Adult Swim President Pushes For International Expansion

The President of Adult Swim is looking to bring the popular Cartoon Network programming block to new locales.

By Evan Valentine

Adult Swim has had a big role at this year's Annecy International Animation Film Festival. On top of announcing new projects, the Cartoon Network programming block also confirmed that big fan-favorite series such as My Adventures With Superman and Smiling Friends would be renewed. In a new interview with the outlet Variety, Adult Swim President Michael Ouweleen discussed how the platform is aiming to expand is global reach, while also going into detail when it comes to what creators might need to keep in mind if they are hoping to get approved for an Adult Swim series of their own. 

Ouweleen started the conversation during a panel at Annecy by addressing the hopes that Adult Swim has for the future, "We very much want to see Adult Swim originals coming from anywhere in the world. My great hope is that as more people in Europe [who are] going to art school and more creators see more and more Adult Swim content and become part of the family and make stuff for Adult Swim. There's nothing more gratifying than that." 

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(Photo: Adult Swim)

Adult Swim Worldwide

Ouweleen confirmed that while they do already have projects that come from countries like Australia and Mexico, the Cartoon Netwok programming block is definitely interested in expanding, "We already do shows that come out of different countries. "YOLO" out of Australia, "Women Wearing Shoulder Pads" animated in Mexico and we have "Rick and Morty: The Anime." But we very much want to see Adult Swim originals coming from anywhere in the world and for [creative talent] not to be trying to give us an American show."

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Adult Swim's President then broke down what creators should keep in mind if they are hoping to see their projects hit the cable channel, "The creators of "Common Side Effects," which we premiered at Annecy on Wednesday, got asked if they shopped the idea around at Festivals. I said: 'Let me try and help answer this for us. On animation and particularly adult animation, you don't have to wait for a festival to pitch. Just pitch us and we want to hear it. It should be relatively easy, at least, for us to see what your idea is and decide if we're going to spend time talking about it or not. Don't come to us and say: 'I have written an entire season.' Don't give us the cake fully baked because you haven't done this before. Let us help you with the cake. You know we're not going to help you write it, but we'll give you advice and direct you. My hope, is that over the next couple of years, we build a relationship with the community here [in France] so that we find a Genndy [Tartakovsky] from somewhere else."

Via Variety

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