Sander Schwartz On Board Subway Surfers Series

SYBO has tapped Emmy-winning producer Sander Schwartz, a former Warner Bros. Animation, Sony Pictures Family Entertainment and FremantleMedia Kids & Family exec, to develop and produce animated content based on the hit mobile game Subway Surfers.

Schwartz will bring Subway Surfers to television and film, while splitting his time between SYBO’s creative team in Copenhagen and content development in Hollywood. He recently led the development and production of Skylanders Academy for Activision/Blizzard Film & TV Group and Netflix. He has also advised a number of IP owners on the process of taking game-based properties to other media and for exploitation across various platforms.

Brent Friedman (Star Wars Rebels) also signed on to script a series of shorts and a long-form show. Mathias Gredal Nørvig, the managing director of SYBO, said: “With both Sander and Brent on board, we have fortified our position as universe-builders and brand-makers way beyond the mobile screen.”

Schwartz noted: “With over 1.5 billion downloads around the world, Subway Surfers is well on the way to becoming a strong brand with evergreen potential. This initiative marks one of the very first to migrate an app-based mobile game to long-form animation, and it is a trend we will see more of in the future.

“An important aspect of the project will be to live and breathe the special atmosphere of SYBO in its birthplace, and to bring the creative community in Hollywood into that world. Starting with short subjects, which begin production soon, our goal is to have a full-fledged long-form series ready to go by the end of the year. Conversations are already well underway with potential distribution partners.”

Bodie Jahn-Mulliner, co-founder of SYBO, added: “As creatives, we thrive from our crazy ideas and love when we come up with truly innovative concepts. Having an industry veteran like Sander on our team really grounds us and the exchanges between us help us make a show that has the best of both worlds. We have been waiting for the right moment to take the game back to animation, but we wanted to make sure we preserved the depth of the characters and the creative universe in which they live. This will be a very exciting journey.”