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Tim Mostert signs deals at MIP

http://www.screenafrica.com/news/stop_press/786589.htm

Thu, 19 Apr 2007 Tim Mostert, the creator of Speedy:, the animation one-minute series which started life as a cartoon strip in the national newspaper, the Daily Sun, has signed a deal with ReelTime.com at MIPTV for the full Inkpot Studios’ slate of programmes.

Mostert’s company Inkpot Studios has developed a slate of films which include 2-3 minute educational programmes under the tile “The Finer Things”, a grouping of 30 second animated funny animated limericks collectively called “Silly Poems”, “Know Your Nation’ a series of 2 minute episodes and the stop motion cut paper animation “Bugs in the Hood”.

At MIPTV Mostert also finalised the agreement with the United Nations Development Programme for 8 x 3 minute episodes of “Speedy” which will form part of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDG). Each episode focuses on one specific goal which uses humour to create awareness around large issues. According to Mostert, “Speedy” is former president Nelson Mandela’s favourite comic strip and the elder statesman has given Mostert his permission to use his likeness and voice in the series as an animated character.

The “Speedy” series which will include a focus on global warming and water conservation will be presented to 162 heads of state who will attend the General Assembly of the UN in September.

Back home in South Africa Mostert will launch a monthly “Speedy” magazine in June. This will be followed by the launch of the Tim TV channel on Vodacom a month or two later.

More...

http://www.animationsa.org/v3/article.asp?ArticleID=218

Speedy becomes hot property
An NFVF funded project, Speedy becomes hot property An animation project Speedy (by Tim Mostert) is making waves since its launch in 2004. Speedy launched on SABC 2 in November 2004, and was flighted five nights a week to 8 million viewers a night until May 2005. The first episode of the project was presented at the South African Pavilion at MIPCOM in 2004 and received a positive response. The creator of Speedy took the project back to MIPCOM this year where interest was shown by two Hollywood studios to relaunch Speedy as a film project. Another US based Media Company expressed a keen interest in licensing Speedy for a half hour series onto a prime time TV slot in the US. This company has also offered to commission scriptwriters from the Simpsons and the Muppets as part of the writing team. While at MIPCOM, a licensing deal was signed with Mauritius Telecom to feature Speedy in their newly launched 3G service, as well as their VOD (Video On Demand) platform. The creator of Speedy, Tim Mostert has launched a new comic strip 'Bugs in the Hood,' in September 2005 and production has begun on this strip to be taken to a TV format. The style guide and character bible was presented to delegates from all over the world at MIPCOM and received an overwhelming response. Vodacom South Africa has agreed to offer this comic strip as a cellphone download in December 2005. Speedy was also represented at MIP TV in April this year and this is where a deal was truck with Vodacom to start a download campaign around the project. Vodacom has since agreed to license an additional 26 one-minute Speedy episodes. New episodes of Speedy will soon be broadcast on SABC 2 this month. Other developments on the project include: Licensing of Speedy by the UN The United Nations’ Television Division, based in New York has commissioned eight five-minute Speedy episodes to highlight their Millenium Goal Project (humanitarian project). The spots will be broadcast on television all over the world and will be distributed along with food and medical supplies through the UNDP (UN Development Programme) in 210 countries and territories. The treatments for these episodes are currently being written by Tim Mostert. Deal with SAB South African Breweries has agreed to sponsor 2400 Speedy Spots (for television) which announce the soccer fixtures for the weekends’ soccer games. These spots will air 60 times a week on SABC. International sales Duncan Irvine, CEO of Rapid Blue Productions was recently appointed Executive Producer of the project to oversee international sales, partly as a result of the success of Speedy at MIPCOM 2005. New Deal with SABC 2 In January 2005, SABC 2 offered Speedy Productions a half hour prime-time slot for a long form series, based on the AR's of the one-minute series. This will comprise 52 eleven-minute episodes. This deal is currently being negotiated in pre-sales, with pilot funding forthcoming. Deal with CLM CLM, the largest licensing company in South Africa was appointed to represent Speedy, along with their other properties, Sponge Bob Squarepants, Spiderman, Barney, Garfield, and the Simpsons. Since CLM started presenting in June 2005, they have had ten companies sign on, and Ackerman's has confirmed that they will create a children's line launch in February 2006 as a test run in their top six stores. This will be accompanied in-store by point of sale displays, plasma screens looping Speedy episodes, an in-store radio campaign, and a download and SMS campaign with competition prizes being given out through the stores. For more information on the project, visit: www.speedyshow.com source: www.nfvf.co.za

and..the official site for speedy

http://www.speedyshow.com/