Jeffrey Katzenberg is in the habit of making dreams come true. Since founding DreamWorks 10 years ago with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen, his studio has produced the computer-generated wonder worlds of Antz and Shrek.
Now, a Hong Kong company is getting in on the action. Imagi Global Holdings was one of eight studios from around the world approached to bid for a contract to help DreamWorks produce Father of the Pride, a 13-episode computer graphic (CG) prime-time series that NBC hopes will fill the void left by the departure of Friends.
Set to debut in the US in September, Father of the Pride is about a family of white lions who work as performers in the Las Vegas act of illusionists Siegfried & Roy. Voices are by the likes of John Goodman and Cheryl Hines, with guests such as Eddie Murphy and Lisa Kudrow getting in on the act. NBC has ordered 13 episodes for this season, with each episode of the comedy reportedly costing US$2 million.
'We devoted our full house to the bidding project,' says 26-year-old Francis Kao Wai-ho, the vice-president and founder of Imagi. The company entered an agreement with DreamWorks in December last year to provide all computer graphic production for the series, with the work to be done by the 260-animation team in Imagi's Chai Wan studio. They have an 18-day deadline to finish their work on each episode, and Imagi expects to increase its workforce to 700 to cope with the new demand.
'We've been expanding from only six workers in 2001 to 300 now,' says Kao. 'Our agreement with DreamWorks is only a start. We're looking to extend our partnership in CG production, as well as film distribution. Our long-term goal is to produce our own full-length CG movie.'
Imagi is also just about to start distributing its first three-dimensional TV series, sci-fi time-travel tale Zentrix. The series is expected to reach audiences in the US and Hong Kong after being broadcast in Japan, France and Germany. The 26-episode show won the Gold Camera award for computer animation at the US International Film Video Festival in Los Angeles in 2002 and the International Globe Silver award for children animation in World Media Festival in Hamburg last year.