News > Nick & DreamWorks Creating TV Spinoffs
October 24, 2006
Content taken from Coming Soon:
Nickelodeon and DreamWorks Animation are joining forces on a pair of potential weekly series based on DreamWorks features, reports Variety.
One series will be based on the upcoming film Kung Fu Panda; the other is a spinoff of 2005 hit Madagascar, centered on its popular penguin characters.
"Panda," due in theaters in May 2008, revolves around a lowly waiter in a noodle restaurant whose shape doesn't lend itself to kung fu fighting. The movie features the vocal talents of Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan, Lucy Liu, Dustin Hoffman and Ian McShane.
DreamWorks Animation will take a back seat on day-to-day development of the Nick projects. The cable channel will take the reins on physical production out of Nick Studios.
"We've given them all the elements that exist in the movies and then, really ... we're pretty deferential on this," DreamWorks Animation chief executive Jeffrey Katzenberg said. "They spent a lot of time with the creators, directors, producers and talent involved in the two movies, but it was more to pick their brains and then take the properties and make them their own."
Both projects are in the early stages of development. Tom Martin ("The Simpsons") will write the pilot script for "Panda." Paul Rugg ("Freakazoid!") is aboard to write the Madagascar offshoot, centered on penguins Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private in a series of new adventures.
