Newly minted Madefire Studios, the film and television arm of digital publisher Madefire Inc., has optioned legendary creator Dave Gibbons’ Original Motion Book series TREATMENT, and will be going out to filmmakers and writers shortly.
This comes as Gibbons’ beloved WATCHMEN, the bestselling graphic novel of all time, heads to HBO this October, and THE KING’S MAN, the third feature film in the KINGSMAN franchise hits theaters February 2020 for Fox/Disney.
Exploring contemporary themes of inequality, crime reduction and corporate greed, TREATMENT presents us a shocking near-future hammered by three global recessions. With crime endemic and audiences craving ever more sensational entertainment, a global broadcast franchise is launched that deputizes ex-military personnel, former law enforcement, sports stars and entertainers from all over the world to hunt down and violently eliminate the worst criminals – streaming live for the masses.
Boasting over a million reads, TREATMENT includes multiple series’, each set in a different international city – including “Tokyo”, “Detroit”, “Seoul”, “Mexico City” and “San Diego”. Each series contains a multiple episode arc with a different cast of characters.
Gibbons, who began his career contributing to the long-running 2000AD anthology comic, home to the seminal Judge Dredd character, serves as overall series creator. Gibbons wrote and drew “Detroit” and “Treatment HQ.” Subsequent episodes in the series were scripted and drawn by Kinman Chan (concept designer ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY), Doug Braithwaite (Marvel Comics’ Universe X), Robbie Morrison (Judge Dredd, Nikolai Dante), Jimmy Broxton (DC/Vertigo’s The Unwritten) and John Floyd (Batman: Gotham Nights).
Said Ben Wolstenholme, head of Madefire Studios, “Dave’s been on the Madefire journey since day one, with TREATMENT making an immediate impact at launch. I’m proud to have Dave and TREATMENT leading the charge as Madefire Studios grows it’s properties into TV, Film and Short Form.”
“Madefire has been at the cutting edge of publishing for years now, using technology to bring comic book stories alive,” said Gibbons. “I’m thrilled to have TREATMENT be a part of their expansion into film and television and look forward to continuing our long and happy association.”
TREATMENT is one of 30,000 books available on Madefire, and is native to Madefire’s proprietary format, the Motion Book, a reading experience optimized for screen. Using sound, layers and motion, the reading experience is more immersive than print.
Madefire Originals have reached over a million readers per title on its cutting-edge digital publishing platform. Originals have won best digital comic across multiple years and are distributed on the Madefire app, building audience alongside 30,000 titles, including world-class catalogs from DC, Marvel, IDW, Image, Dark Horse, Archie, Disney, 20th Century Fox, Blizzard and many more.
Gibbons is repped by Harris Miller, with Madefire repped by Karl Austen at Jackoway Austen, who also sits on Madefire’s advisory board.
About Madefire Studios
“Where the Myths of the 21st Century are Created” is the ethos of Madefire, which was founded in 2011 by Ben Wolstenholme, Eugene Walden, and Liam Sharp. The media and technology company, developer and creator platform are behind the award-winning Madefire app, as well its proprietary format, the Motion Book.
Madefire Studios was established in 2019 as an arm for developing and producing film, TV, XR and short-form entertainment from its growing library of New and Original IP. Wolstenholme is spearheading Studios, along with Alex Ott (Fury) as VP of Production & Development. With offices in Los Angeles, London and Emeryville, Madefire Studios works with new and established talent to develop and produce the best Originals into cross-platform franchises. The company is developing original IP with creatives including: film director Corin Hardy (The Nun), Emmy-winner Simon J. Smith (Bee Movie), Dave Gibbons (Watchmen), Bill Sienkiewicz (Legion), Liam Sharp (Wonder Woman) and Mike Carey (The Girl with All The Gifts).
Madefire is the official comics partner of Snapchat, Oculus and Magic Leap, and is available across all major platforms including phones, tablets, television, web, and VR/XR. Madefire is backed by True Ventures and a group of investors and founders behind WordPress, Macromedia and Applications for Apple Inc.