Profile: 41 Entertainment’s Blake: Double Identity

The pilot for 41 Entertainment’s new 2D and 3D action series will be available to screen at MIP Junior. Allen Bohbot, the company’s CEO, tells TV Kids Weekly about how Blake: Double Identity fills a gap in the children’s marketplace today.

When he was setting up his new animation production-and-distribution company last year, children’s programming veteran Allen Bohbot had the idea to do a James Bond-esque kids’ series. The aim was to deliver an espionage-based show that could borrow elements from grown-up series like 24 while still being funny and kid-friendly.

41 Entertainment (41e), formed in April 2010, unveiled the concept for Blake: Double Identity just a few months after its launch. At MIPCOM, a trailer for the planned 26×24-minute series—about twin action-heroes Justin and Tatiana Blake, and their two friends, who have been recruited by an international government agency—was being screened to buyers.
The response, says Bohbot, was very "positive buzz. We’ve now shown it to all the major customers in the world. In part based on the story line and in part based on the visuals, once we showed it to just about everybody we got an overwhelmingly positive response."

Also fueling demand, Bohbot notes, is "there isn’t a lot in the boys’ action-animated category" in the marketplace today.

The pilot that will be available for screening at MIP Junior was co-produced with RGH Studios, Jordanian firm Rubicon Group Holdings’ Los Angeles outpost. It is directed by Will Meugnot, with art supervision by Torsten Schrank and is written by Andy Briggs. The episode is being worked on by 3D artists in Jordan and 2D artists in Europe and Manila, supervised by creatives in Los Angeles. The music and voice recordings, meanwhile, come from Tamborine in London.

"It’s a true mix of 2D and 3D," Bohbot says. "It is visually different. We’ve put all the energy and time and effort into making this a very large brand that can be brought to market in 2012."

That emphasis on building one "meaningful" brand this year in Blake: Double Identity is central to Bohbot’s strategy for 41e in the kids’ market today. "We have hundreds of episodes in the catalogue but that’s not what it’s about. It’s about finding stuff that breaks through and is different than what the rest of the market has and making it stand out. And then owning all the rights and all forms and venues so that you can truly exploit it. Yes, we’ll try to sell everything in the catalogue like everybody else does, but the business isn’t about that anymore—the business is about finding that one hit that breaks through and changes the business model completely, and that’s what we’re doing here."

In addition to the series that is due for delivery in 2012, 41e is planning an 80-minute stereoscopic 3D animated feature for 2013. Also for 2013 will be a lineup of retail products, with 41e set to begin developing the L&M campaign next year. Development has also begun on a second season.

To watch a clip of

Blake: Double Identity

, please click

here

.