London-based production company signs with CAA and announces first slate of animated films, including ‘Riverdance: An Animated Adventure,’ based on the show of the same name; and ‘Blazing Samurai’ based on Mel Brook’s famous comedy.
London-based animation production company, Aniventure Limited has appointed Creative Artists Agency (CAA) to help identify and develop global partners for its business. Founded in 2014, the company set out to challenge industry expectations around development, production, and financing of feature animations and to find new economic models driven by strong creative leadership, efficiency, and technology. It has created a large slate of feature animation projects, with the first three now financed and in production. Each film is original in style and tone, with high production values and A-list casts. Aniventure has a CGI production partnership with Cinesite.
“Reimaging how high-quality animated films are created and delivered at a better economic risk point was always going to be challenging,” explained Aniventure head of creative, Dave Rosenbaum. “For Aniventure’s first film, we assembled a talented team of filmmakers with forward-looking vision and old fashion determination. Our head of animation, Eamonn Butler, and I directed the first film to simultaneously test and fine-tune our pipeline and process aimed at setting our business apart. The result is Riverdance: An Animated Adventure that should have audiences dancing in the theatres (or in their living rooms)!”
Riverdance: An Animated Adventure (Aniventure and River Productions) is based on the stage show phenomenon of the same name and features Bill Whelan’s Grammy Award-winning music; the film is currently in post-production. The other two films in production are Blazing Samurai (Aniventure and Blazing Productions), based on Mel Brooks’ classic film Blazing Saddles, directed by Mark Koetsier (The Grinch, Big Hero 6, Madagascar: Escape To Africa) and overseen and produced by Rob Minkoff (The Lion King, Mr. Peabody & Sherman, Stuart Little 1&2); and HITPIG (Aniventure), from Pulitzer Prize-winner Berkeley Breathed who is serving as executive producer and production designer on the film directed by Cinzia Angelini (Mila, Minions, Despicable Me 3) and Maurizio Parimbelli (Peter Rabbit, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas). Riverdance, Blazing Samurai and Hitpig will be delivered in 2020, 2021 and 2022, respectively.
CAA will help Aniventure identify partners considering or expanding into the family entertainment marketplace that would benefit from a turnkey operation. The company has spent the last six years building a world class team of filmmakers, experienced partners and talent around a filmmaking culture and methodology that is free from historic overhangs. This strategy is designed to deliver high production values at a budget level that allows the finished films to be economically viable irrespective of the distribution channel chosen.
“Aniventure recognizes the film industry is undergoing a period of change,” commented Aniventure producer Adam Nagle. “Our company is in the right place at the right time with the right content. The change in the market is being driven by new entrants like Aniventure which has high quality content available based on sensible economics. This has allowed Aniventure to accommodate different revenue models and business practices that new and established corporations, wishing to enter the family animation market, will need to adopt in this changing business environment.”
Source: Aniventure
