3 September 2014: Ideate Media is about to showcase the first finished episodes of an international series it backed. CEO Zainur Aminullah talks about what else is sailing around the world alongside Bubble Bath Bay.Malaysia’s Ideate Media sails into the last quarter of this year with completed episodes of animated kids series Bubble Bath Bay, an option on Douglas Adams’ Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency novels, and advanced plans on two other initiatives that will roll out by the end of the year. The projects come about 18 months after Ideate was established by Malaysian media company Astro and the Malaysian government’s investment arm Khazanah Nasional.Bubble Bath Bay, an animated preschool series produced by Australia’s Essential Media and Entertainment, is Ideate’s biggest investment so far. The 52-part 11-minute series, which debuts during Mip Junior/Mipcom in October, follows Ideate’s announcement that it was collaborating with European indie, Off the Fence, to create factual content for the global marketplace.“Our mindset is to be able to find strong IP and underlying material and turn it into a commercial proposal,” Ideate’s chief executive Zainir Aminullah said shortly after announcing the co- funding/co-production agreement with U.S.-based IDW Entertainment to option worldwide rights to Douglas Adams’ stories. U.S. production house Circle of Confusion (The Walking Dead) is on board to executive produce the series, based on Adams’ novels about a detective with a “belief in the fundamental interconnectedness of all things, a unique relationship with the laws of probability and physics, and a love of cats and pizza”. Max Landis (Chronicle, American Ultra) will write and executive produce the pilot. IDW Publishing and Ideate Media will also develop Dirk Gently comic books for release next spring. In the local space, Ideate has committed to the strategic acquisition of rights to the books by Malaysia’s top sci-fi/crime/thriller author. Aminullah talks about the opportunity inherent in the strong characters and heroes in different times and worlds. Development includes feature films and ancillary products, and the intention is to use the range of multi-media options to make for a bigger global conversation. Although key local initiatives are critical for Ideate’s success, purely domestic projects are not part of the plan. Aminullah says he sees little benefit in target- ing the small Malaysian market, which already has successful producers and players and set audience segments. “We thought about it for a while and decided only to be involved in the local space if it was part of a strategic perspective... to transform a local piece into something that is internationally feasible,” he says.Issue Three 2014