here<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe session kicked off with an exploration of what these IP owners look for when determining if a book or graphic novel is ripe for a screen adaptation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe main factor is passion\u2014I need to fall in love with a book or with the characters,\u201d said P\u00e9try, the head of international and development at Dandelooo.<\/p>\n
Updike, senior VP of creative at Hidden Pigeon Company, agreed, adding, \u201cAre the characters and stories relatable to the audience we\u2019re going for? And to a degree, does the visual style of the book or comic book translate to a modern audience? That\u2019s not always needed. You can stretch the visual style a little bit. But I do agree that passion is needed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re looking for, is there room to expand?\u201d said Colfer, director of development at Lion Forge Entertainment. \u201cIs there more that I want to know about these characters? Other adventures I\u2019d like to see them go on or deeper looks into their backstory that could help bring out some of those themes?\u201d<\/p>\n
Grundel, Director Junior at ZDF Studios, also stressed the importance of \u201cstrong, relatable characters who are capable of driving engaging stories on-screen,\u201d as well as \u201cuniversal themes like friendship, courage and identity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stalcup asked the panelists about striking that all-important balance between maintaining the core identity of the material and adapting it to the medium in question.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are oftentimes books, especially in the kids\u2019 space, that might lack a real antagonist,\u201d Colfer noted. \u201cYou\u2019re having to create all of these extra layers and threads and put the characters in more recognizable situations to help people see that this is now a television series.\u201d<\/p>\n
When it comes to adapting older material, \u201chonoring the spirit of that book\u201d is important, Updike added, \u201cbut then addressing if there\u2019s outdated cultural norms or if you want to enhance the diversity of it or refresh language and bring humor up to date. Sometimes that\u2019s an issue, especially if it\u2019s something that\u2019s 30 or 40 years old.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Grundel, \u201cit all starts with a willingness to truly understand what made the original beloved. Ensuring that the essence, themes and spirit of the source material are carefully preserved in the adaptation, and then you can start to make adjustments to make the material work on-screen and update it for modern audiences.\u201d<\/p>\n
The panelists then weighed in on the importance of collaborating with the original author or illustrator when adapting IP. At Hidden Pigeon Company, created to adapt Mo Willems\u2019 work, \u201cCEO Karen Miller instituted Mo Speaks,\u201d Updike said. \u201cHe has 77 books and counting. We take one book at a time, and we talk to him about \u2018why.\u2019 Why this book? Why this illustration? When we start development on a book or a project, we have all of that history that he has, and then we can align more perfectly with him. He has important personal things and messages in his books that we need to understand. We may disagree, and we may say we can\u2019t do something the way that he originally intended, but we can have that open dialogue.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lion Forge has been particularly active in graphic novel adaptations, working with its sister company, Oni Press. \u201cWe\u2019re really close to the creators,\u201d Colfer noted. \u201cWhen you speak to them, you realize they\u2019re limited by page count, by panels per page, all of that. There is a wealth of story and information that never made it onto the page.\u201d<\/p>\n
The conversation then moved to the value of known IP in the marketplace today. \u201cA published book is proof that someone has already said yes,\u201d Colfer quipped. \u201cWhen you\u2019re bringing it into someone, the risk is lower because someone already put their neck out. You\u2019re not taking a flier on something completely original\u2014which we all would love to see more of, but it\u2019s just not done a ton right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
P\u00e9try added, \u201cWhen you bring a book to broadcasters, they know immediately what you\u2019re talking about. You can gain two or three years because you go straight into development. Timing-wise, it\u2019s really valuable.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou also get a creative head start with whoever you\u2019re bringing it to,\u201d Updike noted. \u201cThey know the past of the book. It\u2019s important that whatever form of written material you\u2019re adapting is well-known. It\u2019s still harder for small, unknown books. They\u2019re almost like original IPs. A well-known book has everything that we\u2019re talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n
International success is also helpful, Updike said, but P\u00e9try noted that doesn\u2019t always have to be the case. \u201cIn the countries where very few books sold, it\u2019s a great opportunity for [a channel or platform] because you can brand it,\u201d she explained. \u201cYou partner with a local publisher and make the books well-known when they\u2019re not.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stalcup asked the panelists if adaptations need to target the same original audience base of the book or graphic novel. From Colfer\u2019s perspective, they do not, with Lion Forge currently adapting a graphic novel initially targeted at an adult audience into the \u201cfour-quad kids\u2019 and family space,\u201d he said. \u201cIf it\u2019s series versus feature, if it\u2019s broadening your audience, if it\u2019s narrowing your audience, you\u2019re always looking for the fastest way to \u2018yes.\u2019 So, while the source material is always the North Star, you have to be open to following it to its best natural conclusion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dandelooo is at work bringing the Gaston\u2019s Emotions<\/em> books to series form. \u201cWe decided to develop it for upper preschool,\u201d P\u00e9try said. \u201cWhen you look at the books, [broadcasters might say], No, thank you, it\u2019s really too young for us because it\u2019s babyish. We took the character, and we aged him up. So, instead of being 3 years old, he\u2019s now 8 years old. We reduced the size of the head and the body and the way he moves and the stories and his friends. It\u2019s the same character, but five years later. There was no way to develop it otherwise. There would have been no outlet.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cWe often aim to expand the target demographic, especially when we develop our teen live-action content for streaming,\u201d Grundel explained. \u201cWe aim not to focus solely on the kids\u2019 audience but to broaden the target group, to make it a little bit older. For example, [we use] magic and fantasy elements. It sometimes feels a little bit childish. Incorporating real-life challenges helps to engage older teenagers as well. This is the adjustment you can make with tone, pacing and visual style to make it a little bit older.\u201d<\/p>\n
At Hidden Pigeon and working with Willem and his now multigenerational fan base, \u201cit\u2019s about scaffolding the story,\u201d Updike said, \u201cmaking it very accessible across a smaller demo. When I say aging up, you\u2019re taking something from a 3-to-5 and making it more bridge, like 4-to-7. It\u2019s way harder to do when you\u2019re taking something preschool and trying to make it 6-to-12. I have seen a lot of and worked on projects where you\u2019re taking older and making it younger, and that seems to be a very interesting and fruitful endeavor because you can make it four-quadrant.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the session came to a close, Stalcup asked the panelists to share their thoughts on whether this trend toward known IP will continue throughout 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought this year would be the year of new original content,\u201d Updike said, \u201cbut we\u2019re not quite there yet. I think we have another year or so of this kind of content being very much in demand. 2025 is a year of IP, brands and so forth. We\u2019re on the cusp of an AI-driven creator model, where creators can use AI to animate their own content and therefore there\u2019ll be a lot of fun, new original ideas coming out and we\u2019ll be able to visually see them. They won\u2019t be the best in the beginning, and we\u2019ll still have to translate them into something a little bit more premium.\u201d<\/p>\n
P\u00e9try agreed, noting, \u201cbeing more creator-driven and more original is more risk. This year, nobody wants to take any risks.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBook adaptations have always been a proven and successful model for us,\u201d Grundel said. \u201cI\u2019m confident this will continue to thrive this year. I also see growing interest in building expansive story worlds over books, TV and game and interactive media. We have one project where we are exploring book adaptations in Minecraft and Roblox.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you talk to any buyer, there\u2019s still that ask for known IP, big IP,\u201d Colfer stated. \u201cBut at a certain point, the cupboard\u2019s bare. You looked at all the big IP, it\u2019s all optioned somewhere, licensed somewhere, it\u2019s been exploited. It\u2019s going to naturally have to swing back to originals that feel a little bit like they\u2019re evergreen and they\u2019ve been here for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With commissioners seeking out known IP, the TV Kids Festival convened a panel with Dandelooo\u2019s Emmanu\u00e8le P\u00e9try, ZDF Studios\u2019 Oliver Grundel, Hidden Pigeon Company\u2019s Kristofer Updike and Lion Forge Entertainment\u2019s Jeremy Colfer to discuss their approaches to adapting books and graphic novels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":290,"featured_media":29056,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[4636,8805,7715,10445,9414,7499,8967,10494,6434],"class_list":["post-29055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-top-stories","tag-dandelooo","tag-emmanuele-petry","tag-hidden-pigeon-company","tag-jeremy-colfer","tag-kristofer-updike","tag-lion-forge-entertainment","tag-oliver-grundel","tag-tv-kids-festival-2025","tag-zdf-studios","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\n
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