Cartoon Network has partnered with Worldwide Biggies Inc. to produce a live-action/CG telepic based on Barry Yourgrau’s children’s horror book series NASTYbook. The partnership will also yield web content inspired by the property, which is like The Twilight Zone for kids.
The NASTYbook film promises to take viewers deep into a world of delightful wickedness, scary twists and nasty mischief. It’s a world populated by a horrifying, albeit colorful, cast of characters including an Internet-trolling witch and an actual alien exchange student.
The movie joins Cartoon Network’s expanding slate of television movies in development, including Tiger’s Apprentice, the comic-book adaptations Firebreather, The Vanishers and Mice Templar, and the sequel to the network’s live-action hit Ben 10: Race Against Time.
‘With the NASTYbook television movie, we are truly reinventing the horror genre for the younger demographic,’ says Worldwide Biggies’ Albie Hecht. ‘By taking the twisted tales in Barry Yourgrau’s books, combining them with the suspense and horror elements of today’s movies, and utilizing new CG and innovative special effects technology, we are effectively able to bring movie-quality thrills and chills to the small screen.’
Harper Collins published the first NASTYbook in 2005. The success led to two popular follow-up books in the series, Another NASTYbook: The Curse of the Tweeties and Yet Another NASTYbook: MiniNasties. A writer and performer, Yourgrau has also penned such darkly comedic books as Wearing Dad’s Head and A Man Jumps Out of an Airplane.
Founded by former Nickelodeon exec Albie Hecht, Worldwide Biggies is a digital entertainment studio focused on creating online experiences and multi-platform content for kids, families and young adults. Last year, the company debuted Worldwide Fido (www.worldwidefido.com), a website dedicated to user-submitted videos of dogs, and partnered with TMZ.com on an online celebrity fan community dubbed Star vs. Star (www.starvsstar.com).
