Update: Berkeley Breathed
I fessed up my inner Fan Boy when it came to Berkeley Breathed with this post over a year ago. But now there’s more Breathed news to geek on. Per the LAT:
“Technicolor shows its creative side”
The longtime film processing firm is venturing into the highly competitive business of making animated TV series. For its first project, it’s teaming with Pulitzer-winning cartoonist Berkeley Breathed on ‘Pete & Pickles.’
The whimsical children’s book “Pete & Pickles” tells the story of an unlikely friendship between two mismatched characters: a free-spirited circus elephant and a strait-laced pig.
The theme also applies to the odd pairing of the book’s author, the irreverent cartoonist Berkeley Breathed, with the buttoned-down French company that has bought the rights to his book.
Technicolor, the longtime film processing company and world’s largest producer of DVDs, is venturing into an improbable new business of producing animated TV series, starting with an adaptation of “Pete & Pickles” and, eventually, feature films.
It marks the latest move by Technicolor, whose parent company was formerly known as Thomson, to adapt to the digital revolution that is reshaping Hollywood and evolve from a provider of back-office services to the studios into a creator of content.
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Breathed admits he was skeptical when Sarnoff approached him about developing a TV series from his most recent book, “Pete & Pickles,” which was inspired by a drawing by his 7-year-old daughter. “I never associated [Technicolor’s] name with production. I said, what the hell are they doing?” Breathed said.
But he found Sarnoff’s boyish enthusiasm refreshing and was impressed by the quality of the animation Technicolor was producing in India. “My 20 years’ experience in Hollywood has shown that there is nothing better than working for a company that is hungry and anxious to prove themselves,” Breathed said.
Breathed is preparing a short treatment for the project, which does not yet have a distributor, to present to networks this summer. “I have a feeling my longtime fans are going to see a lot of Bloom County’s echo in this,” he said.
Just to hear the words “Bloom County” makes me happy.
My all-time favorite “Bloom County” character is Opus:
Which one is yours?