WOW! Unlimited Media’s Mainframe Studios and Corus Entertainment announced that production on the live-action elements of ReBoot: The Guardian Code, a 20×22 minute live-action/CG-animated hybrid television series, is underway in Victoria/Vancouver, B.C.
This next phase of production reimagines the original 1994 animated classic, ReBoot, in a real life setting for modern, tech savvy audiences. Created by Michael Hefferon, the show follows four teenagers who discover that they’ve been selected to become the Next-Generation Guardians of cyberspace. ReBoot: The Guardian Code will premiere in Canada in 2018 on YTV.
After playing the multiplayer Cyber Guardians video game together, four teenagers are recruited by V.E.R.A (Hannah Vandenbygaart, Bruno & Boots: Go Jump in the Pool!), the Virtual Evolutionary Recombinant Avatar, to fulfill their mandate to mend and defend cyberspace. Austin (Ty Wood, The Haunting in Connecticut), Tamra (Sydney Scotia, Some Assembly Required), Parker (Ajay Parikh-Friese, Mr. Young), and Trey (Gabriel Darku, Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments) now must protect cyberspace from threats that pose true consequences to both the virtual and real world. It’s more than these kids expected when they started at Alan Turing High.
The action-comdey series intercuts live-action scenes with awe-inspiring CG animation produced with the Unreal game engine, showing how the real world and cyberspace are interconnected. “The power of the game engine’s capabilities to create vast cyberspace settings along with AI (Artificial Intelligence) for dynamic secondary animation fused with live action, will deliver a truly unique and engaging experience for viewers”, says creator and executive producer, Michael Hefferon. “As groundbreaking as the original ReBoot was being the first ever CG animated series, ‘ReBoot: The Guardian Code’ takes it to a whole new level.”
This innovative series will also deliver true 360-degree engagement experiences for audiences with interactive mobile games, a digital trading card game that syncs with the broadcast of the series, and a Virtual Reality experience that puts fans right in the middle of the cyberspace action.
ReBoot: The Guardian Code is produced by Mainframe Studios in association with Corus Entertainment, with executive producer/producer Michael Hefferon, executive producer/showrunner Larry Raskin, and Matt Sheppo, the production executive for Corus. The action-comedy series is directed by co-executive producer Pat Williams, and Michael Dowding is the supervising director of Animation. Corus Entertainment’s YTV is the Canadian broadcaster with Nelvana Enterprises handling worldwide distribution, licensing, and merchandising for the series.