The iconic 1960s show was back today at MIPJunior, in the form of a modern revival that most of the buyers, producers and kids TV execs present at Palm Beach couldn’t wait to see!
Queue building for the #thunderbirdsarego premiere at #MIPJunior – session starts at 5.45 so not long to wait! pic.twitter.com/jXu8b6JJ68
— MIP Markets (@mip) October 11, 2014
Giles Ridge, executive producer of the show and SVP of content and brand development at ITV, talked before the screening, stressing the fact that his teams had been working on the projects for years, and that one of the biggest challenges they had faced was to “keep the DNA of the original show.”
These new Thunderbirds were made possible thanks to Pukeko Pictures and Weta Workshop, the studio founded by director Peter Jackson. Weta’s Richard Taylor told the crowd how enthusiastic his New Zealand team had been to work on such a project, and stressed that they “wanted to do something different.” By different, he meant “integrating CGI elements into of world of miniatures” that would look like the original 1960s show – without the puppets! But the CGI couldn’t be too “shiny” either…
Richard Taylor of Weta Workshop is here. Wwwwoooooohooooo! #MIPjunior pic.twitter.com/diYSJf48EK
— Pascal Montjovent (@chefoperateur) October 11, 2014
Will ITV, Pukeko and Weta succeed in bringing Thunderbirds to a new audience? We’ll see in 2015, when the show gets its official release. But according to soundbites we grabbed from those lucky enough to see this new version, it’s “totally action-packed“, “definitely high budget“, and “overwhelmingly intense!” Promising indeed!
Find out more about Thunderbirds are Go in our interview with Giles Ridge: MIPBlog’s most-shared post ever!
