banjomick
- 14 Oct 2005 23:37
- 114 of 1609
slightly drunk last night,apologies!
banjomick
- 15 Oct 2005 23:50
- 115 of 1609
Galleon steers out of choppy waters
Galleon Holdings has been through some tough times over the past couple of years, but with a new management team in place and a football-themed sci-fi action cartoon ready to present to broadcasters, the UK kids IP-developer believes its ship is about to come in. By Jonathan Webdale.
January 2005 marked a new start for Galleon as two ex-Chorion executives, Stephen Green (left) and Len Dunne, came on board as the company's new ceo and md respectively. The pair's mission was to steer the vessel into uncharted territory and secure it the TV deals which have so far remained just out of sight on the horizon.
Green and Dunne met while working in licence acquisition and exploitation at toy giant Hasbro, getting themselves involved in properties such as The Transformers and Action Man TV. Green's five year stint at the company was followed by a move to literary rights specialist Chorion where he became director of children's brands, in charge of developing the Noddy franchise, The Famous Five and the Mr Men.
He again worked closely with Dunne, who took over development when Green moved over to head up brand operations. The pair then decided to set up by themselves, basing their eponymous business of a (26x30') series they'd developed called Goalactika-442. A mix of animation and live action, the show has a football theme and is aimed mainly at boys aged 6-12 years old, taking the world's most popular sport as its basis and then heading into outer space.
Discussions with a number of companies led Green and Dunne to Galleon and the company's chairman, Jim Driscoll, agreed to take on the property under the condition that its creators came with it. So in January this year, Galleon's then ceo Simon Driscoll exited the company.
The firm appears to be finding its way out of the doldrums, with a loss last year in excess of 1m narrowing to just under 200k for the six months to March 31, 2005. Admittedly, this has mostly been down to other aspects of its operations (its promotions business, Croco, a publishing arm called A4 and database marketing firm, Probe Media), rather than its TV activities, but the 50% stake it acquired last summer in LA toon house J Christopher Entertainment has begun to bear fruit.
As a result of a review carried out together with J Christopher (a company set up by ex-Disney producer Chris Henderson), Galleon recently reacquired rights to another TV property called Astro Knights. It had been hoped that this $12m project, amounting to a 260-part TV series and feature length film, would be on screen by this September, but slow progress at the Swedish animation partner Galleon chose forced it to sever links last month and bring the whole thing back in house.
With Jaguar Media Entertainment out of the picture, Galleon is handing responsibility for Astro Knights' development to J Christopher. But the property will take a back seat to Goalactika, for which Zoo Films in the UK has just come on board as producer, with Canada's Copernicus animating the series trailer.
"Goalactika is our focus for the time being," says Galleon ceo Stephen Green, going on to add that thanks to Copernicus' expertise the cartoon will be the first in the market to make use of Flash animation which gives a near-3D effect - 2.5D as it's dubbed.
It was because Galleon was keen to get something with a really fresh look out of the door that it opted to go with Copernicus rather than J Christopher. As Green explains, the relationship there doesn't prevent Galleon from working with other partners. "I wouldn't want to become like Hit Entertainment and because I've got a stop-frame business everything I do is stop-frame," he says.
But in another very important respect, Galleon would very much like to be just like Hit and come up with a TV series that takes the world by storm. Green and the Galleon team clearly believe that Goalactika is the property with the greatest potential to achieve this.
Hopes for other series in the Galleon hold, including Oggies, Professor Winklebottom's Universe, Malcolm and Pepper's Patrol, haven't been entirely consigned to Davy Jones' Locker, but they are, at least for the time being, taking an ocean cruise.
"We're a small company and we need to fire silver bullets," says Green. "When we reviewed the slate we saw that some of the series were further developed than others, but looking at what we've got and the feedback we've had over the last six months, we decided the priority should be Goalactika and then Astro Knights."
Green hopes that the former will be on air in 2007 and latter will follow the year after. This ambition has gained the financial weight of a strategic alliance with Imagination Holdings agreed earlier this month, a business headed by venture capitalist David Wong.
As part of the arrangement Galleon has acquired another kids property called Hoo Ha House and Wong has taken a stake in the business, additionally putting in 400k of his own money.
Getting a vc of Wong's stature on board is great news as far as Green is concerned. "When it comes to raising money at a later date for Goalactika or any other project, we know it can be done," says Green. "If we've got a great project we can make it happen."
Which is not to say that Wong's pockets are bottomless or that it's plain sailing quite yet for Galleon, but the horizon's certainly looking brighter for the company these days.
27 Jul 2005
banjomick
- 16 Oct 2005 09:00
- 117 of 1609
The Sunday Times October 16, 2005
Kilkenny studio scents success as funds from cartoon skunk kick in
Kathy Foley
A KUNG fu-kicking skunk could prove to be Irelands most successful cartoon export ever. Cartoon Salon, a Kilkenny-based animation studio, has succeeded in raising 5.5m to produce 52 13-minute episodes of its action comedy Skunk Fu! and has already pre-sold the show in five countries.
The latest investor is UK-quoted firm Galleon Holdings, which took a 15% equity stake in the project as licensing and rights partners last week.
The plan for Skunk Fu! is to go for it as a whole property. That is why we partnered up with Galleon, so we could keep it alive with DVDs, toys, computer games and maybe eventually a film, said Paul Young, co-founder of Cartoon Saloon and the series co-producer.
Cartoon Saloon was also approved last week for funding of up to 500,000 towards the series from the EU media scheme, which aims to boost the competitiveness of the European audiovisual industry.
Hoek, Line & Thinker, a Dutch development company, is the Irish studios main co-production partner. Its managing director Tomm van Waveren is the executive producer on the series and led negotiations with Super RTL, the German television channel.
Super RTL is the biggest investor in Skunk Fu!, having put more than 1m into the series in a pre-sale deal including licensing rights for German-speaking markets. Skunk Fu! has also been pre-sold to the BBC, TG4, Swedish television channel SVT and Welsh station S4C.
A deal with a French station is pending and Cartoon Network in America has also taken an option on the series. The Irish Film Board is also an investor and Spiddal-based firm Telegael is co-producing on the post-production.
In partnership with James Flynn of Octagon, one of Irelands most experienced film producers, Cartoon Saloon has also succeeded in raising 5.35m for its other flagship project, a feature-length animation called Brendan and the Secret of Kells.
The investors include RTE, the Film Board, Canal Plus, French firm Gebeka Films and EU scheme Eurimages. The film is being co-produced with Les Armateurs of France and Vivi Films of Belgium, the companies behind the much-praised Belleville Rendezvous which was nominated for two Oscars. Distribution deals have been inked with Buena Vista in Ireland and Celluloid Dreams internationally.
Both projects are expected to take two years to complete.
Cartoon Saloon was set up in Kilkenny in 2000 by Young and his fellow Ballyfermot College animation graduates, Tom Moore and Nora Twomey. Its past projects have included eight short films, commercials, book illustrations and comics.
banjomick
- 18 Oct 2005 22:14
- 118 of 1609
GON,Doing well after recent rises!
banjomick
- 21 Oct 2005 00:12
- 119 of 1609
A bit of a recovery after recent rises and the bound to happen drop,and so soon!
banjomick
- 21 Oct 2005 00:18
- 120 of 1609
Be brave and invest...you know it makes sense... :-))
banjomick
- 27 Oct 2005 00:22
- 121 of 1609
After a 15% rise the Galleon dropped off a bit,a lot less than i expected,and picked up slightly today!
Does this mean the world has faith in the Galleon now?...I know I do......
bhunt1910
- 27 Oct 2005 08:29
- 122 of 1609
.....and up she goes again
banjomick
- 27 Oct 2005 19:24
- 123 of 1609
There's no stopping the Galleon now. :-))
banjomick
- 28 Oct 2005 15:47
- 124 of 1609
Full steam,well wind ahead.
banjomick
- 30 Oct 2005 22:08
- 125 of 1609

Meet Andre the Apron...
He thinks he'd be happier if he was brightly coloured, not white, but finds it's not how you look but how you feel that really counts.
banjomick
- 30 Oct 2005 22:09
- 126 of 1609

Meet Dorothy the Doughnut...
She's a bit dizzy and loves to dance, but when she does everyone else goes flying! Maybe she just needs a good dance partner! But who will take on the challenge?
banjomick
- 30 Oct 2005 22:17
- 127 of 1609

Meet Ida the Ironing board...
She is not very good at walking, but with the help of a friend she manages to find her feet and performs an amazing rescue act!
banjomick
- 30 Oct 2005 22:29
- 128 of 1609

Meet Percy the Pot Plant...
He is board sitting about the lounge so sets off to explore the rest of the house. But then Percy gets more than he bargined for in his search for excitement.
banjomick
- 30 Oct 2005 22:44
- 129 of 1609

Meet Queenie the Quilt...
She's rather thin and is always shivering - Not plump like a quilt should be! So she begins eating all types of things to plump herself up, but they just don't seem right!
banjomick
- 30 Oct 2005 23:31
- 130 of 1609

Meet Wally the Wellington...
It's such a pain being a wellington whose ticklish! and oh how the others tease, but lessons are learned when he is magically cured.
banjomick
- 30 Oct 2005 23:41
- 131 of 1609

Hoo Ha House Special
(Out of Stock)
PRICE:194.8
194.80!!! don't know what that is all about!
banjomick
- 30 Oct 2005 23:43
- 132 of 1609
http://www.hoohahouse.com/main.html