Ex-Muppets CEO to pull the strings at Wild Brain
Thursday September 29, 6:06 pm ET
Wild Brain is wild about Charlie.
The Mission District animation studio hired Charles Rivkin, a former CEO of the Jim Henson Co., to lead its transformation into a feature film studio.
"Charlie is friends with almost everyone in Hollywood," said outgoing acting CEO Roy Thiele-Sardia, whose private equity firm Valence Capital Management invested $30 million (with other backers) in Wild Brain last December for the studio to make its first full-length computer animated movie.
Eleven-year-old Wild Brain, which produces the popular Disney Channel TV show "Higglytown Heroes" and countless TV ads, last year scored a five-picture contract with Dimension Films, a unit of Walt Disney Co.'s Miramax Films. Though Miramax founders Bob and Harvey Weinstein have since split from Disney, Sardia said the deal is intact.
Rivkin, who started work this week, says he expects 54-person Wild Brain, which had revenue of under $20 million last year, to grow exponentially as it moves into the film business. He grew the value of Jim Henson's Los Angeles muppet factory from $150 million at the time of Henson's death in 1990 to roughly $1 billion when he helped sell it to Germany's EM.TV in 2000.
"I have experience taking a company from a small size to relatively big size and finding the right strategic partners," said Rivkin.
Wild Brain will continue to make television shows as it adds the big screen to its repertoire. And though a future film will likely be based on the wise-cracking penguin "Opus" from the newspaper cartoon "Bloom County," that is no longer Wild Brain's choice for its first movie. Wild Brain co-founder Jeff Fino said other projects became more attractive.
Said Rivkin: "The first film we release will say a lot about who we are as a company and we want that film to be a home run."
Published September 29, 2005 by San Francisco Business Times
Thursday September 29, 6:06 pm ET
Wild Brain is wild about Charlie.
The Mission District animation studio hired Charles Rivkin, a former CEO of the Jim Henson Co., to lead its transformation into a feature film studio.
"Charlie is friends with almost everyone in Hollywood," said outgoing acting CEO Roy Thiele-Sardia, whose private equity firm Valence Capital Management invested $30 million (with other backers) in Wild Brain last December for the studio to make its first full-length computer animated movie.
Eleven-year-old Wild Brain, which produces the popular Disney Channel TV show "Higglytown Heroes" and countless TV ads, last year scored a five-picture contract with Dimension Films, a unit of Walt Disney Co.'s Miramax Films. Though Miramax founders Bob and Harvey Weinstein have since split from Disney, Sardia said the deal is intact.
Rivkin, who started work this week, says he expects 54-person Wild Brain, which had revenue of under $20 million last year, to grow exponentially as it moves into the film business. He grew the value of Jim Henson's Los Angeles muppet factory from $150 million at the time of Henson's death in 1990 to roughly $1 billion when he helped sell it to Germany's EM.TV in 2000.
"I have experience taking a company from a small size to relatively big size and finding the right strategic partners," said Rivkin.
Wild Brain will continue to make television shows as it adds the big screen to its repertoire. And though a future film will likely be based on the wise-cracking penguin "Opus" from the newspaper cartoon "Bloom County," that is no longer Wild Brain's choice for its first movie. Wild Brain co-founder Jeff Fino said other projects became more attractive.
Said Rivkin: "The first film we release will say a lot about who we are as a company and we want that film to be a home run."
Published September 29, 2005 by San Francisco Business Times