Silverwing flies as feature trilogy

Vancouver: Bardel Entertainment of Vancouver has repackaged its 13 half-hours of animated series Silverwing into a movie trilogy – to give broadcasters more scheduling flexibility and help finance a second season of the series.

Because the series about a young bat’s epic quest for redemption after breaking an ancient law has an ongoing dramatic serial arc, programmers were having trouble fitting Silverwing into kids blocks, says Bardel’s VP marketing and communications Juliet Greenberg. Teletoon issued a new licence for the Sliverwing movie trilogy to help fund the cost of editing.

The movies, which will air on Teletoon in December and go to the DVD/VHS market next year, are titled A Glimpse of the Son, Towers of Fire and Redemption.

Producer Chris Henderson (Clifford’s Really Big Movie) oversaw the transformation that involved cutting 70 minutes from the original series.

‘The cuts to the series were pivotal so as not to take away from any storyline,’ says Henderson. ‘It was a challenge to edit a chronological series without having to rebuild parts of the story while enhancing the pace to fit the feature film format.’

Bardel looked to The Lord of the Rings and The Matrix trilogies – where one movie’s ending is the next’s beginning – for inspiration.

At this month’s MIPCOM, the series version was being negotiated for New Zealand, Germany, India and France. The trilogy version has two potential sales with undisclosed purchasers, says Greenberg.

The producers, who have developed the stories for a second season of 26 episodes of Silverwing, are also trying to find a coproducer, which has turned out to be a challenge. Greenberg says that Bardel, because of the style and dramatic tone of Silverwing, is being picky about potential coproducers. Also, finding a coproducer willing to step into a series midway is an added difficulty, she adds.

The original series, which Bardel produced entirely in-house on its own, debuted a year ago on Teletoon.

In other Bardel news, production recently wrapped on its CGI feature Dragons: Fire & Ice for Teletoon and Cartoon Network in the U.S. The movie, inspired by the Mega Bloks toy line, tells the story of a clash between humans and dragons.

Alliance Atlantis’ Motion Picture Distribution LP, Lions Gate Home Entertainment and Paramount Home Entertainment International released the title in North America Oct. 12. Ian Edwards

Want syrup with that?

Vancouver: Children’s entertainer Courtney Campbell will turn her Mustard Pancakes CD into 26 half-hours for PBS and SCN. Mustard Pancakes, the television production, has taken up a stage at The Bridge Studios in Burnaby. The series, designed for preschoolers, is a kind of children’s sitcom that takes place in Campbell’s TV-land house. Costarring with Campbell are four puppets teaching kids social skills and other lessons through songs and stories. Production runs Oct. 25 to Feb. 25, 2005 and the series begins airing in March. Ian Edwards