October 18, 2005

Oscar nominated family entertainment producer Albie Hecht launches Worldwide Biggies inc.

Signs Two Year Television Deal With Nickelodeon

Company To Bring Family Entertainment Programming
To the Next Generation of Digital Media Platforms

Albie Hecht, who in over 20 years as a television and film executive oversaw the development and production of some of the biggest kids and family hits in recent history, including SpongeBob SquarePants, Blue’s Clues, Dora The Explorer, as well as features such as Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events and The Rugrats Movie, has announced the launch of his new digital media content company – Worldwide Biggies Inc. The company will develop and produce: computer generated (CG) features; hi-definition (HD) movies and television series; direct to DVD series; and broadband and mobile content aimed at the family entertainment audience.

In the first of a series of deals for Worldwide Biggies, Albie Hecht, former president of film and television entertainment for Nickelodeon, has signed an exclusive two-year television production deal for children’s programming, with his former network, which is the number one kid’s cable channel. Worldwide Biggies will produce CG cartoons, live action series, shorts and TV movies. Also Biggies will produce the Video Game Awards which the Los Angeles Times called the new “Oscars.” The show will continue to run on Spike TV where Hecht created the awards during his tenure as the network’s president.

“We are living in a high-definition, on demand world,” said Hecht. “Worldwide Biggies’ mission is to take advantage of new media and the latest digital technologies, to develop and produce the next generation of multi-platform, franchise characters and brands for the digital family.”

Hecht is also in discussions with global partners about financing and distribution of HD/CG features including: “Tricksters,” — CSI meets Who Framed Roger Rabbit in this “Who done it?” comedy about a mischievous magical creature, The New Jersey Devil, who teams up with a no-nonsense forensic detective to solve a case that threatens to send the Trickster world into chaos and end fun as we know it; And from two writers of The Onion, “Bigfoot and Gil” — a road-trip comedy about an easy-going Sasquatch and his uptight amphibious buddy, who race around the world to save their fellow folk monsters from Kitty Flambé – a celebrity chief that wants to serve them all up as exotic entrees.

About Albie Hecht
As president of film and television entertainment for Nickelodeon, Hecht oversaw the development and production of SpongeBob SquarePants, The Fairy Odd Parents, Blue’s Clues, and the long running live action hit All That, the first multicultural sketch comedy show for kids, which spun off the hit series’ Kenan and Kel and The Amanda Show. He also co-created Nickelodeon’s Kids Choice Awards as the founding principal and Executive Producer for Chauncey Street Productions. During the 14 years he was executive producer, the award show became a must attend event for Hollywood A-listers.

At Nickelodeon Movies, he produced some of Paramount’s biggest films of the last five years, most recently, Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events (four Academy Awards Nominations) and The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie. Hecht was also nominated for an Oscar in The Academy’s inaugural Best Animated Feature category, as the Producer of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, which was a Golden Globe Nominee, as well. The Rugrats Movie was the first non- Disney animated feature to cross the hundred million dollar mark. Other Nick Movie hits with Albie Hecht as either producer or executive producer include Rugrats in Paris, and the live-action success, Snow Day with Chevy Chase. In all, Albie Hecht’s movie projects brought in over a billion dollars for Paramount and Nickelodeon in box office and licensing revenue.

As the creator and President of MTV Networks’ Spike TV, the First Network for Men, Hecht launched what is now an 89-million-subscriber, basic cable network. Time Magazine hailed Spike as “…an example of how media and marketing are reshaping the idea of American manhood.” Hecht scored Spike’s first hit with The Joe Schmo Show, a
program that gave birth to the genre of faux-reality. He also introduced the cult hit, MXC: Most Extreme Elimination, which Entertainment Weekly rated an “A” saying “take one part Jackass, two parts Iron Chef and 18 parts pure insanity and you have the recipe for MXC.”