Archive for February 1st, 2008

LONDON — Highly touted U.K. upstart shingle Hardy & Sons is to relaunch as a new outfit in tandem with BBC Worldwide and Left Bank Pictures.Worldwide and Left Bank, which bowed last year under the leadership of Andy Harries, one of the team responsible for “The Queen,” will each take a 15% stake in the as yet unnamed new company.

The remaining 70% will be held by Hardy & Sons owner and creative director, Justin Hardy, who has won a reputation for the combo’s high quality historical dramas including “The Relief of Belsen,” aired by Channel 4 in Blighty.

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NEW YORK Endemol USA and video entertainment site Metacafe have partnered to produce Buzzed, an online after-hours game show. The interactive series focuses on bar and nightclub goers answering a series of trivia questions as they depart popular establishments nationwide.

Endemol produced the show, while Metacafe contributes its community and publishing platform.

The partners are also developing sponsorships with brands interested in creating short-form video entertainment to promote the show and build engagement. Packages include product integration and prize opportunities in addition to standard video and interactive ad units.

“[This] is an exciting time for the industry overall, as advertisers are now able to become directly involved in this new wave of interactive programming. We look forward to producing many more brand-friendly shows this year,” said Jon Vlassopulos, evp, digital media and branded entertainment, at Endemol.

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How do you say “ancillary revenue streams” in Mandarin?

Nickelodeon execs hope to learn after launching “Ni Hao, Kai-lan,” the network’s bid to replicate the billion-dollar, bilingual success of “Dora the Explorer.”

The series, aimed at the increasingly coveted preschool demo, bows Feb. 7 at the start of the 15-day celebration of Chinese New Year. The debut of its 20-episode initial order caps an eventful four-year path to the screen that saw several launch delays, international production headaches, and the challenge of balancing education with entertainment value.

“We always worry about the curriculum seeming too didactic,” says Brown Johnson, a longtime Nick exec who now runs its preschool unit. “But Kai-lan has such a natural voice that the show feels organic as opposed to preachy.”

That blend did not come easily. The show not only sprinkles Mandarin phrases throughout its scripts (ni hao means “hello,” for example), but it pivots on a “social-emotional curriculum” that teaches toddlers how to deal with anger, jealousy, sadness and a host of other emotions.

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About 78 percent of all consumers are aware of the federally-mandated transition to digital television, which will take place on Feb. 17, 2009, according to a recent survey commissioned by the National Association of Broadcasters.

The survey included a national sample of television households, including those that do not subscribe or have access to cable signals and who rely solely on over-the-air TV signals. In fact, according to the survey, awareness was greater among exclusively over-the-air households, where 83 percent of respondents reported that they are aware of the transition.

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STOCKHOLM — U.S. films’ share of the Swedish box office dipped slightly last year, down from 65.4% in 2006 to 65.37% last year.Box office for U.S. pics stood at $120.6 million, compared with $120.9 million in 2006.

The total gross for all films in 2007 was $184.5 million, down 0.2% on 2006, which stood at $184.9 million. Admissions were down 1% at 15.2 million, compared with 15.3 million in 2006.

The share for Swedish films rose from 18.8% to 21.1%, although fewer local films opened, according to the Swedish Film Institute.

Total gross for Swedish films in 2007 was $37 million, compared with $34.8 million in 2006. In 2006, 44 local films opened, but only 30 last year.

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Ever wonder if a video game based on gorno (gore-porn) film series Saw would automatically get an AO rating? Well, it’s time to find out as Brash Entertainment has fleshed out its announcement from last year concerning an interactive Saw. The game will weave in and out of the Saw movie storylines and elaborately ensnare consoles in Oct. ‘09. If you’re thinking this is going to be some cheesy mobile cash-in, it appears the developers will be using Unreal Engine 3.0 and releasing the title on the PS3 and Xbox 360.

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LONDON — BSkyB, Europe’s biggest paybox, is facing a potential loss of $500 million after the U.K. government ruled it must reduce its stake in ITV from 17.9% to below 7.5%.The decision by business secretary John Hutton was widely expected. U.K. regulator the Competition Commission ruled in December that BSkyB’s holding was bad for competition and against the public interest.

The satcaster splashed out $1.88 billion on the ITV stock in November 2006 in order to block a takeover bid for ITV by arch rival, cable operator NTL, subsequently rebranded as Virgin Media.

BSkyB paid 135 pence ($2.68) a share. Today the stock is worth around 73 pence ($1.45) — hence the hit of $500 million.

The paybox, which until recently was run by James Murdoch who masterminded the “dawn raid” on ITV, has until Feb. 25 to appeal.

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LAS VEGAS (AdAge.com) — Fund-seeking content producers and programmers got a big wake-up call on branded entertainment from Shelly Lazarus this morning at the National Association of Television Program Executives Conference here.
“Brands are more than checkbooks to develop content,” Ms. Lazarus, the CEO of Ogilvy & Mather, said in a question-and-answer session with Ad Age editor Jonah Bloom. “We develop shows to get [them] to an endpoint. Brands are cultural artifacts that have inherent story values. We see ourselves as being both in the entertainment business and the product business.”

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The ensemble cast for the highly-anticipated live-action G.I. Joe flick is starting to come together, and IESB reports that Arnold Vosloo has just landed the role of Zartan in the film, who’s described as a “mercenary who works with Destro and Cobra. He is one of the main villains in the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero comic and animated series.” The name might not automatically ring a bell, however you should remember Vosloo from his role as High Priest Imhotep (aka The Mummy) in The Mummy and The Mummy Returns. He’s also starred in a number of films; most recently as Colonel Coetzee in Blood Diamond. Vosloo joins Sienna Miller (The Baroness), Ray Park (Snake Eyes), Marlon Wayans (Ripcord), Channing Tatum (Duke), Byung-hun Lee (Storm Shadow), Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Heavy Duty), Rachel Nichols (Scarlett), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Rex) and Said Taghmaoui (Breaker) in the film, which will be directed by Stephen Sommers (The Mummy) and is due out August 7, 2009.

I’m not very familiar with Zartan, but IESB says the character is “a bit of a chameleon and can imitate anyone to an exact physical and vocal likeness. In the cartoon and comics his chameleon-like abilities were done through a mix of holograms, illusions and hypnosis. Zartan is also fluent in twenty languages and dialects, a ventriloquist, an expert martial artist, master archer and the leader of the biker gang known as the Dreadnoks who also suffers from Paranoid Schizophrenia and Multiple Personality Disorder.” I imagine this casting choice came from Sommers himself, who’s worked with Vosloo on both Mummy films. The guy was creepy as all hell in those films, so I imagine he’ll fit in well here. What do you think?

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NBC AND APPLE MEMORABLY TRADED barbs last summer when the network opted to pull its shows from the iTunes store, apparently because it wanted prices to increase over the $1.99 an episode. Since then, there have been hints of a rapprochement. But a few weeks ago, NBC may have left a new stain on their relationship.

After the Jan. 17 episode of the “Celebrity Apprentice,” Apple executives may have been dialing 30 Rock, but for reasons other than negotiating a return of the acclaimed “30 Rock” to their emporium.

The episode was designed as a showcase for Kodak’s EasyShare line of printers and cartridges–the rather standard type of “Apprentice” paid brand integration. But in the process–and surely unintentionally–it offered a nightmarish scenario for Apple and its laptops.

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