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AWARD WINNING CHILDREN'S
SERIES INCREDIBLE STORY STUDIO ANNOUNCES WORLD PREMIERE OF ITS FIFTH AND
FINAL SEASON It's a wrap on the TV series that makes kid's stories from around the world into movies!! January 8, 2002 - (Regina) Time travel to a world ruled by dust bunnies. Discover a place where phantom wheelie bins have amazing powers. Witness a magic sleeping spell. Cheer on the Phantom Avenger. Returning for its fifth and final season, the world premiere of the award winning children's series Incredible Story Studio is slated to premiere on February 10 at 9 pm ET on YTV. An international success story, season five of Incredible Story Studio brings the series to a total of 65 episodes, a package suitable for syndication. "Having completed five seasons of Incredible Story Studio has been an incredible run," says executive producer Kevin DeWalt of Minds Eye Entertainment. "The series has appealed to kids around the world and I am confident that this will have international appeal for years to come." Seen in 450 million households worldwide, Incredible Story Studio is the one-of-a-kind series where kids' stories from around the world are made into MOVIES. Each half-hour episode which features one Canadian story and one European story adapted into 10 minute, live-action TV dramas. Designed to take kids on a world tour of creativity and imagination, season five showcases stories written by kids living in Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Austria. "In five years
we've produced 65 episodes showcasing 123 stories written by kids from
eight different countries," says producer/co-creator Virginia
Thompson of Vérité Films. Over the past five
seasons, Incredible Story Studio has collected over 500,000 stories
written by children in schools across Canada and Europe through The
Incredible Story Studio Creative Writing Workshop proving that kids
TV can do more than entertain - it can inspire! Vérité Films and Minds Eye Entertainment teamed up with Merlin Films Group of Ireland to produce season five as an international treaty co-production. Children's stories from the UK, Germany and Austria were filmed in Galway, Ireland, while stories written by Canadian and French kids were filmed in Regina, Saskatchewan. Established in 1986, Minds Eye Entertainment is a fully integrated production, post-production and distribution entity with offices across Canada. As Western Canada's largest privately held film and television production company, Minds Eye Entertainment has been instrumental in contributing to the country's thriving motion picture industry. Its award-winning feature films, television series, shorts and documentaries have been sold in more than 100 countries. The Company website is www.mindseyepictures.com. Virginia Thompson and Robert de Lint founded Vérité Films in 1994 to develop Incredible Story Studio. They developed the series by pitching the concept of "kids telling their own stories on TV" to over 6,000 school kids across Canada, producing the series pilot, and writing the scripts for the first six episodes of the series. Vérité Films entered into a co-production with Minds Eye Entertainment to produce ISS which has won over 40 international awards, including a Gemini Award for Best Children's or Youth Program (2000) since the series was first broadcast 5 years ago. Merlin Films Group specializes in the development, financing, production and distribution of high quality product for the international media marketplace and is recognized as Ireland's leading film financier. Merlin Films, the motion picture division of the group, is a leading producer of feature films for worldwide distribution. Merlin Films Group has an ongoing commitment to maintaining its leadership position within Ireland and continue to provide quality entertainment to audiences through all mediums. Headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, Merlin also has offices in Shannon, London and Los Angeles. YTV, Canada's #1 youth network, is seen in over eight million homes across Canada. As a major force in Canadian kids' entertainment, YTV has triggered over $819 million in Canadian independent production; developed a Web site that averages more than 2.1 million page impressions each week; published a successful kids' magazine, Whoa!; and conducts a highly respected annual survey, The YTV Kid & Tween Report. YTV is owned by Corus Entertainment, a Canadian-based media and entertainment company. Corus is Canada's market leader in both specialty TV and Radio. Corus also owns Nelvana Limited, one of the world's largest international producers and distributors of children's programming and products. The company's other interests include music, television broadcasting and advertising services. A publicly traded company, Corus is listed on the Toronto (CJR.B) and New York (CJR) Exchanges. Corus' Web site can be found at corusentertainment.com. Incredible Story Studio is a Canada-Ireland treaty co-production produced with the financial participation of the Canadian Television Fund Equity Investment Program, the Canadian Television Fund License Fee Program, YTV, CBC, SCN, CanWest Western Independent Producers Fund, The Independent Production Fund, Shaw Children's Programming Initiative through the Dr. Geoffrey R. Conway Fund through the Shaw Television Broadcast Fund, Government of Canada - Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit Program, Saskatchewan Film Employment Tax Credit. Developed in Association with SaskFILM, Telefilm Canada and the COGEGO Program Developmemt Fund. Produced with the support of investment incentives for the Irish Film Industry provided by the Government of Ireland. Incredible Story Studio is distributed internationally by Minds Eye International. The series web site is www.storystudio.com. NOTE TO MEDIA: Photography for Incredible Story Studio is available for download at www.ytvpublicity.com, log in: 'press1'. Contact:
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