Cynopsis: Kids!

06/16/09

Good morning. It’s Tuesday, June 16, 2009, and this is your first early morning Kids briefing.

A copyright infringement lawsuit has been filed against Bloomsbury Publishing, the UK publishers of J.K. Rowling‘s Harry Potter books, by the estate of the late author Adrian Jacobs.  The suit alleges that in the book Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Rowling “copied substantial parts” of Jacobs’ 1987 book, The Adventures of Willy the Wizard-No 1 Livid Land.   Jacobs’ estate is also seeking a court order against Rowling in order to determine whether or not to include her as a defendant in its claim.  Jacobs, who sought literary representation by Christopher Little, who later served as Rowling’s agent for Harry Potter, died “bankrupt and penniless” in 1997.  Bloomsbury Publishing denied all allegations of plagiarism stating to Reuters yesterday afternoon, “This claim is without merit and will be defended vigorously,” and going on to explain, “JK Rowling had never heard of Adrian Jacobs nor seen, read or heard of his book Willy the Wizard until this claim was first made in 2004, almost seven years after the publication of the first book,” Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (the UK title).  Additionally, Bloomsbury says Rowling wrote the Philosopher’s Stone prior to approaching literary agent Christopher Little.

NEW PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT

Skyler Samuels (Wizards of Waverly Place) joins the cast of Summit Entertainment and Participant Media‘s family-aimed feature film Furry Vengeance, per THR.  The comedy is set to begin filming next month for a possible 2010 release.  Penned by Michael Carnes and Josh Gilbert, the cast already includes Brendan Fraser and Matt Prokop (High School Musical 3: Senior Year).  Samuels will also be featured in the upcoming Screen Gems movie The Stepfather (October 2009).

MORE KIDS STUFF

The Disney XD channel will replace the Jetix channel in the UK this August, along with a corresponding website DisneyXD.co.uk.  Like its US counterpart, Disney XD in the UK is will be primarily targeted to boys 6-14 (though girls won’t be alienated) and feature a combination of live-action and animated series.  Disney XD has also taken over for Jetix channels in France and will do so in other countries moving forward including in Japan.  In some countries as Jetix is phased out, the channel will be replaced by Disney Channel.

Decode Enterprises attends DISCOP this week with a raft of deals already inked with broadcasters in Central and Eastern Europe. Hop! (Romania) acquires four preschool series from Decode including all episodes of Franny’s Feet and The Save-Ums!, both seasons of Halifax Films’ Animal Mechanicals and 40 episodes of Halifax’s Bo on the Go!  That latter will also air in Slovenia under a deal with RTV (Slovenia).  In Poland, Media Service Zawada picks up the home video rights to animated series Watership Down.  Also in the territory, Girl Stuff, Boy Stuff is taken by Canal+ and Radio Free Roscoe (all 52 episodes) have been acquired by Telewizja Polska with further deals for the series signed with Prava I Prevodi (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, Serbia).  MUZ-TV (Russia) also picks up Radio Free Roscoe, while 2 x2 (Russia) takes the young adult targeted series Bromwell High and Undergrads.

Echo Bridge Entertainment finalizes an exclusive agreement with Avalon Arabia FZ to distribute the majority of titles from the Alliance Atlantis International Distribution catalog throughout the Middle East.  Included under the deal are the teen-targeted series Degrassi: The Next Generation (143 episodes) and Instant Star (52 episodes). Show being offered as part of the deal for the kid audience include the preschool series Lunar Jim (46×3), Connie the Cow (43×30) and Peep & The Big Wide World (26×30) and for older kids Dragon Booster (39×30), Beast Wars Transformers (52×30) and Yvon of the Yukon (26×30).  The deal also features a range of drama and reality shows aimed at an adult audience.

Her Interactive, developer/producer of the Nancy Drew video games, teams with B*Tween Productions, creators of the Beacon Street Girls, to make the mini-game from the new Nancy Drew Dossier Lights, Camera, Curses! Casual game available on www.beaconstreetgirls.com, while www.herinteractive.com now features Beach Street Girls information and links.  Expect further joint activities (e.g. contests and sweepstakes) between the to companies and their respective sites.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

MARKETING/LICENSING

Avanquest Software Publishing partners with Sesame Workshop to release three new Sesame Street educational computer game titles in the UK.  Targeted to preschoolers, the new games encourage early learning skills for specific age groups and parent/care-taker interaction through a range of activities.  Featuring popular Sesame Street characters such as Big Bird, Elmo Ernie and Zoe, the games include: First Steps (for kids 1.5-3 years); Learn Play & Grow Preschool (kids 2-4); and Let’s Go To Preschool (kids 3-5).

4Kids Entertainment competes new additional licensing deals for the animated property Dinosaur King in the UK and Ireland with Aykroyd & TDP Licensing (boys’ nightwear and underwear) and Smith and Brooks (apparel, leisurewear and swimwear.  Product is slated to launch in spring/summer 2010.  Dinosaur King currently airs on Jetix and MGTV Kids in the UK.

EXECUTIVE MOVES

World Wrestling Entertainment names Mike Pavone as EVP/WWE Studios.  Pavone will lead WWE Studios’ theatrical releases, direct-to-DVD movies, series and reality programming and report directly to WWE Chairman Vince McMahon.  Pavone, who has served as a strategic consult to WWE’s Creative Writing department since 2008, previously worked as writer, producer, director and actor on projects including The Client (CBS), Prison Break (FOX, and High Incident with Steven Spielberg (ABC), Street Time (Showtime) Northmen (Warner Bros.) among others.

RATINGS

Cartoon Network‘s premiere of the new animated series Total Drama Action on June 11 at 9p, during the network’s primetime programming block Har Har Tharsday (8-10p), was the most watched program of the day across all TV among K6-11 and Tweens 9-14.  Total Drama Action, a spin-off of last year’s Total Drama Island, was watched by 1.3 million K6-11 and 1.6 million Tweens 9-14, an increase of +85% and +140% versus Total Drama Island (Thursday, June 5, 2008 at 9p).  For the night the Har Har Tharsday’s block, which featured new episodes of its series The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack and 6Teen, was the network’s most watched Thursday primetime year-to-date.

Live + Same Day Ratings Kids Cable Network Averages (000) for Thursday, June 11, 2009, 6am-11pm, ranked by K2-11:
NICKELODEON:         K2-11 1127; K6-11 676; TWEENS 9-14 509
DISNEY CHANNEL:     K2-11 1171; K6-11 792; TWEENS 9-14 654
CARTOON NETWORK: K2-11   751; K6-11 536; TWEENS 9-14 433
DISNEY XD:               K2-11   193; K6-11 134; TWEENS 9-14 100
Source: MTVN Research from Nielsen Media Research Data

Live + Same Day Ratings Kids Cable Network Averages (000) for Friday, June 12, 2009, 6am-11pm, ranked by K2-11:
NICKELODEON:         K2-11 1194; K6-11 650; TWEENS 9-14 461
DISNEY CHANNEL:     K2-11 1131; K6-11 778; TWEENS 9-14 665
CARTOON NETWORK: K2-11   548; K6-11 408; TWEENS 9-14 347
DISNEY XD:               K2-11   204; K6-11 157; TWEENS 9-14 130
Source: MTVN Research from Nielsen Media Research Data

Answer to Yesterday’s Trivia Question:   Carter Nash is his real name, but what is his super hero name?  CAPTAIN NICE  Kudos to: Andy Krinner-aNb Media LLC/NY; Jim Salicrup-PAPERCUTZ/NY; Tom Siebert-Initiative/NY; Bernice Bareng-Zenithmedia/LA; Claire Wilmut-Boomstone Animation/Ottawa

Today’s Trivia Question:  This series was set in the The Mbweebee Valley.  What’s the name of the series?   (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!
06.16.09

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