Sparx expands into U.S
by Kit

Tuesday, October 19 2004

Animation company opens Los Angeles office.

Award-winning French animation and digital effects company, Sparx, is expanding its U.S. capabilities by opening an office in Los Angeles, it was announced today by the company’s new chief executive officer, Jean-Philippe Agati. The Los Angeles office will be managed, by Laddie Ervin, Sparx’ new vice president of business development for North America.

Founded in 1995 and based in Paris, France, Sparx is the most heralded 3D animation studio in Europe. Sparx employs 100 digital artists in Paris, and 120 digital artists and programmers at its fully owned studio in Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam. The company has earned over 100 credits in feature films, direct-to-video movies, television shows, television commercials and music videos. Some of its more notable credits include the Emmy Award-winning children’s TV series “Rolie Polie Olie;” an award-winning CG movie trailer for Robota, created and directed by Doug Chiang; and award-winning children’s TV series “Zoe Kezako.”

“Sparx has built a tremendous business in Europe over the past ten years by providing world class, cost effective digital animation and visual effects services,” said Sparx Chief Executive Officer, Jean-Philippe Agati. “The time is right to expand our operations to the U.S. and to offer our creative talent and expertise to Hollywood. With the company’s studios in Paris and Vietnam, Sparx can offer high end animation and visual effects services at very attractive prices.”

New Sparx CEO Jean-Philippe Agati, brings to the company 20 years of international executive management experience specifically in the area of entertainment technology. Agati was the general manager of Europe’s largest interactive entertainment company, Infogrames SA, and most recently served as the head of production for video game maker, Atari’s office in Santa Monica. Agati directly managed many top entertainment franchises including “The Matrix,” “Unreal,” “Dungeons & Dragons,” The Terminator,” and “Godzilla.”

Laddie Ervin has joined Sparx as its vice president of business development for North America and will head up the Los Angeles office. Ervin is also the co-founder of the Los Angeles based entertainment production company Sparkshore Productions LLC. Prior to Sparx, Ervin worked as a Senior Producer at Atari, Inc. producing videogames for PC and console systems. Before that, he served as the director of program development at the G4 television network (now G4TechTV). He has also worked as the director of marketing for Accolade/Infogrames (now Atari) managing many successful brands including Unreal Tournament, Neverwinter Nights, Test Drive, Driv3r and Hardball.

More information about Sparx can be found at the company’s website http://www.sparx.com.

--- Kit