Virgin Comics, Studio 18 launch Teen Horror films

Courtesy: IndiaFM
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Virgin Comics and Studio 18 announced today that they are forming a new production relationship to create a slate of teen horror properties for films, television, games and publishing.

Horror has increasingly become one of the most profitable genres in film worldwide, driven largely by the youth. The new stories, will be co-created and co-owned by Virgin and Studio 18 and initially be released as graphic novels to be published worldwide by Virgin. The partnership anticipates an ongoing slate of teen horror properties to be created each year with the first comic book expected to release end of 2007.

"The exploding youth demographics of India, coupled with the widespread expansion of theatrical chains have created a need for film genre diversification beyond traditional Bollywood films, making this move into horror ideally timed," said Virgin Comics CEO, Sharad Devarajan. "Beyond the domestic market in India, the export and remake success of Japanese horror films like 'The Ring' and 'The Grudge' is indicative of the potential to bring these films worldwide."

"Studio 18 and Virgin Comics will be pioneering the creation of genre- specific content and will be investing in building 'franchises/brands' out of these creative properties. On gauging, the popularity of these properties, these will be launched into features films and exploited on other platforms such as gaming, television series, wireless etc.", added Sandeep Bhargava, Chief-Executive-Officer, Studio 18

"For centuries, India has enchanted, intrigued, and enlightened the world. Now it's time to scare the hell out of it. Bring your demons, ghosts, and nightmares here and we'll take them to the world," commented Gotham Chopra, Virgin Comics Chief Creative Officer.

India's most innovative directors and screenwriters will be recruited to participate in the creation of the new horror properties. Suresh Seetharaman, President of Virgin Comics and Deepti Chawla, Studio 18, Head -Creative will be supervising all creative processes.

"The most exciting part of this collaboration, is that, as a genre, teen horror allows for introduction of fresh talent in films. It will be challenging to build characters of Indian origin into icons world over" added Ms. Deepti Chawla.

"Today's Indian teens are looking for innovative content that breaks the mold. Teens tend to go to movies in groups and horror films are perfect for this audience because they provide a fun scare that they can experience together," commented Mr. Seetharaman

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