Classic Media’s roster of time-honored cartoon characters is going interactive via a strategic consulting agreement with business management firm Flashman Studios. Rocky & Bullwinkle and Friends, Dick Tracy, Underdog and George of the Jungle will be among the animated favorites getting their game on as the two companies work to create video game opportunities for all interactive platforms.
‘Flashman Studios’ vast experience and key industry relationships make them an ideal partner to help us bring our classic characters to a new generation of gamers,’ says Leslie Levine, Classic’s VP of worldwide licensing. ‘We look to tap into Flashman’s wealth of knowledge to strategically determine which developers and publishers can best capture the uniquely fun game play inherent in each of these great icons.”
Flashman is now actively seeking game publishers worldwide to bring Classic’s legendary characters to gamers. ‘Flashman is proactive when it comes to representing intellectual property and presenting a full business case to game publishers,’ notes Flashman Studios CEO Brad Young. ‘We typically think through an interactive brand strategy that takes into consideration the appropriate game platform for the property, high-level design, and we often present a game developer who’s both passionate about the intellectual property and able to execute.’
Other Classic-owned animated properties that will be pitched to game developers include Hot Stuff, Peter Cottontail, Sherman and Peabody,Dudley Do-Right, Fractured FairyTales, Gerald McBoing Boing, VeggieTales, Roger Ramjet and Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town.
Classic Media is currently working with Spyglass Ent. and Disney to develop a live-action/CG feature film based on the animated Underdog series, and has also teamed with Universal Pictures to produce the CG animated feature The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything: A VeggieTales Movie. Other projects in the works include a live-action Lone Ranger movie with Columbia Pictures and an all-new George of the Jungle animated series set to premiere on Cartoon Network in the fall of 2007.
With offices in San Francisco, Calif. and Vancouver, B.C., Flashman Studios has been instrumental in constructing such projects as Cars Mobile for Disney/Pixar, Happy Feet Mobile for Warner Bros. Interactive, Flipper Critters for Ignition and WizKids Pirates for SOE-Denver. The company is also putting a Happy Tree Friends game deal together for an unannounced publisher.
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