Hamsters Instagram Comic Inspires Adult Animation Series at Cartoon Forum

EXCLUSIVE: Dutch producer Submarine’s good week here in Rome at the MIA Market has continued as it unveiled its latest project.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief European-Australian firm Flying Bark Productions has been appointed as the animator of the first of three untitled ‘Avatar’ films from Paramount Animation and Nickelodeon Animation. The film series, derived from the “Avatar: The Last Airbender” and “The Legend of Korra “animated series, originally created for Nickelodeon by Bryan Konietzko and Michael DiMartino, was announced earlier this year. The first feature will be directed by Lauren Montgomery, with Bryan Konietzko and Michael DiMartino producing. Flying Bark, which is based in Belgium and has major facilities in Sydney, Australia, describes the film series as “[pushing] the style and boundaries of hybrid animation [..] it will couple traditional 2D animation with substantial CG elements.

Netflix has found Mike Moon’s replacement on the adult animation side.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter Boxing great Saúl “Canelo” Álvarez is teaming with Cartuna and Campanario Entertainment to develop an adult animated series inspired by his life and career, Variety has learned exclusively. “I’m excited to see my story and my career brought to TV through this incredible medium,” Álvarez said. “It will give my loyal fans a new way to follow my journey to the top of boxing and can also bring new followers to this beautiful sport.” Erick Galindo (“The Ballad of Chalino Sanchez,” “Out of The Shadows: Children of 86”) will write and executive produce the series. James and Adam Belfer, the co-heads of Cartuna, will executive produce along with along with Mike Flavin, senior vice president of development at Cartuna. Jaime Dávila and Rico Martínez will executive produce for Campanario Entertainment. The project is currently in development and is expected to be taken out to networks and streamers later this year.

Chloe Moretz joins the cast of her new show The Peripheral at New York Comic Con 2022 on Saturday (October 8).

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Mention “The Mole” to virtually anyone who works in reality TV, and their eyes light up. For a show that hasn’t been seen on U.S. television since 2008 — and only aired five editions in total — “The Mole” has nonetheless achieved a near-mythical status in the annals of unscripted TV history. ““I grew up watching them all on television, and it was one of my all-time favorite reality shows,” says Eureka Prods. CEO Chris Culvenor. “It’s probably one of the most beloved formats that is out there, not just in this country, but worldwide. It combines a sense of adventure, with a sort of ‘Ocean’s 11’/’Mission Impossible’-style caper. People love a mystery. I think that is what was the appeal of the original.”

One of Canada’s most beloved TV series is returning – in animated form — to mark the 50th anniversary of “The Beachcombers”.

Joshua Alston From the beginning, Scott “Kid Cudi” Mescudi has approached his career as an artist who would sooner toil in obscurity than be renowned for just one thing. Just two years after dropping “A Kid Named Cudi,” the mixtape that launched him into the spotlight, he was cast in “How to Make It in America,” a short-lived HBO-originals deep cut. In the decade since that show ended in 2011, he’s earned a reputation for bouncing willy-nilly between genres, mediums, and disciplines, and the choices that once seemed fickle now seem confidently eclectic.  Never has Mescudi looked more like a polymath than with the debut of “Entergalactic,” an animated Netflix special timed to the release of his new studio album (also dropping on Sept. 30), which bears the same title. “Entergalactic” was initially announced in 2019 as a series to be created by Mescudi and Kenya Barris, but has since been whittled down to a 90-minute special (which Netflix is calling an “event”). In its final form, the special feels like it’s being torn in several artistic directions at once, not unlike Mescudi himself. The length and formal relationship with the album suggest a Beyoncé-style visual companion piece, heavy on style and symbolism but without a narrative throughline. (Halsey’s “If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power” is a solid non-Bey example.)

Gran Torino producer Double Nickel Entertainment is forging a limited TV series about the life of Vincent van Gogh’s sister-in-law Jo van Gogh-Bonger.

Cartoon Forum saw the European animation scene in boom. With 292 buyers on site, the Toulouse-set event held three days of well-attended TV pitches that ran from Sept. 19 -22. Here are five key takeaways from the event. Buzz and Attendance Cheeky French short-form “The Hall of Fail” came up time and again as Cartoon Forum attendees buzzed about the 2D project that gives a loving raspberry to history’s also-rans. Dystopian Y.A. adventure “The Tern” was another major attention grabber, cited as much for its narrative ambition as for its elaborate sci-fi design. Still, if older skewing projects got the people talking, preschool fare got them buying – or at least, drew the largest shares of buyers to the pitch. Projects “Tiger and Bear,” “Wild Danish,” “Trotro & Zaza,” and “BeddyByes” led the pack, with all four titles playing to rooms where buyers accounted for more than 55% of all attendees. Produced by Dutch studio Submarine, the 2D series “Max” (pictured) drew the best of both worlds, playing to a room full of buyers who would then talk up the project for the rest of the event.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Illumination, the studio behind the “Despicable Me” franchise, has tapped Mike Moon to form a new label, Moonlight. The goal is to broaden the range of films that Illumination makes beyond the kid-friendly fare that’s been its stock in trade. Moon most recently served as the head of adult animation at Netflix, a post he stepped down from in July to “pursue other opportunities.” His exit came as the streamer, battered by a swooning stock price, was laying off animators and dialing back its ambitions in the space. In addition to his new role as president of Moonlight, the company said that Moon will serve as a senior creative advisor to Illumination. Moonlight’s films will be distributed under Illumination’s distribution partnership with Universal Pictures. Illumination said the goal is for Moonlight to “produce animated films that push beyond the family genre.”

The “Despicable Me” animation studio Illumination is launching a new label that will help it expand beyond family films and into more adult animated fare, and they’ve tapped Mike Moon, previously the head of Adult Animation at Netflix, to lead the new label.Moon will serve as the president of the label titled Moonlight, and he will also come aboard as a creative advisor to Illumination. His role will at Moonlight will be to augment Illumination’s existing slate and produce animated films that push beyond the family genre.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Les Films du Losange has closed a raft of major deals on Kasja Naess’s animated feature “Titina” which is produced by the teams behind the Oscar-nominated film “The Triplets of Belleville” and Oscar-winning short “The Danish Poet.” “Titina” will world premiere at Animation Is Film Festival, which takes place Oct. 21-23, and is produced by GKids, in collaboration with Annecy International Animation Film Festival and Variety. Budgeted at $8.5 million, the Norwegian animated movie was produced by Mikrofilm (“The Danish Poet”) and Vivi Film (“The Triplets of Belleville”). The film tells the real-life story of a fox terrier that accompanied her master on an expedition to the North Pole in an air balloon in the 1920’s. It will be released in Norway by Norsk Film Distribusjon, and in France by Les Films du Losange.

Lise Pedersen Leading Dutch animation studio Submarine (“They Shot the Piano Player,” “Fox and Hare,” “Where is Anne Frank”) has presented its latest TV series project based on the bestselling Max children’s books at Europe’s industry event for TV series-in-the-making in the south-eastern French city of Toulouse. A pre-school series of 52 seven-minute episodes, “Max” is a character-driven show about a small kitten with a large appetite for adventure, who sees himself as a fearless predator but is just a little ball of fluff. The series will embrace the simple, clear and colourful 2D aesthetic of award-winning British author and illustrator Ed Vere to allow the viewer to focus on the characters. 

EXCLUSIVE: The wild story of crypto couple Ilya “Dutch” Lichtenstein and Heather “Razzlekhan” Morgan is headed to the screen. Hulu is in early development of limited series Razzlekhan: The Infamous Crocodile of Wall Street, from Searchlight Television. Lily Collins (Emily In Paris) is set to star as Morgan in the project, which she is producing with Charlie McDowell, who is slated to direct, and Alex Orlovsky.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter Peacock has given a straight-to-series order to an adult animated comedy that will reunite “Silicon Valley” co-creator Mike Judge and series star Zach Woods. Titled “In the Know,” the new animated series is co-created and executive produced by Judge, Woods, and Brandon Gardner. Judge and Woods will also lend their voices to the series. The pickup of the show marks Peacock’s first adult animated series order. The show’s official logline reads, “Lauren Caspian is NPR’s third most popular host. He’s a well-meaning, hypocritical nimrod, just like you and me. He’s also a stop motion puppet. Each episode follows the making of an episode of Lauren’s show In the Know, in which Lauren conducts in-depth interviews with real world human guests. Lauren collaborates with a diverse crew of NPR staff. They are also puppets and nimrods.”

Peacock has officially entered the teeming adult animation space with the announcement of a straight-to-series order for “In the Know,” a stop-motion NPR-themed series from “The Office” alums Zach Woods and Greg Daniels, who executive produce along with Mike Judge (“Beavis and Butt-Head”), Brandon Gardner and Dustin Davis.Judge, Woods and Gardner co-created the series, with the former two also starring. Daniels and Davis executive produce for Bandera Entertainment, with the series hailing from studio Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group.The logline for “In the Know” is as follows: “Lauren Caspian is NPR’s third most popular host.

Peacock is getting into adult cartoons.

Lise Pedersen Beginning today, Cartoon Forum, the annual European pitching & co-production event for animated TV projects, is a mirror of the times we live in, according to its general director, Annick Maes.  “This year’s Cartoon Forum will incorporate the transformations we are going through in one form or another,” she told Variety. “There are a lot of projects about the ecology, about living together – quite a few targeting adults and teenagers.  “They really reflect the times in which times we are living. For example, the impact of women is growing, there are more and more female producers and directors. It’s an industry where we’ve pretty much reached gender parity among our participants. You can’t say the same for fiction or documentary.”