The Nacelle Co. has been busy this month getting ready to put out some animated shows and a new live-action one, according to media reports.
The Burbank production studio of scripted, unscripted and comedy content and its chief executive Brian Volk-Weiss are producing two television series based on toy brands, according to reports from Deadline.com, the online entertainment industry publication, and ComicBook.com, a CBS Interactive-owned online publication.
The first animated series to be produced by the studio will be “Robo Force,” based on the toy line of the same name and has been given a straight-to-series order, according to the Jan. 10 story on Deadline.
The pilot episode will be directed by Volk-Weiss, and the first season is set to have six, twenty-two-minute episodes, the story said.
Nacelle acquired the Robo Force line from Toyfinity, a New Jersey independent toy company, in June 2021 and revealed plans to revitalize the property with a new television show, books, and other products.
“Acquiring “Robo Force” is a significant step forward for our company and we want to be respectful of its past while making sure the characters and storylines are exciting to people who aren’t old, like me,” Volk-Weiss told Deadline. He said he’s a big fan of the original series that aired in the mid-1980s. “I absolutely watched it at the time and that’s where I fell in love with Wrecker in particular.”
Wrecker was built to be the jack-of-all-trades for the Robo Force line; he has a tool for every occasion. He joins up with Maxx 89 to protect the innocent and keep an eye on the increasingly erratic Utopia Force, according to a description of the characters at ComicBook.com.
The second animated show from Nacelle is based on the “Biker Mice from Mars” toy line.
According to a story on ComicBook.com from Jan. 19, Nacelle plans to push a new toy line out featuring the characters, with plans to re-develop another animated series nearly 30 years after the original property aired its final episodes.
“Biker Mice is the perfect way to start 2023 off with a Mars-based bang! And they’ll fit in, with their unique, creative brilliance, with the rest of brands we’ve recently acquired,” Volk-Weiss said in an interview with the publication.
The original series featured the voice talent of Ian Ziering, Dorian Harewood and Rob Paulsen.
In an interview with ComicBook.com from April 2020, Paulsen, who has also voiced characters on “Animaniacs” and “Pinky and The Brain,” said there were rumors of “Biker Mice” being rebooted.
“That was a pretty cool action-adventure show with some cool music. A lot of humor,” Paulsen said in the interview.
And, finally, the studio will do a live-action one-hour drama series based on the FBI.
Written and executive produced by Joy Blake, in the Untitled Undercover FBI Project, a female FBI agent suffering a bad case of career burnout is sent to train a team of ambitious, determined rookies in what it takes to go deep undercover, according to a story from Deadline.
Nacelle’s Volk-Weiss, Matt Ochacher and Michael Pelmont also executive produce with Phil Donlan. Former FBI agents Scott Payne and Melissa Fortunato serve as consulting producers. Fox Entertainment Studios is the studio, the story said.
Blake serves as executive producer and co-showrunner on “Beacon 23”, Spectrum Originals and AMC Networks’ psychological thriller series starring Lena Headey (“Game of Thrones”) and Stephan James (“If Beale Street Could Talk”). The series is currently in production on Season 2, the Deadline story said.