Canada’s Rainmaker Animation announced today that it is developing a trilogy of feature-length films based on the groundbreaking 1994 CG-animated Saturday Morning series ReBoot. Produced by Canada’s Mainframe Ent., the original series was the first 3D series on television and aired for several seasons on ABC and Cartoon Network in the U.S., and YTV in Canada.
Rainmaker Ent. CEO Warren Franklin says the new projects are being developed for cross-platform distribution. ‘Everyone remembers the television series, but I can imagine how ReBoot could live as a film, as a game or as mobile content,’ he comments. ‘It’s important for us to engage all of those audiences at this early stage.’
In furthering the development of the revamped ReBoot, Rainmaker has entered into a strategic alliance with Zeros 2 Heroes, a newly launched social network for comic-book fans. Five undiscovered writers have been selected to work with the professionals at Rainmaker to develop their own pitches for a new storyline. Each writer will collaborate with a Rainmaker production team to prepare a presentation pitch, which will be posted on www.zeros2heroes.com on July 26, 2007 to coincide with the opening of Comic-Con Int’l in San Diego, Calif.
For the next month, those visiting the website will be able to work with each production team to help refine the ideas and eventually vote for their favorite pitch. A web version of a comic book based on the winning idea will then be published later this year as production on the first feature film gets underway. Rainmaker will continue to draw on the fan base to help drive the creative throughout the process.
“We want to get rid of the gatekeepers and help forge a genuine dialogue between producers and fans,’ says Zeroes 2 Heroes president Matt Toner. ‘When it comes to longstanding genre entertainment properties, the fans are the real experts and their goodwill shouldn’t be taken for granted. If you want them to show up on opening weekend, why not build an authentic relationship from day one?”
Zeros 2 Heroes visitors will be able to take advantage of web 2.0 applications, interacting with content on a variety of levels including tagging, rating, reviewing, blogging and chatting. They can even submit their own fan art and go head-to-head with the professionals at Rainmaker.
The original ReBoot series ran four seasons and was eventually seen in more than 70 countries around the world. The show remains one of YTV’s top-rated programs and helped to establish Mainframe Ent. as a leading computer animation studio. Mainframe was purchased by Rainmaker in July 2006.
