Early history Haim Saban and Jacqueline Tordjman formed together
Saban Records and Music SARL in 1977 in order to release Saban's musical compositions. Saban later formed
Saban Productions in 1980 and soon became a unit of the newly-formed company. In 1989, the division moved into the animation field, producing
animated series for their parent company under the name of
Saban International Paris. Luxembourg-based company International Film Productions took 49.7% stake, while CEO Jacueline Tordjman took 0.5%. Saban Entertainment kept a 49.8% share. Tordjman's shares increased to 0.7% by 1994. In February 1996, the shares of International Film Productions were transferred to Pueblo Films AG, a Switzerland-based company. The plan was that if the deal closed successfully, the studio would be absorbed into Saban International Paris while Saban would inherit their catalogue. In addition, with the completion of the acquisition, the C&D headquarters building in
La Garenne-Colombes would become the property of Saban International Paris. The deal closed successfully, with C&D soon being liquidated in 1998. The C&D acquisition allowed Saban International Paris to pick up the rights to produce an animated series based on
Diabolik, which was added to their existing range of productions in development, which at the time included two Belgian-comic adaptations:
Achille Talon and
Iznogoud, the latter of which was pre-sold to
France 2 for that summer, and three literature adaptations:
Oliver Twist and two
Michael Ende works
Jim Button and
Night of the Wishes. In August 1996, Saban and the German
ARD network agreed to a three-year, $50 million co-production and library program licensing agreement to co-produce the Michael Ende adaptations. In February 2000, it was announced that the in-development
Night of the Wishes adaptation would be named
Wunschpunsch and would be produced as a co-production with Canadian-based
CinéGroupe and began production in February 2000, being pre-sold to
Radio-Canada and
TF1 in the same month. In September, Fox Kids Europe announced that they would co-produce two new shows with the studio -
Jason and the Heroes of Mount Olympus, and
Gadget & the Gadgetinis. In December,
DIC Entertainment announced that they would be co-produce
Gadget & the Gadgetinis with Saban International Paris and that Saban International would hold international (outside of the U.S.) distribution rights to the series, which itself would premiere in 2002. In April 2002, Saban International Paris presold a new show tentatively titled
Tofu Family (later renamed to
The Tofus), to the United Kingdom's
ITV to air on their
CITV block. The studio were also reported to be working on three Canadian co-productions -
Tinsellania for
TF1 and
Family in co-production with
Studio B,
Sparkiz for
France 2 and
ROBO for
M6. None of the three shows were ever completed.
Rebranding In July 2001,
News Corporation and Saban Entertainment announced their sale of
Fox Family Worldwide, which held Saban's assets and stakes, to
The Walt Disney Company for $5.3 billion. The deal would also include Saban Entertainment and Saban's 49.6% shares in Saban International Paris. The deal was closed in October 2001, and after the sale, Saban Entertainment was renamed to BVS Entertainment. With the departure of Haim Saban from both Saban International Paris and BVS Entertainment, the studio could no longer be referred to under the respective name. Alongside the change of name, SIP announced the production of a
TV series based on the Italian
comic book series
W.I.T.C.H., which Disney published. Additional projects SIP continued to work on prior to the name change were
Jason and the Heroes of Mount Olympus and
Gadget & the Gadgetinis for Fox Kids Europe. As with Saban and Fox Kids Europe's existing programmes, television distribution and servicing were transferred from Saban International N.V. (renamed to BVS International N.V.) to
Buena Vista International Television, a Disney subsidiary. By this point, home video rights to SIP's catalogue fell under Active Licensing Europe, which was renamed Jetix Consumer Products during the rebranding of all Fox Kids operations as Jetix. In September 2004, SIP and Jetix Europe announced that the planned 2D/3D show would become their next co-production, an action cartoon with the working title of
The Insiders. Hasbro signed a deal to produce toys based on the show later in the month. The show's full title would eventually become
A.T.O.M. - Alpha Teens on Machines, and premiered on Jetix channels worldwide in the second half of 2005. In October of the same year, Kidscreen reported that the planned 2D show would be titled
Combo Niños and that delivery for the series would begin in early 2006. Jetix Europe and
TF1 had been on board with the series, but SIP had also been looking for other broadcasters or countries to co-produce the series. In December 2006, SIP made a call for short film pitches. In May 2007, SIP Animation announced that the production of
Combo Niños had begun for an August 2008 delivery window. The series premiered on Jetix Europe-operated channels in the Summer of 2008, with a terrestrial expansion soon following. Throughout 2007, SIP announced several new projects in the works, with
Astaquana being picked up in September 2007 for a June 2008 start and a January 2009 delivery window, with a pilot being produced to attract consumers,
George and Me being picked up in December, based on a 2006
Soleil Productions comic series, and the film
Princess Bari on December 30, which was a co-production with Korean distributor M-Line and would become the first ever French-Korean animated co-production. The film was rumored to have been completed but was never released. In April 2008, SIP refreshed their website and changed their domain name. Within 2008, the company produced three
television pilots: and
The Jokers. In June, it was reported that
George and Me would begin production at the beginning of 2009. The studio also produced for Interfilm an eight-minute
short film titled
Inukshuk, which was completed in December 2008, and premiered in May 2009.
Dormancy, closure and legacy In December 2008, The Walt Disney Company announced that they would purchase out the rest of
Jetix Europe. With Disney fully purchasing their main programme supplier, SIP silently went dormant. In April 2009, the company was subject to
liquidation, and André Lacour was appointed as president by shareholders' decision. During this point, several employees of the studio would leave the company, including CEO and co-founder Jacqueline Tordjman, == Filmography ==