Our Little Genius, Google, Bollywood Bob, Gigapix, dirtgirlworld

FOX approved a new game show, Our Little Genius from Mark Burnett in association with ZOO Productions, producers of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?. The game show features real child prodigies, from 6 to 12 years old, answering increasingly difficult questions and trying to win hundreds of thousands of dollars for their families.

The caveat at play is how far the little geniuses keep going will depend on the parents who gauge how a panel of leading experts, from Ivy League professors to world-famous doctors and scientists perform with the same questions. If a child is pulled by the parent, the tiny genius can still try to answer the question to prove his/her amazing ability.

The host of Our Little Genius will be announced at an upcoming date. Families interested in participating with their little genius can send inquiries to ourlittlegenius@yahoo.com. Mark Burnett, Barry Poznick and John Stevens are executive producing.

Google began testing a new "skippable" pre-roll ad format on select YouTube advertisements yesterday, in an effort to address high abandonment rates. (This measure when viewers click off the site rather than watch a pre-roll ad.) Abandonment rates, which tested as high as 70% when in-stream ads were first launched on the site in 2007 according to the company, are affected by several factors including length of the ad and the relevance of the creative.


Nickelodeon UK caps off the 10th anniversary celebration of SpongeBob SquarePants with a new live-action two-minute film Bollywood Bob. Choreographed by Longinus Fernandes (Slumdog Millionaire), Bollywood Bob will premiere on November 14 as part of Nickelodeon UK's weekend SpongeBob marathon, SpongeBash, and then across Nickelodeon channels around the world.

The short features a Bangra/Bollywood modified version of the SpongeBob theme song, arranged by Akbar Sami and Firoze Patel. A 30-second version of the film will screen in the Vue and Cineworld movie theaters in the UK from November 13 through January 1. Nickelodeon UK produced Bollywood Bob in collaboration with Nickelodeon International and Nickelodeon India.

Essential Entertainment inks a multi-picture deal with Gigapix Studios for five kid-targeted pictures (rated G or PG) through its Recess Films, per IndieWire. The movies, most of which will be live-action and one CGI animated, will be produced by Gigapix over a period of three years. The live action movies will have budgets of $8-10 million each and the CG title will carry a budget of $20 million.

Anchor Bay Entertainment has first look rights in the US while Essential Entertainment will handle all international rights to the movies. The first movie under the agreement is The Return of Captain Kidd, which features a script by Jymn Magon (DuckTales, A Goofy Movie) and Kern Konwiser (On Hallowed Ground, Miss Evers' Boys'), with Konwiser directing.

Production on The Return of Captain Kidd is slated to begin in early 2010. Kip Konwiser, head of production at Gigapix, said information about two other live action movies and the CG animated movie will be announced in the next few weeks.

The music-centric preschool series dirtgirlworld (52x11) is set to premiere in Australia on ABC1 and ABC 2 this December 4. A mixed live action, animation with photomontage and illustrated series, dirtgirlworld was developed by mememe productions and is a co-production with Decode Entertainment.

The series recently launched on CBeebies (UK) and CBC (Canada). The dirtgirlworld rights are held by mememe production in Australia, where it has appointed Merchantwise to manage the publishing and retail licensing program. In the UK, BBC Worldwide holding the UK rights, while for the rest of the world Decode Enterprises takes all TV, home entertainment and digital rights and DXK Licensing manages licensing and merchandising.