IDT Ent. has formed IDT Ent. Sales (IDTeS), a new company responsible for the worldwide distribution of content from IDT Ent. companies, such as DPS Film Roman, Mainframe Ent. and DKP Effects. The new division will also handle IDT acquisitions from third-party producers and will be headed by Mainframe Ent. CEO Rick Mischel.
Mischel tells Animation Magazine Online, "We have great domestic home video distribution through Anchor Bay Ent., which also distributes in the U.K. and Canada. We also have great relations with broadcasters in the U.S., but we needed a sales entity that could go out internationally and take all the product IDT has been assembling over the last 18 months and brand it to the international market."
IDT Ent. Sales will be out in force at MIPCOM to find international homes for a raft of new properties, including a line of six DVD specials featuring new superheroes from Spider-Man creator Stan Lee, and a new series based on Todd McFarlane’s Spawn. "We’re gong to take the property and revitalize it, create a new Spawn," Mischel says, carefully guarding specific details to be released at MIPCOM. The company also has certain distribution rights to a new 70-minute, direct-to-video Inspector Gadget movie, animated in 3D by Mainframe.
Also being prepped for the international market is Film Roman’s library of animated shows like Bruno the Kid with Bruce Willis, C-Bear and Jamal, featuring the voice of Tone Loc. "In addition, Mainframe has two 80-minute, direct-to-video Reboot features, which have just aired on Cartoon Network in the U.S. but have not been distributed in Europe at all," Mischel notes.
As far as acquiring third-party content goes, Mischel says IDT Ent. Sales is looking mostly at picking up any kind of family programming, especially animated series and specials, as well as live-action horror films since Anchor Bay has had great success with such fright franchises as Halloween and The Evil Dead.
IDT Ent. is headed by chairman Steve Brown and CEO Morris Berger. Mischel will continue to serve as Mainframe’s CEO. John W. Hyde, CEO of DPS/Film Roman and COO of IDT Ent., will oversee operations of IDT Ent. Sales as its vice chairman with Brown and Berger as co-chairs. Andrew Berman, who previously led the U.S. and worldwide sales efforts for Japanese animation production and distribution company TMS Ent., has been named exec VP of Sales for IDT Ent. Sales.
