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Threshold Digital Research Labs to Produce Digitally Animated Pilot, ’The Afterlife’ for FOX Television Network Tuesday March 25, 10:13 am ET Barry Bostwick, Kerri Kenney, Alexandra Holden & Danny Strong Set to Star

LOS ANGELES, March 25 /PRNewswire/ — Threshold Digital Research Labs (TDRL), a global groundbreaking digital animation studio, today announced that it is producing a pilot presentation called "The Afterlife" for the FOX Broadcasting Company. This deal further positions TDRL as the leading independent animation company in the marketplace and the only company creating and producing not only full-length digitally animated feature films, but also TV animation, theme park and location based entertainment. ADVERTISEMENT

The prime-time animated comedy series follows the adventures of the Franklin family after a "slight photo glitch" kills them all by accident, landing them in "The Afterlife," a huge suburban sprawl where people wait to be processed and sent to "a better place," "a worse place," or back again to repeat. Unfortunately, due to an administrative hiccup, the processing might take two or three hundred years.

Barry Bostwick (Spin City) will voice the character of the perpetually earnest and eternally optimistic patriarch Stan, who is the moral center of the Franklin family. Kerri Kenney (The Ellen Show) will voice Stan’s well meaning, but neurotic wife Flo. Alexandra Holden (Ally McBeal, Friends) is Bree the beautiful and overly dramatic daughter. Danny Strong (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) will voice Zach, the Franklin’s misfit Goth teenage son.

The Lawrence Kasanoff/Threshold Digital Research Labs production will be executive produced by Larry Kasanoff, co-executive produced and written by David Schneiderman and Derek Guiley, produced by George Johnsen, Alison Savitch and Kristy Scanlan and created by Larry Kasanoff, Joshua Wexler, David Schneiderman and Derek Guiley.

TDRL is the only digital animation studio in the world producing digitally animated feature films, television, location based entertainment, and visual effects. Building on its unique alliance with the IBM Corporation, TDRL continues to grow its proprietary worldwide production network tapping into animators across the globe. Its state of the art digital animation facility is headquartered in Santa Monica, California.

TDRL is currently in production on its first full-length digitally animated feature film, "FOODFIGHT!" — the first of several digitally animated feature films planned for release. The company has created and produced digital visual effects for movies such as "I Still Know What You Did Last Summer," "The Faculty," "Scary Movie," and "Dogma;" for TV commercials such as Korbel Champagne and General Motors; for TV series like "Mortal Kombat: Conquest," and for theme parks worldwide. TDRL works with all major networks and studios including SONY Pictures, Universal Studios, Miramax, TNT and Nickelodeon and has consulted for MGM and for the Warner Bros. feature film, "The Matrix." Most recently TDRL produced a fully CGI animated theatrical short called Edward Fudwupper Fibbed Big with Berkley Breathed (creator of Bloom County) for Nickelodeon and produced and animated Hershey’s Really Big 3-D Show, the first feature-length quality original production showcasing CGI/3D animation and presented in 3D High Definition with glasses and digital projection.

From SciFi.com :

Fox Believes In Afterlife Fox has ordered the pilot presentation The Afterlife, a digitally animated project about a family that dies from a freak photography accident and winds up in purgatory, which looks a lot like suburban Los Angeles, Variety reported. Barry Bostwick (Spin City) has been tapped to lend the voice for father Stan, while Kerri Kenney (The Ellen Show) will voice the neurotic family matriarch, Flo, the trade paper reported.

Also attached is Alexandra Holden (Ally McBeal) and Danny Strong (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), who will voice the children.

Threshold Entertainment’s Larry Kasanoff will executive produce the project for his Threshold Digital Research Labs, which is also behind the upcoming full-length computer-animated feature film Foodfight, the trade paper reported. He also created the project, along with Joshua Wexler and writers David Schneiderman and Derek Guiley.

From Cinescape.com :

THE AFTERLIFE will be televised At first you die, then you star in your own TV show

Dateline: Tuesday, March 25, 2003

By: PATRICK SAURIOL By: News Editor Source: Variety

Variety reports that the Fox network has bought a pilot from Threshold Entertainment, the company owned by producer Larry Kasanoff (MORTAL KOMBAT), called THE AFTERLIFE. The show’s premise sounds similar to MARRIED WITH CHILDREN or THE SIMPSONS — that is, if those familes were deceased.

The pilot centers on a middle-class family that is killed by a freak photography accident (imagine the shots from that one) and travels to the realm of purgatory, the way-station between Heaven and Hell. Ironically, purgatory looks just like Los Angeles, which makes a lot of sense.

The show will be digitally animated and already actors have been hired to provide the family’s voices. Playing Stan the father will be Barry Bostwick (SPIN CITY, but we’ll always remember him from MEGAFORCE won’t we?); Kerri Kenney (THE ELLEN SHOW) plays his wife Flo; Alexandra Holden (ALLY MCBEAL) is daughter Bree; and BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER semi-regular Danny Strong (who plays Jonathan on the show) will provide the voice of Zack, the son.

Remember, Fox hasn’t ordered a series yet; they just want to see a pilot first, and even then there’s no guarantee Fox will broadcast it on their network.