Wednesday, August 28, 2013

One More Animated Feature

... in the crowded pool.

Newly-formed production company Gnosis Moving Pictures announced Tuesday that it will produce the animated feature The Quest in partnership with Will Vinton’s Vinton Entertainment.

Vinton, an Oscar winner for the 1974 animated short Closed Mondays, will direct a script he wrote with Andrew Weise and Peter Crabbe.

Mr. Vinton lost control of his Portland studio eleven years ago when investors pushed him out. (This business phenomena is sometimes known as the "Phil Roman effect:"

You found the studio. You expand the studio. You get more prosperous and you take the shares of your enterprise public. Then the stockholders get ticked off that you aren't making them more money (or any money at all) and throw your backside out the door.

But those are the breaks in Cartoonland. I'm just happy to see that Will Vinton is back in the game, creating again.

4 comments:

Chris Sobieniak said...

Hmmm, the Phil Roman Effect, I learned something new today, thanks Steve!

Alex Dudley said...

So that's what happened to Phil Roman!

Chris Sobieniak said...

It's a shame you get kicked off while you're ahead.

Steve Hulett said...

Phil had an interesting trajectory.

He was one of Bill Melendez's directors. When Charles Schulz said Bill couldn't do both Peanuts AND Garfield (after Bill did the first Garfield special), Phil went off with the property and founded Film Roman to do it.

Time passed. Film Roman grew ... and grew some more. And then Phil was doing lots of other projects, including The Simpsons, and took his successful company public.

He made, I'm informed, a goodly amount of money on the IPO, except now he had a board of directors, and after awhile the board grew dissatisfied and fired the founder.

After a bit of a while, Phil founded "Phil Roman Productions" which did a few projects before folding its tent.

So now you know more details of "The Phil Roman effect."

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