(not so) Scary Monsters’ future is (not so) scary
When London, England’s Celador International dropped its children’s development slate in March, the future of a burgeoning preschool series from The Monster Factory was uncertain. But the (not so) Scary Monsters London-based IP owner is not about to shelve its first program. Monster Factory’s Mandy Archer, says she’s received many calls from international broadcasters and producers to get the ball rolling for a potential Q3 2008 delivery date.

(not so) Scary Monsters revolves around a group of cave-dwelling monsters with goofy looks but charming personalities. The characters include Bobba the Bouncy Monster, who ricochets around whenever he gets too excited, and girly Flora, who flutters her eye lashes and loves tea parties. The property started out as a line of high-end plush, books, figurines and greeting cards sold at U.K. specialty retailers. To extend the brand across the pond, New York licensing agent CopCorp is currently scoping out master toy licensees for U.S. and Latin American markets.

Even though a pilot episode, a bible and some scripts were drafted with Celador, the prodco is ready to revisit creative elements of the series and start from square one. The original concept rendered the monsters in CGI and although she’s happy with the design, Archer says there’s an opportunity to return the characters to the more painterly style reflected in the product line.

Who banana? i banana
Michael Hefferon, the former senior VP of production at Germany’s BFC Berliner Film Companie, has recently launched integrated media company, ibanana. The Toronto, Canada-based company will develop, produce and distribute programming across traditional and digital landscapes.

Along with partner and former on-line freelancer Bradley Cuttress, Hefferon will be scouring the markets for kid properties, as well as adult-targeted IP. The duo is most interested in looking at animated series from 11 minutes to half hours in length that have the potential to spin out into one- to five-minute interstitials (hello mobile?). Live action can be up to an hour long, but should have cross-platform plans. The company has yet to announce its first pickup, but Hefferon has been speaking with the usual suspects.