Platinum Studios, home to the world’s largest library of independent comic book characters, has just signed a new content deal one that’s off the typical Hollywood path.
They’re linking with FamilyWatchdog.Us, a Web site that archives and distributes information on registered sex offenders and sexual predators, to develop “edu-tainment” content aimed at teaching kids about how to stay safe from sexual predators.
Platinum will develop a series of comics featuring animated characters for mobile phones, TV and film, as well as print, and release it on a weekly basis
“This is a way to make something like sex offenders and safety more palatable, easier to talk about it’s something a lot of people aren’t ready to discuss,” said Georges Elias, the vice president of Platinum’s recently created mobile content division. “The target audience is children and parents the parents are gatekeepers and it’s our mission to make it easier to address.”
The studio specializes in developing its comic library into entertainment and feature film content. “Men in Black” is among Platinum’s best-known properties and the studio has teamed with major players like Sony, Universal, Disney and Lions Gate. A team of six of Platinum’s 35 employees is working on the content and backing the Web site’s distribution. In addition to the animated blurbs, users will be able to register to receive e-mail and text alerts in English or Spanish, telling them when offenders move in or out of their neighborhoods, as well as names, addresses, convictions and photos of registrants.
The odd coupling of Platinum and Family Watchdog came about in a more traditional Hollywood way using old connections to make new deals. The recently hired Elias had a working relationship with Family Watchdog when he worked as a mobile services consultant prior to joining Platinum.
Platinum executives wouldn’t disclose the amount of money going into the Family Watchdog site under the three-year partnership, except to call it “a very significant cost undertaking.”
Steve Roddel founded Family Watchdog last year after realizing that a street name misspelling in a state database left him unaware that a registered sex offender lived about 600 feet from his family’s home.
Armed with information from each state registry and Washington, D.C., Roddel built a searchable database. The site has more than 1 million people registered for email notification and draws an average of 5 million visitors a month. Users can access information on a limited geographic area for free; paid subscriptions ranging from $24 to $36 allow more detailed, wide-area sex-offender searches and information.
Platinum chief executive Scott Rosenberg said the company would look to leverage the comics used for Family Watchdog in other Platinum entertainment properties and to generate appeal in the teen market.
“We’re creating our cast of characters, and they will be backed by Platinum’s existing characters,” Rosenberg said. “We’re not talking Benji or Lassie here, this is something much cooler.”
Sony Rebounds
For the first time, Sony Pictures Entertainment’s worldwide box office take exceeded $3 billion in a single year. Sony films accounted for 20 percent of all the tickets sold in North America in 2006.
“The Da Vinci Code,” which did more than $750 million at the worldwide box office, led the way, but there was plenty of depth, too. “Casino Royale,” “Click,” and “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby” all made in excess of $100 million.
“What we had this year was a diversity of product,” said Sony spokesman Steve Elzer. “Tentpole films like ‘The Da Vinci Code’ and ‘Casino Royale,’ broad comedies like ‘Talladega Nights’ and some family and animated titles all did really well.”
The achievement is particularly satisfying, and indicative of the cyclical nature of box office success, given Sony’s performance in 2005. Last year the studio finished in eighth place among major distributors. There were a few hits, such as Will Smith’s romantic comedy “Hitch,” but the year was mostly made of misses like “Stealth,” “XXX: State of the Union,” and “Zathura.”
Elzer had a simple explanation for the studio’s turnaround: better films.
“You really have to create a compelling audience experience,” Elzer said.
Sony becomes the third studio to reach the $3 billion mark in worldwide box office, joining Walt Disney Co.’s 2003 performance and Warner Bros. in both 2004 and 2005.
Classy Pals
“Sheira & Loli’s Dittydoodle Works” is a half-hour weekly children’s series for preschoolers featuring characters, songs and, of course, life lessons.
It began airing in Los Angeles on KLCS Channel 58 on Saturdays last month at an ungodly hour for anyone but preschoolers, 6:30 a.m.
The cast of puppet characters from Jim Henson’s Creature Shop boasts some original stage names: Doodles the Crayon, Professor Eeky Eeky Kronk, Zippy the Kwirk and factory helpers the Funkins. And they have some highbrow pals.
Sheira and Leora “Loli” Brayer, two-time winners of Billboard magazine’s National Songwriter’s Award, created the show and will provide music. Oscar, Grammy, Tony and Emmy-winning songwriter and composer Marvin Hamlisch, and Grammy-winning R & B singer Chaka Khan, both contributed to the first season’s episodes.
Additionally, the show’s creative team includes Mark Saltzman, a former writer for “Sesame Street” for nearly a decade, and Dean Gordon of the popular PBS children’s series “Between the Lions.”
Broadway composer and arranger Joseph Baker oversees the series’ music with Sheira Brayer.
Anne Riley-Katz can be reached at
[email protected]
or at (323) 549-5225, ext. 225.
