BET Animation, headed by Milestone Media vet Denys Cowan (now BET SVP of Animation), has three deals for original animation, including one with fellow Milestone alum Dwayne McDuffie.
McDuffie and Cowan are not working on an update to their award winning WB show, Static Shock. They are developing a new character that TV Week reports will be an African American character that is well-versed in technology and martial arts. The name rights are still being cleared.
Two other deals for original animation have also been signed. A deal brokered with Vin Diesel's One Race Productions last month will see a Diesel-voiced animated Hannibal the Conqueror. This series is expected to be a companion piece to the McDuffie project.
Cowan also recruited Film Roman, the company which produces The Simpsons and King of the Hill. Their programming will be more comical than the other shows, but will still have an adult-themed edge to it.
The new programs are scheduled to launch in fall 2007, but Cowan will use his partnership with Film Roman to run brief animated interstituals starting in Q4 2006. At the San Diego Comic Con, Cowan said these brief animated segues will range from a 6-second piece mourning of Notorious B.I.G. to short films such as Bid 'Em In.
Cowan and McDuffie are not the only Milestone alumni making waves, their former partners are also in the news.
Michael Davis has started work at Urban Ministries, where he is helping to develop a variety of faith-based comics (see 'Urban Ministries' 'The Guardian Line'').
And former Milestone President and CEO, Derek T. Dingle, has moved on and become the Vice President of Earl G. Graves Publishing Company. He serves as the executive editor of
