Job Academy (lost animated television pilot based on French graphic novel; 2009)
Concept art for the pilot
Status: Lost
Job Academy is a French graphic novel written by MagicFred and MiniKim, and published by Glénat Editions. In September 2009, it was announced during MIPCOM that an animated adaptation was being developed as a co-production between Zagtoon[1], now known today as the studio behind Miraculous Ladybug, and Europa Glénat, a now-defunct production company founded by French filmmaker Luc Besson.[2]
A pilot was created for MIPCOM 2009, and was shown at the event.[3] However, the project isn't greenlighted into a full-fledged television series due to a lack of interest from any French broadcasters who wanted to purchase the rights for it.
Eventually, the project was canceled after ZAG lost the licensing rights for it and Europa-Glénat later became defunct. This resulted in the full rights for Job Academy to revert to Glénat.
Since then, the pilot hasn't resurfaced anywhere, online or otherwise. There isn't a lot of information about it outside of a few articles that were published in France. Though, unlike another similar lost pilot Basile and Melba, a few concept art for Job Academy managed to resurface online.
Production
According to an MTV article published on October 23, 2008, it was announced that Luc Besson and his production company EuropaCorp had partnered with Glénat to launch Europa Glénat, a joint company to produce animated adaptations of Glénat's graphic novel titles.[4]
Job Academy was one of the few known projects originally part of Europa-Glénat's plan, which was later confirmed at MIPCOM 2009.[2] The pilot, alongside Job Academy, was created by Zagtoon and Europa-Glénat, which was shown at the event.[5] It was also confirmed to be animated by 2 Minutes.[2]
As confirmed by Ruben Berissi on LinkedIn, he worked as a production consultant for the lost pilot.[6]
Two background concept arts for the pilot were designed by Renaud Bouet, which were uploaded on Dropr at an unknown date. However, as of 2020, Dropr is defuncted which caused the concept arts to be no longer available on the platform. However, they were managed to be saved on the Zagtoon Wiki.
Four concept arts were originally featured on the official ZAG website in 2012. However, three of them remained lost since they weren't archived on the Wayback Machine.[7] Only one concept art from the website managed to resurface online via an archived forum on Cartoon Media.[8]
Gallery
Concept art from the official ZAG website in 2012, founded on Cartoon Media via the Wayback Machine.
Background designed by Renaud Bouet (1/2)
Background designed by Renaud Bouet (2/2)
See also
- Basile and Melba (lost animated television pilot based on French graphic novel series; 2009)
- Sweetpower (lost animated French television pilot; 2009)
- Touftouf and Kenotte (lost animated French television pilot; 2010)
- Transylmaniac (lost animated French television pilot; 2009)
References
- ↑ Official Univergroup website Retrieved 16 October '10
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 ZAGTOON heads for MIP Junior with a raft of blue chip animation programs Retrieved 01 March '14
- ↑ Pilote du P'tit Cosmonaute, et autres adaptations de BD Retrieved 24 November '11
- ↑ 'Transporter' Producer Luc Besson Partners With French Comic Publisher Published 23 October '08
- ↑ Upstart French prodco Univergroup and subsid Zagtoon make debut Published 15 May '09
- ↑ Ruben Berissi's LinkedIn profile
- ↑ Job Academy on the official ZAG website Retrieved 21 September '12
- ↑ Concept art founded on Cartoon Media forum Retrieved on 20 November '10
