Adult Swim Lands Cable Rights To King Of The Hill

Adult Swim has grabbed exclusive cable rerun rights to the animated series, King of the Hill, which recently was canceled by Fox after 13 seasons. Although ABC has expressed interest in reviving the show, Adult Swim said it has no plans to order new episodes of the series from producer 20th Century Fox TV. But all is not lost for new episodes of King of the Hill. Adult Swim played a part in bringing animated series Family Guy”back to life on Fox after the network canceled it in 2002.

Based on solid performances for repeats on Adult Swim as well as strong DVD sales, Fox was encouraged enough to resurrect the series in 2005. Adult Swim, the late-night sibling of Cartoon Network, also said that it will be expanding its programming by an hour starting in January. The network currently airs from 11 p.m.-6 a.m. Monday-Saturday and 10 p.m.-6 a.m. Sunday but will begin broadcasting at 10 p.m. seven days a week. To kick off the new hour, King of the Hill will air at 10 p.m. nightly starting in January. Adult Swim’s multiyear deal includes all episodes of the series. FX currently airs King of the Hill repeats, but its deal with distributor Twentieth TV ends in December.

Cartoon Network Races With Hot Wheels

Canadian cartoon producer Nelvana and Mattel Entertainment are bringing a new Hot Wheels cartoon series to the small screen. Toronto-based Nelvana and Nerd Corps Entertainment of Vancouver will bring the toy car racing franchise to life with 26 half-hours of CG-animated Hot Wheels: Battle Force 5. The kids TV series, to bow next fall on the U.S.-based Cartoon Network and on Teletoon in Canada, will be accompanied by an extensive worldwide marketing and merchandising program to include toy, licensing and online activities.

Cartoon Network Finds The Pink Panther

Turner Broadcasting and MGM Worldwide Television have inked a deal for Pink Panther & Pals, a new 26-episode half-hour animated series that will air on Cartoon Network in fall 2009. Production is under way in Los Angeles and Amman, Jordan. The show is being produced jointly by MGM and Jordan-based Rubicon. The series will feature the Pink Panther as a rambunctious teenager who along with his friends gets into all sorts of mischievous capers and hilarious escapades. Pink Panther also will feature characters from the original series, including Ant and Aardvark, as well as new characters. The musical score and comedy themes will be reprised from the original theatrical shorts and TV series.

Third Live Action Scooby Doo Coming To Cartoon Network

Scooby-Doo: In the Beginning – a prequel set before the 2002 and 2004 live action movies – will debut on Cartoon Network in fall 2009 when it also will be released on DVD. It finds the Mystery gang uniting for the first time to solve the haunting of their high school. Scooby-Doo: In the Beginning will feature an all new cast of lesser-known actors replacing the original quartet of Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, Matthew Lillard and Linda Cardellini. Rob Amell will play Freddy, joined by newcomers Kaitlyn Melton as Daphne, Hayley Alcroft as Velma and Nick Palatas as Shaggy. The computer-generated Scooby-Doo will be voiced by Frank Welker, a longtime voice actor on the animated Scooby-Doo series.

Transformers Animated Coming To Cartoon Network

Cartoon Network and Hasbro, Inc. are announcing today that the next generation of the epic animated series is being jointly developed by the two entities for a 2008 debut on the network in the U.S. The eye-popping 2-D animated series is a new twist on the original high-octane, animated action-adventure series with new characters alongside legends such as Optimus Prime and Megatron. Each episode will present a standalone storyline featuring everyday heroes who do good deeds that triumph over evil. “Transformers Animated” series will be co-produced by Cartoon Network Studios.

Twenty-six, half-hour episodes will be produced as well as a 90-minute special of “Transformers Animated” which is scheduled for release in early 2008 on Cartoon Network in the U.S. Matt Youngberg (”Teen Titans,” “The Batman”) is the supervising director, Derrick Wyatt (”Teen Titans”) will provide the character designs and Sam Register (”Ben 10,” “Teen Titans”) will serve as executive producer of the series. Marty Isenberg (”Danny Phantom,” “X-Men,” “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”) acts as head writer.

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Second Hellboy TV Movie Coming To Cartoon Network

A second Hellboy animated TV movie, Hellboy: Blood and Iron, will premiere March 17 at 7 p.m. ET/PT on Cartoon Network, the network announced. In the new movie, Professor Broom discovers that someone in New York is attempting to bring back the evil female vampire Erzsebet Ondrusko, whom the professor destroyed 60 years earlier. Erzsebet was known to bathe in the blood of innocents to retain her youth. Professor Broom calls upon three of the top B.P.R.D. agents – Hellboy, Liz Sherman and Abe Sapien—to investigate.

Actors from Guillermo del Toro’s 2004 Hellboy feature film will again give voice to their animated counterparts in the new film: Ron Perlman (Hellboy), Selma Blair (Liz Sherman) and Doug Jones (Abe Sapien). The animated film also features the voice-over talent of two-time Oscar nominee John Hurt as Professor Broom. Hellboy creator Mike Mignola co-wrote the movie’s story. Tad Stones and Victor Cook direct the movie. Del Toro and Mignola are creative producers.

Hellboy: Blood and Iron is produced by Film Roman, a Starz Media Company, and is distributed worldwide for television and on DVD/video by Starz Media LLC.