Exec’s Got ‘Gametoons’

To the founders of game developer Cranium Inc., partnering with veteran TV and film executive Albie Hecht was a no-brainer.

As one of the key executives who helped build Nickelodeon into a powerhouse kids channel, Hecht, they reasoned, could broaden their business from talking toy masks and popular board games into the expanding online entertainment world.

“We thought it was a perfect match,” said Richard Tait, co-founder of Cranium who goes by the title Grand Poo-Bah.

So Cranium hired Hecht’s Worldwide Biggies Inc. to develop downloadable games, dubbed “gametoons,” that combine mysteries and puzzles with the storytelling of animated cartoons. Players use “digital friends” to help navigate through different experiences. Cranium plans to offer the games on a broadband channel Hecht is developing for the company.

Creating such new experiences is a central mission of Worldwide Biggies, which Hecht launched last year after a lengthy cable and film career at Viacom Inc., where he most recently was president of MTV Networks’ Spike TV channel. For Hecht, the proliferation of broadband access is a ripe family-programming opportunity.

“Broadband enables us to bring Hollywood storytelling and animation to the Web,” Hecht said. “This is a new form of entertainment experience.”

Worldwide Biggies, which is developing a broadband media studio in New York and opening an office in Los Angeles, also is producing broadband entertainment for Virgin USA and has a two-year deal to develop two children’s television series for Nickelodeon. The company also is co-producing a computer-animated alien-invasion feature, “Planet One,” written by Joe Stillman, a writer of the “Shrek” films.

“I believe there is a new entertainment behavior on the horizon,” Hecht said. “If a kid is on his computer, watching TV, talking on his cellphone and listening to his iPod, you better be sure you’re capturing all those attentions. That’s what Biggies is about.”

Hecht, 53, oversaw the production of the hit TV shows “Blue’s Clues” and “Dora the Explorer.” In 1997, Hecht built Nickelodeon Animation Studios in Burbank, where he launched the successful SpongeBob SquarePants TV and film franchise.

As Nickelodeon’s president of film and TV entertainment, Hecht also shepherded the 1998 “The Rugrats Movie” -- the first non-Disney animated movie to cross the $100-million mark at the box office -- and the 2001 hit “Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius.”

“He made enormous contributions,” said Sherry Lansing, former head of Paramount Pictures, which released the films. “He sweated his movies.”

Herb Scannell, former vice chairman of MTV Networks and former president of Nickelodeon Networks, credits Hecht for championing as a feature film “Jimmy Neutron” after it was originally conceived as a TV pilot. The movie cost only $25 million to make, but took in $102.9 million at the box office, spawning a TV series and video games.

“He had the vision to say, ‘I think this could be a movie,’ ” Scannell said.

“Jimmy Neutron” is the lucrative model Hecht hopes to duplicate at Worldwide Biggies, which has several computer-animated features in development.

Its first, “Planet One,” is a co-production with Madrid’s Ilion Animation Studios about an alien planet, modeled on suburban 1950s America, that is terrified of a human invasion. Budgeted at $50 million, the film is set for release in 2008. Hecht is talking to Hollywood studios about a distribution deal.

Illion Chief Executive Ignacio Perez came up with the idea for the movie but turned to Hecht because of his track record and Hollywood ties.

“Coming from Spain, we needed someone with the highest reputation,” he said.

Pairing with Ilion, Hecht said, was attractive because its parent company, Wisdom Entertainment, already is a major player in digital media. Wisdom owns a wireless-entertainment business and Pyro Studios, creator of the video game series “Commandos.” Producing “Planet One” in Spain also will save on labor costs.

Scores of computer-animated films are set to hit theaters in the next two years as Hollywood studios seek to duplicate the success of such blockbusters as Pixar Animation Studios’ “The Incredibles” and DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc.’s “Shrek” films.

Hecht isn’t intimidated, noting that he learned at Nickelodeon how to produce quality animation on a budget.

Thinking outside the box office, Hecht already is working with Wisdom to create a video game based on one of the title characters in “Planet One,” a pathfinder. He also is exploring whether to create alien ring tones.

“We want to create digital assets that go forth and multiply,” he said.