It’s so damn hard keeping secrets as it is, but this one was downright painful! After almost a year of keeping my mouth zipped, I am finally at liberty to share some really great news: MightyPants is working with one of our icons – Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner – to develop a Mad Men Animated Series!
I can’t share much info at this time, but I have been given the green light to post this excerpt from AMC’s official press release:
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Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner announced plans today for an upcoming Mad Men Animated series, to be developed with Atlanta-based entertainment studio MightyPants Media. Airing as a part of AMC’s Fall 2015 prime-time lineup, it’s the first animated series for the relatively young cable channel.
Mad Men: Silicon Valley, is an animated reboot that takes place in 1999, reimagining Don Draper as a 20-something Dot-Com entrepreneur. “Perhaps no other time in history has Marketing & Advertising faced such an uphill struggle to gain footing and build prosperity” says Weiner of the setting. “This Don Draper faces challenges like hacking, industry collapse, and threats to his privacy. For a man with so many secrets, the stakes are higher than ever for Don.”
To bring this vision to life, Weiner sought a collaborator who lived through the Dot-Com revolution and survived. Web veteran Tony Grillo, president of MightyPants, brings a unique perspective to the project. “I’ve always seen Mad Men as an allegory for the struggles we faced in those early transitional days of the web. Don knows people better than anyone, but is he cutthroat enough to survive Silicon Valley?”
Since Mad Men’s first season, Weiner has dreamt of seeing his characters brought to life in an animated environment, but it never seemed plausible until Grillo pitched him the idea for a reboot. “Tony had a front-row seat to the birth of internet marketing – he’s been in the room with the winners and the losers. His perspective was invaluable to the show.”
Will the series face the fate of other live-action-to-animation ventures before it, like Napoleon Dynamite and Clerks? “I think those series failed due to their departure from the original material” says Weiner. “Mad Men: Silicon Valley will follow a similar tone path as the original AMC series, tracking significant personal and cultural changes over the course of a highly transitional decade. Plus, we have a colon in the title.”
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There’s more to this article, but you’ll have to wait until its official release, which will also feature some completed concept art. All I can share at this point is a couple of the early character sketches – this is rough art, but it’s pretty close to what you will see when the show airs in 2015.
We’ve been working very hard to find the right style for the show, and I think we finally nailed it. I’m very excited that this project is finally moving forward – I’ve been a huge fan of Mad Men from the every start, and it’s kind of a dream come true.
Please set your DVR to record Mad Men: Silicon Valley in Fall of 2015!
Also, happy April 1st.