By Daniel Human
Kokomo Tribune
Kokomo — A Kokomo author’s book that began reaching out to children in the 1980s will span the generation gap and move to the big screen.
Othello Bach’s “Whoever Heard of a Fird?” which first published in 1984, will be produced into a 78-minute feature film about Fird, a part-fish, part-bird seeking his own kind.
Kokomo-based Bach Morris Technologies Corp. plans to invest $2.4 million in the production of “Whoever Heard of a Herd of Fird?” The company will spend $2.2 million in Indiana, and it expects to create more than 20 jobs for artists, animators, programmers and other positions.
Mark Morris, chief operations officer for Bach Morris Technologies, said the majority of the production for the 3-D animated movie will be in east central Indiana. Production should begin early 2011, with it reaching movie theaters as early as 2012.
A set of interactive games and children’s toys will accompany the movie, and the company plans to set up an assembly facility for those in Kokomo, Morris said. If plans for that progress, he said, it would bring 100 to 150 jobs to the area over the next five years.
Bach said she has wanted for several years to transfer the story of Fird from book pages to the movie screen.
“The main reason I’m doing it is that I get an awful lot of fan mail on that book,” she said. “It’s parents who grew up with it.”
The film will build on the original story line from the book, she said.
The story follows Fird as he leaves his parents, who are dickens — part-dog, part-chicken, in search of a herd of his own kind. Along his journey he befriends a dozen other creatures, most of whom are two-animal combinations, while avoiding the snooses, an intentional oxymoron of a combination of snake and mongoose.
Bach said she tries to avoid being preachy with her writing, but among the story’s lessons, she stresses the importance of solving problems without resorting to anger or violence.
“The world is used to seeing violence, and to see it is exciting,” she said. “Fear is generally what moves a plot. ... I want to show you can still be rational, even if you’re afraid.”
Morris said Bach Morris Technologies has spoken with animation director Ramon Rivero about working on the film. Rivero won an Academy Award for “Best Special Effects” in 2002 for his work on “The Lord of the Rings.”
The company has also been throwing around ideas about which celebrities should voice the characters, Morris said, but there have yet to be any decisions.
Bach Morris Technologies decided to keep the majority of filming in the state because of plans it has to work with a Ball State University program, Morris said.
The business is amid contract negotiations with the university’s Institute for Digital Intermedia Arts.
John Fillwalk, the institute’s director, said if a contract carries through, a group of about five staff and five students would focus on developing interactive programs to go with the film, such as an online community for children.
The institute so far has served as a consultant for the film project, he said.
Morris said the help from the university program convinced Bach Morris Technologies to stay in the state instead of producing it in India.
“Our long-term objective is to not only create several animated feature films in Indiana,” he said, “but to create a long-term, highly skilled work force of 3-D models, animators, technicians, etc. to eliminate Indiana’s ‘Brain Drain.’”
The Indiana Economic Development Corp. gave the Kokomo company an approximately 5 percent tax credit of $111,245 through the state’s Media Production Expenditure Tax Credit program.
The program, which can cover up to 15 percent of a media company’s in-state production costs, has a budget of $2.5 million, said IEDC spokeswoman Blair West. Companies can receive the credit for projects such as feature films, documentaries, commercials and training videos as long as they spend at least $100,000, she said.
• Daniel Human is the Kokomo Tribune business reporter. He can be reached at 765-454-8570 or at daniel.human@kokomotribune.com.
