While most of Hollywood’s Internet cartoon shops are going down the tubes, Icebox.com has landed the first big network-TV deal for a Web cartoon. Fox Broadcasting announced Tuesday it had ordered a pilot for a live-action version of “Zombie College,” an animated series about a regular guy who attends school with the living dead. The deal likely gives hope to online content producers, who had banked on revenue from mainstream media companies to add to the money generated by syndication and advertising deals on the Web, according to inside.com. But with portals such as Pseudo and Pop out of business, and other content producers like Dotcomix and Z struggling to find financing, the enterprise has been in danger of collapsing.
“It doesn’t hurt to do it now while everyone else is failing,” said Icebox CEO Steve Stanford. “All the founders come from the TV business. . . . We’re not one of those companies saying TV is dead.” Icebox has been no stranger to development deals since it launched in June, having recently sold Showtime the rights to its series “Starship Regulars.” But if “Zombie College” takes off, Stanford thinks it could mean real money, even if it’s just a little bit up-front. For series creator Eric Kaplan, the deal is more of a boon to his career than his pocketbook. Although detailed financial terms weren’t released, Kaplan says he’ll split all profits 50-50 with Icebox. The idea of taking the show from animation to live-action came from Fox, which is in search of some live-action comedy hits. While “Zombie College” goes through its development for TV, a new season of 10 episodes will begin on Icebox in January.
