Cynopsis: Kids!

09/11/09

Good morning. It’s Friday, September 11, 2009, and this is your first early morning Kids briefing.

Veteran TV execs Kevin Gillis, Michael McLaughlin and Michael Iscove have launched their new production and distribution family entertainment company, Skywriter Media and Entertainment Group.  The company will focus its efforts on developing/producing/distributing content across TV, online, gaming, mobile and social media.  Gillis, formerly a partner in Breakthrough Animation, will serve as CEO.  McLaughlin, who was EVP/Entertainment (Canada), Omnicom, takes on the position of President, with Iscove acting as COO/CFO.  Paula McLaren joins the new company from BBC Worldwide (NY) to head up worldwide distribution, overseeing global sales, marketing and acquisitions.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE WESTDOC

NEW PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT

Warner Bros. and Mattel no longer “have the power” together for the live-action feature film based on Mattel’s Masters of the Universe toy line, per Variety.  With the studio and Mattel not seeing “eye to eye” on the project, they have mutually decided not to move forward on the film, which has been under development for the last several years with studio-based producer Joel Silver.  Mattel takes the property back into its lair as it looks to place it with another studio.  According to the report, director John Stevenson (Kung Fu Panda) is expected to stay with the project, however Silver will not.  Warner Bros., Silver’s Silver Pictures and Mattel are still working on a feature film based on its Hot Wheel property.

Discovery Communications is developing a new one-hour series called Curiosity to explore the biggest questions and mysteries involving space, biology, geology, medicine, physics, technology, nature, archaeology, history and the human mind. Five years in the making with a multi-million dollar budget, Curiosity will delve into twelve major questions over 12 episodes each year, led by John Hendricks, Chairman/Founder, Discovery Communications. The series will air on Discovery Channel Sunday nights at 8p starting January 2011. Spawning from the television series, the Curiosity project will feature educational classroom materials for students K-12 and teacher guides via Discovery Education. Curiosity is a co-production of Discovery Communications and Experius Academy.

MORE KIDS STUFF

Corus Entertainment’s YTV will launch the new live-action comedy How to be Indie (26×30) on Friday, October 2 at 6:30p.  Starring Melinda Shankar (Degrassi: The Next Generation), the series revolves around Indira “Indie” Mehta (13-years-old) as she works to balance the traditions of her South Asian family and her modern teen world.  The series will air regularly Fridays at 6:30p.  Viewers can see a sneak peek episode of the series on Sunday, September 27 at 8:30p, directly following the finale of The Next Star.  Additionally, as part of Game drop Wednesdays, YTV.com will launch a How to be Indie game on Wednesday, September 23.  Co-created by writer Vera Santamaria, Suzanne Bolch and John May, How to be Indie is produced by Heroic Film Company in association with YTV, with participation of the Canadian Television Fund, Roger’s Cable Network Fund and the Shaw Rocket Fund. 

Four new episodes of Disney/Pixar‘s animated short-form series Car Toons will premiere beginning with the first on Friday, November 20 on Disney Channel, Disney XD and ABC Family.   The other three Car Toons episodes will bow in 2010.  Directed by John Lasseter and co-directed by Rob Gibbs, one is also co-directed by Victor Navone, the Car Toons series is produced by Kori Rae.  Mark Mothersbaugh (Devo, Rugrats) composed the music for three of the episodes and BT (The Fast and the Furious) scored the fourth.

Disney-ABC Cable Networks Group acquires Viz Media‘s animated series Naruto Shippuden for air on Disney XD.  New dubbed episodes of the series will debut on the network beginning this October.  Created by Masashi Kishimoto, Naruto was first introduced in Japan’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in 1999.

A new episode of Disney Channel‘s Hannah Montana finds Oliver (Mitchel Musso) learning to navigate his newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes and help educate his initially misguided friends as well.  The episode, which airs on the network Sunday, September 20 at 7:30p, also features a prologue directing viewers to www.JDRF.org , The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International, to learn more about type 1 diabetes.

Moonscoop inks a deal with UK terrestrial broadcaster GMTV for 200+ half hours of its programs.  Under the deal the broadcaster acquires shows including the new animated preschool series Chloe’s Closet (52×11) for it’s programming block The Fluffy Club, as well as other animated shows such as Fantastic Four, Code Lyoko, and Cosmic Quantum Ray and the new 3D CGI animated series Hero:108 for its Action Stations block.

Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim block will introduce Seth Green, Matthew Senreich and Tom Root’s, the creative team behind Robot Chicken, new stop-motion animated series Titan Maximum on Sunday, September 27 at 11:30p.  Really for older teens and adults, Titan Maximum features the voice of Green, who also serves as executive producer with Senreich, as well as the voices of Breckin Meyer, Rachael Leigh Cook, Dan Milano and Eden Espinosa.

Correction: Jay Kogen served as a showrunner on the Nick series The Troop and not a series creator.

Program Call: If your company is attending MIPCOM or MIP JR in early October with programming to sell, Cynopsis Media is producing our annual MIPCOM Shopping Guide available to all Cynopsis and Cynopsis Kids subscribers on Thursday, October 1. To have your programming included, please send only the following info for your top 5 shows: title, availability date, number of episodes, length, type (i.e., movie, series, special, etc.), genre and your terms (barter, cash, etc.). To be included in this free and highly-viewed special edition, please send details to [email protected] by Friday, September 25, 2009.

MARKETING/LICENSING

Scholastic Media launches its first suite of kid-targeted iPhone/IPod touch apps ( www.scholastic.com/iphoneapps or at itunes.com/appstore) based on several of its properties, and offering a mix of games, puzzles and various educational and creative activities.  The apps ($2-$4/each) include: Clifford’s Be Big With Words, based on Clifford the Big Red Dog; I Spy Riddle Race and I Spy Spooky Mansion, both based on the I Spy property; Goosebumps PhotoShock, inspired by Goosebumps; The 39 Clues Madrigal Maze, based on The 39 Clues; WordGirl Word Hunt, based on WordGirl.

Nelvana Enterprises and The Clifford Ross Company appoint TF1 Licences to serve as the representative agent for the Babar brand in France and other European territories including Belgium, The Netherlands, Monaco, Andorra, Dom-Tom and French-speaking Switzerland.  The new 3D animated series, Babar  And the Adventures of Badou (26×30/52×11) is set to launch on TF1 (France) in fall 2010/spring 2011.  The series, which introduces King Babar’s 8-year-old grandson Badou, is currently in product with Nelvana Studio and TeamTO in association with The Clifford Ross Company.  Playhouse Disney France is pre-buying the series for a second broadcast window.  It will debut in North America on YTV (Canada).

Fisher-Price, the infant/preschool toy manufacturer, steps into the diaper category with the launch of its new Happy Days & Nights Diapers (sizes newborn to 6).  The line features Happy Days Diapers and Happy Nights Diapers for day and night use respectively, as well as the Happy Days & Nights 2-in1 Value Pack.  The line new diaper line will be available at Babies “R” Us and Toys “R” Us this month.  Fisher-Price is a unit of Mattel.

EXECUTIVE MOVES

PPC Enterprises, the commercial division of the Picture Production Company Group, appoints Denise Bailey as Licensing Manager.  She will work on PPCE brands including kids properties Pinky and Perky and The Hive, as well as the fabulous Monty Python.  Bailey previously toiled at the Jane Goodall Institute and The Prostate Cancer Charity, and as a freelance brand and fundraising consultant.

RATINGS

Live + Same Day Ratings Kids Cable Network Averages (000) for Monday, September 7, 2009, 6am-11pm, ranked by K2-11:
NICKELODEON:         K2-11 1490; K6-11 912; TWEENS 9-14 641
DISNEY CHANNEL:     K2-11 1255; K6-11 901; TWEENS 9-14 701
CARTOON NETWORK: K2-11   582; K6-11 393; TWEENS 9-14 308
DISNEY XD:               K2-11   237; K6-11 155; TWEENS 9-14 103
Source: MTVN Research from Nielsen Media Research Data

Live + Same Day Ratings Kids Cable Network Averages (000) for Tuesday, September 8, 2009, 6am-11pm, ranked by K2-11:
NICKELODEON:         K2-11 934; K6-11 433; TWEENS 9-14 313
DISNEY CHANNEL:     K2-11 891; K6-11 562; TWEENS 9-14 470
CARTOON NETWORK: K2-11 461; K6-11 296; TWEENS 9-14 189
DISNEY XD:               K2-11 151; K6-11   88; TWEENS 9-14   60
Source: MTVN Research from Nielsen Media Research Data

Friday Fun Fact:  If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle; if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.
 
Answer to Yesterday’s Trivia Question:  If you saw a segment of “Mathnet,” what show were you watching?  SQUARE ONE  Kudos to: Ann Kearns-Sesame Workshop/NY; Cristin Stickles-Random House Children’s Sales/New York; Randi M. Kestin/Attleboro, MA; Sarah Monson-Harvard Graduate School of Education/Cambridge; Andy Rubin-Cartoon Network/Chicago; Mark Rodriguez-MDR Entertainment/Valencia; Jaime Ramírez-JRC/LA; Elanna Allen-Freshly Squeezed Films/London; Kristen McGregor/Toronto; Tanya Pirozzo-Corus Entertainment/Toronto

Today’s Trivia Question:  Name the three main bands featured on the cartoon series ‘Jem’ during it’s entire 3 year run. (Email [email protected] with your answer and be sure to include your name, company, city and time zone. Unofficial rules: Only the second four correct answers from each time zone will be mentioned; and once you’ve been mentioned in any of the Cynopsis editions, you can’t be mentioned again that calendar week.)

Later — Gwen
 Gwen Billings for Cynopsis Kids!
09.11.09

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