Corpus Resources PLC Regulatory News (COR)

26 May 2005 07:02

Chorion PLC25 May 2005 26 May 2005 Chorion PLC Chorion Announces New "Famous Five" Animated Television Series Chorion PLC (LSE: COR), the owner and manager of classic literary-based brandsand content, today revealed plans to develop the first ever animated televisionseries based on Enid Blyton's Famous Five, in partnership with Paris-basedindependent production company Marathon. The announcement of the new series follows the reversion to Chorion last monthof the rights to make new television programmes featuring the Famous Five,having been previously granted to a UK television production company beforeChorion acquired the Enid Blyton catalogue. Despite being created more than 60 years ago, Famous Five remain among theworld's best-selling children's book series with 1.4 million copies soldannually, primarily in Europe, including more than 450,000 copies in the UK. The new series, which will consist of 26 x 26 minute episodes, is expected to beavailable for broadcast in early 2007. Major broadcasters in key territories such as the UK, France and Germany - wherethe characters have remained part of childhood reading since the 1950s - havealready expressed strong interest in a new series featuring the franchise. InGermany and France the Famous Five are so popular that local publishersregularly commission new, ghostwritten titles and in the UK the publishers havereleased a spin-off book series featuring the character of George. The newtelevision series gives Chorion the opportunity to introduce the brand into newterritories, such as the USA and Japan. Marathon is responsible for the hit animated adventure series Totally Spieswhich is broadcast in 130 territories worldwide and reaches 1.6 million kids perday in the United States on the Cartoon Network. Totally Spiesis also atop-rated kids programme in the UK and France on Jetix and TF1. Marathon alsoproduces Martin Mystery, seen in 75 territories (including France, Germany,Spain and Italy) and which airs daily in a peak after-school timeslot on thenumber one US kids channel Nickelodeon. The Famous Five is the second Blyton brand Chorion will have brought to thescreen. The company's wholly owned CGI animated pre-school series Make Way forNoddy is broadcast in more than 100 countries around the world and ranks amongBritain's top children's TV exports. While programmes aimed at school agechildren typically generate less toy merchandise revenue than pre-schoolproperties, they generally command a higher price to broadcasters. Welcoming news of the new television series, Chorion PLC chairman, Waheed Alli,said: "The Famous Five represent the heartland of Blyton for generations of youngreaders throughout Europe. Immediately upon regaining control of the rights tomake new television programmes last month, we took action to further developthis valuable brand. I am delighted that we will be making an animatedtelevision series that will allow us to introduce the characters to an evenwider global audience and am pleased to be working with a studio of the calibreof Marathon on such an exciting project." Vincent Chalvon-Demersay from Marathon said: "Enid Blyton's stories and characters have been an important part of thechildhood of European audiences since they first appeared on the Continent inthe 1950s and no series of adventures has been more popular than the FamousFive. We are pleased both to be working with Chorion and bringing suchwell-loved characters to a whole new generation of young people around theworld." - ENDS - For further information please call: Tim Allan or Andrew Sholl 020 7404 5344Portland, for Chorion 07736 364656andrew.sholl@portlandpr.co.uk High resolution images are available for the media to view and download free ofcharge from http://www.vismedia.co.uk About Chorion Chorion (LSE: COR) is a leading owner and manager of classic literary-basedbrands and content. Its foremost properties include Enid Blyton's Noddy andFamous Five, Roger Hargreaves' Mr. Men and Little Miss series, Agatha Christie'sHercule Poirot and Miss Marple, Georges Simenon's Inspector Maigret and RaymondChandler's Philip Marlowe. Visit www.chorion.co.uk. About Marathon Marathon, based in Paris and run by Olivier Bremond, Pascal Breton and VincentChalvon-Demersay, is a leader in international TV programme production anddistribution, working with over 100 French and international broadcasters. Withits solid experience in international co-productions, Marathon has become aworld renowned player in the fields of drama, animation and documentaries.Marathon is France's top producer of animated programming and one of the genre'sleading producers worldwide. See: www.marathon.fr About Enid Blyton: Famous Five creator Enid Blyton (1897-1968) is one of the world's mostsuccessful children's writers on the basis of lifetime sales. Her prolificoutput of 700 books has been translated into more than 40 languages and sold inexcess of 400 million copies worldwide. Nearly 10 million Blyton books are soldworldwide every year. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange