WarnerMedia’s Rooster Teeth Studios announced development on a new animated series for HBO Max: Slam!, based on the critically-acclaimed BOOM! Studios graphic novels created by author-screenwriter Pam Ribon (Ralph Breaks the Internet, Smurfs: The Lost Village, Moana)and artist Veronica Fish (Spider-Woman, Archie). Ribon will adapt and executive produce the series, which is being produced by Rooster Teeth Studios, BOOM! Studios and Minnow Mountain.
Slam! is an adult animated half-hour series set in the fast-paced, hard-hitting, super cheeky, all-female world of banked track roller derby, following two young women who will have to decide if their budding friendship is stronger than the pull of a team when a win is on the line. The series will be brought to life using a groundbreaking combination of rotoscoped and 3D animation to take viewers into the sport in a way never visualized on screen before.
“I’m so fortunate to have the coolest, talented-est, Austin-est animation studios in the world partnering to bring Slam! to life as a television series,” said Ribon, who herself skated with the L.A. Derby DOlls for several years. “Billy Wee and the team at HBO Max geeked out just as hard as we did when talking about where this could go in storytelling and animation. That’s when we knew we’d found the perfect home. We’re so excited to make this rough and tumble, emotional, honest show about what it means to surrender your life (and your knees!) to roller derby.”
“We are beyond thrilled to be working with BOOM! Studios and Minnow Mountain to bring Slam! to life in animation,” said Ryan P. Hall, Head of Rooster Teeth Studios. “Pam Ribon is one of the best storytellers in the business and Slam! is a truly inspiring story, so we can’t wait to share this world with the HBO Max audience.”
Rooster Teeth Studios’ growing slate of content includes Brian Michael Bendis’ Cover in development at HBO Max, gen:LOCK Season 2 in production at HBO Max, and Transformers: War for Cybertron Trilogy currently airing on Netflix. As a development arm within Rooster Teeth, RTS leverages an in-house animation studio that produces original CG, 2D and mixed media content. Rooster Teeth produces the award-winning Halo satire Red vs. Blue, the longest-running web series in history, and global phenomenon RWBY, the first western anime series to be distributed in Japan. Rooster Teeth Studios is represented by CAA.
BOOM! Studios, one of the largest comic-book publishers in North America, has published some of the highest-selling original comics of the last decade, including Lumberjanes, Something Is Killing the Children, Once & Future and Keanu Reeves’ BRZRKR. The company is currently in production on a live-action adaptation of their R.L. Stine graphic novel series Just Beyond for Disney+, with other adaptations in development at Apple, HBO Max, Amazon, Paramount+ and at Netflix through their first-look TV deal. BOOM! Studios is represented by UTA and attorney Matt Saver.
Minnow Mountain is a creative partnership between animator Craig Staggs and producer Steph Swope that began in 2012. The Austin, Texas-based studio is the groundbreaking animation team behind Amazon’s critically acclaimed new series Undone, and the Emmy-winning animated documentary Tower for PBS.
Pamela Ribon is a screenwriter, TV writer, best-selling novelist and Film Independent Directing Lab Fellow. She has previously written about her roller derby experiences for Oprah.com, the Disney Channel and in the novel Going in Circles. She has adapted her critically-acclaimed graphic novel My Boyfriend Is a Bear (co-created with Cat Farris) as a feature film screenplay for Legendary and Atlas Ente. and is attached to direct (with Paul Franklin). She was the writer of the upcoming Disney/Blue Sky Animation feature Nimona until the recent studio closure. She is currently adapting her comedic memoir Notes to Boys (And Other Things I Shouldn’t Share in Public) as an animated series for FX’s CAKE.
