Butterfield Seeks Partners for Toon Trio

MIPCOM JR: Lincoln Butterfield Animation, the indie studio set up by Robert Hughes (Phineas & Ferb) and entrepreneur Joseph Walker, is here in Cannes looking for distributors and copro partners for three new animated comedy projects.

Having recently signed a worldwide representation agreement with Porchlight Entertainment for the company's animated series Tan, Butterfield associate producer and partner Walker told C21 that the firm is looking to attract coproduction partners and distributors for kids series NIT: Neighborhood Investigation Team (left) and adult primetime animations Venture Probe and When in Rome.

"NIT: The Neighborhood Investigation Team centres on a group of kids who patrol the neighborhood, solving the unsolvable, achieving the unachievable and doing the undoable," said Walker.

The cartoon centres on a young girl, the brains behind NIT, who is assisted by her younger, science-loving brother. Butterfield is not only working on children's toons, however.

Targeting adult primetime audiences, Venture Probe revolves around a space captain who, against his better judgment, accepts command of a new cruiser designed and built by a "shameless bureaucracy".

When in Rome, meanwhile, is loosely based on the I Claudius novels by UK writer Robert Graves. The show follows two cousins, Custos and Vinosusis, who weave in and out of the Roman Empire.

Walker is looking for partners from all territories and is particularly interested in those from southeast Asia. "We're interested in getting international partners onboard and making the projects work in other territories before taking them back to America," he said.

All projects are at the development stage. Lincoln Butterfield was established out of Michigan in 2004 and recently moved to Los Angeles.

Jules Grant 11 Oct 2008 © C21 Media 2008