An interesting alliance between Viacom (NYSE: VIA) International Media Networks and Russian production company Brazelevs will bring a "short-form animated comedy series for kids" to Russian audiences this fall, according to a story in Kidscreen.
Better known in the United States as cartoons, the series goes by the working title Chromosapiens (which might be a bit of a tongue-twister even for Russian kids). It will air on Paramount Comedy via new partnerships with National Cable Network (NCN), Rostelcom and Warner Bros. International Television Distribution.
Paramount Comedy is a 24/7 ad-supported and localized comedy channel that broadcasts daily to Moscow, St. Petersburg and the rest of Russian through local IPTV providers Onlime and Tvoe TV. Viewers in Kazakhstan will get to see it as part of a new deal with ID-TV.
On a serious note--if there is such a thing when talking about an animated comedy series for kids--the project will use new proprietary technology called FilmLanguage that Brazelevs developed with the support of Russian non-profit The Skolkovo Foundation to launch the service on Paramount Comedy's Russian website.
The proprietary software lets online users create their own cartoon shorts with characters from the series by converting natural language text into animation, the story said.
Continuing on a serious note--maybe, you be the judge--Brazelevs owner and Russian Timur Bekmambetov will direct and produce the series. If the name sounds familiar, he's the man who ran Abraham Lincoln: The Vampire Hunter, Wanted and the Russian comedy franchise Yolki. Chromosapiens (and they really have to do something about that working title) is his first try at animated TV production.
For more:
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