TSR), Netherlands (Z@pp), Norway (NRK), French Canada (Radio Canada) the Middle East (Al Jazeera), Belgium (VRT and RTBF), Morrocco (2M), Germany (RTL 2) and Israel (Noga).
FAMILY GUY is coming to the Xbox Live download to own service this Sunday Sept. 2, 2007. All U.S. Xbox 360 owners will be able to purchase full episode downloads from seasons one and two, as well as FAMILY GUY PRESENTS STEWIE GRIFFIN - THE UNTOLD STORY.
"FAMILY GUY is a perfect match for Xbox Live," stated Jamie McCabe, EVP, PPV/VOD/EST for 20th Century Fox Film Corp. "The Xbox LIVE community will love having the Griffin family on this platform."
The Comcast Corp. has picked up the nine-episode first season of AnimeTV -- Bang Zoom! Ent.'s popular anime info show -- for its Anime Selects On Demand network. The program has attracted a growing legion of fans with informative commentary and interviews with a variety of anime industry luminaries. The broadcast is significant because it marks the first time an independently produced program dedicated to covering the burgeoning anime market will be made available in so many major national markets.
Discovery Kids has announced the upcoming launch of THE FUTURE IS WILD, a new animated series inspired by Animal Planet's CGI documentary specials of the same name. The cutting-edge show turns natural history on its head with scientifically valid predictions for new life forms that seem out of this world, but could really exist millions of years from now.
Kids' WB! on the CW has locked down its fall lineup, premiering four new series on Sept. 22, 2007, when the #1 rated Saturday morning kids broadcast network officially begins its 2007 season.
EON KID, MAGI-NATION, WILL & DEWITT and SKUNK FU! make their American network debuts on Kids' WB!, joining returning favorites THE BATMAN, SHAGGY & SCOOBY-DOO GET A CLUE!, LEGION OF SUPER HEROES, TOM AND JERRY TALES and JOHNNY TEST.
French animation company Xilam has allied with the U.K.'s Cake Distribution to handle English-speaking territories, reports C21 MEDIA. The alliance with Cake, which is headed by Xilam's former exec VP of business development, Ed Galton, will have the London-based distributor handling sales to all English-speaking markets, including the U.K., Ireland, the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
