Exodus Film Group and IDW Publishing have signed an agreement to produce a comic-book based on Exodus’ upcoming CG-animated feature film Igor. The comedy about a mad scientist’s ambitious lab assistant will join such well-know entertainment properties as Transformers, 24 and CSI, which have also been made into comics by IDW.
The publishing program for Igor will include a series of full-color prequel titles leading up to another series of books that will take fans through the film and beyond. These will be followed by a full-color paperback collection of each miniseries.
Animation veteran Tony Leondis (The Prince of Egypt, Lilo & Stitch 2) is directing Igor from a screenplay by Chris McKenna (American Dad). The movie tells the story of an evil scientist’s hunchbacked lab assistant with big dreams of becoming a brilliant scientist in his own right and winning the annual Evil Science Fair. Exodus has assembled an all-star voice cast that includes Steve Buscemi, John Cleese, Jennifer Coolidge, John Cusack, Arsenio Hall, Sean Hayes, Eddie Izzard, Jay Leno, Molly Shannon and Christian Slater. The Weinstein Co. is handling worldwide distribution for the film, which is set for a wide theatrical release on Oct. 24, 2008.
Corgi International recently acquired the master toy license for Igor, and a major publishing deal was signed with Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division. Corgi will release a wide range of products including action figures, play sets and electronic role-play games, while Simon & Schuster puts out seven Igor books, under its Simon Scribbles and Simon Spotlight imprints.
Exodus has formed a strategic alliance with The Weinstein Co. to jointly develop, produce and finance a slate of CG-animated feature films, DVDs and television series, with TWC distributing worldwide. In addition to Igor, Exodus’ animation slate includes The Hero of Color City, which is in pre-production and will be distributed in North America by Magnolia Pictures, and Bunyan & Babe.
