Rainmaker Entertainment hopes its newly forged relationship with comic-book legend Stan Lee will further the company’s transition from service provider to content creator – a process that began with the purchase of Mainframe Entertainment in 2006.

The Vancouver animation shop has announced a partnership with Lee and Utah-based finance and development group Brighton Partners for the new superhero franchise Legion of 5. It’s the latest from the 85-year-old creative force who, in his earlier association with Marvel, co-created the Spider-Man, X-Men, Fantastic Four and Hulk franchises.

‘We’re hoping it will be a high-profile property that will keep us growing,’ says Rainmaker CEO Warren Franklin. The company has been busy shifting to ‘purely animation,’ as Franklin puts it, since it acquired Mainframe and sold its post-production and FX business to Deluxe last year.

Rainmaker already has ties to a Lee project through Mainframe’s work on the 2003 animated Spider-Man TV series. Franklin says the comic book creator was ‘a fan,’ and was interested in developing a fully animated property that would be suited to all platforms, including online, mobile and gaming.

‘It seemed to be a natural fit,’ Franklin adds. Rainmaker will be co-owner of Legion of 5, budgeted at $24 million, along with Brighton and Lee’s POW! Entertainment prodco.

The partners hope to release the fully CG-animated product theatrically, though Franklin notes they may develop several direct-to-DVD versions.

‘It depends on what we end up with and how many films we make,’ he says. The companies are mum on details including plotline and characters.

Franklin says that while Rainmaker is ‘leading the charge’ on the project, Lee will be consulting and involved in the approvals process. Exec producers on the project are Lee, Rainmaker’s Aaron L. Gilbert and Paul Gertz, POW!’s Gill Champion, and Brighton’s Cord Beatty.

Production is underway on storyboarding and character development, with a delivery date set for 2010.