Big Jump Announces Development with Grammy Award Winner, Mark Batson

Big Jump Entertainment is thrilled to be working with multiple Grammy Award winning producer, songwriter, and composer Mark Batson, and his One Unlimited Media imprint, on an original, adult animated series.  Your favourite musican’s favourite musician, Batson is a classically trained pianist, alumnus of Howard University, was the pianist for the Smithsonian Institution’s African American Culture Program, and over the past two decades has written and produced some of the most influential music of the modern era. He has composed and produced music for Oscar, Golden Globe and Emmy award winning film and TV projects, including “I, Tanya”, “American Hustle”, “Sharp Objects” and “Empire.”  His music collaborations have sold 150 million albums worldwide by working with a range of A-List artists including but not limited to Alicia Keys, Beyonce, Dave Matthews Band, Melissa Ethridge, Eminem, and Dr. Dre.

Now, with the plethora of musical resources at his disposal, Mark is expanding his reach to the world of animation with a music centric comedy series that satirizes what happens when the most interesting and influential entertainer in the world decides to no longer “shut up and dribble”, and the global forces that will stop at nothing to silence him.

“After years of helping other creative minds tell their stories, I’m excited to be working with Big Jump to help bring to life a story that I’ve wanted to share with the world for as long as I can remember. The Roostar is more than just a character…it’s an extension of me. The goal is to demonstrate what the possibilities and utilities of music are on both a macro and micro level. I’ve seen it firsthand be the connective tissue, creating and sharing ideas with Dr. Dre one day, and Yo-Yo Ma the next.  Imagine truly utilizing music for the unification of society and the eradication of our divisive social constructs,” says creator Mark Batson.

“I have much gratitude to be working with such a talented and inspiring human that is Mark, a man who has wrapped around himself other uber creative human beings to make a genre bending, socially relevant series.  It’s like working with the rap and comedy equivalent of a Transformer. My small part would make up a…left ankle?” says VP of Development for Big Jump, Karen Swerdfeger.

Co-Creating “The Roostar” are JP Lavin and Chad Damiani, who have written TV pilot scripts for CBS (Cisco Kid, Jet Set, Family Unit) and one for NBC (Twist) as well as feature film scripts for Paramount, Warner Brothers, Fox, New Line, STX, and an animated movie for Jackie Chan.  It is being produced with Dan Scheinkman, who currently oversees Adult Animation for Television and Feature Film Development at BuzzFeed and previously served as Head of Scripted Development at Kickstart Entertainment, and Robert Patla, who is Head of Talent Development for Apple TV+, fostering the success of women, people of colour and other underserved communities.  Prior, Patla was an executive with HBO.

Established in 2008 by Rick and Cory Morrison and close friend, Rod Amador, Big Jump Entertainment has become one of the leading prime time animation production facilities in Canada. Big Jump’s production roster boasts popular titles such as Trailer Parks Boys: The Animated Series (Netflix), “F” Is For Family (Netflix), Adam Ruins Everything: History Reanimated (Tru TV), Dallas and Robo (YouTube Red), Animals (HBO), Ugly Americans and Brickleberry (Comedy Central) and the animated specials for, Black-ish (ABC) and One Day At A Time animated pilot (PopTV). Big Jump’s burgeoning Original IP department develops properties across all demographics and is currently in production on its second IP, “Big Words, Small Stories” based on the popular book series.