{"id":2829,"date":"2016-07-27T22:12:30","date_gmt":"2016-07-27T22:12:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2016\/07\/27\/beetles-do-beatles-music-coup-for-an-animated-netflix-show\/"},"modified":"2020-10-29T22:00:46","modified_gmt":"2020-10-29T22:00:46","slug":"beetles-do-beatles-music-coup-for-an-animated-netflix-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2016\/07\/27\/beetles-do-beatles-music-coup-for-an-animated-netflix-show\/","title":{"rendered":"Beetles Do Beatles: Music Coup for an Animated Netflix Show"},"content":{"rendered":"

BEN SISARIO\u00a0\/ The New York Times<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

If Josh Wakely was feeling a little fried, it was understandable: He had quickly become one of the busiest young writers and producers in television \u2014 with a little help from the Beatles, Bob Dylan and Motown.<\/p>\n

Jet-lagged from repeated trips between New York, Los Angeles and his native Australia, Mr. Wakely, 35, sported a dark stubble and had an errant shirt button undone one afternoon last week at his publicist\u2019s office in Lower Manhattan. But he excitedly tripped over his own syllables as he talked about his three new shows, each of which uses classic pop songs as inspiration, raw material and organizing theme.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeat Bugs,\u201d an animated children\u2019s series on Netflix based on Beatles songs, begins its first season on Aug. 3. The show features performances of songs like \u201cLucy in the Sky With Diamonds\u201d and \u201cHelp!\u201d by Eddie Vedder, Pink and Regina Spektor.<\/p>\n

Also on the way, with air dates yet to be set, are two other shows Mr. Wakely created: \u201cTime Out of Mind,\u201d a dark drama for Amazon with characters based on songs by Mr. Dylan; and another animated show for Netflix, still untitled, that makes use of the Motown catalog. Smokey Robinson is its executive music producer.<\/p>\n

As Mr. Wakely described it, his template began with \u201cBeat Bugs,\u201d which he conceived of as a way to extend the current \u201cgolden age of television\u201d into children\u2019s programming. He created the show and also has directing, writing and producing credits.<\/p>\n

\u201cI realized that these extraordinary melodies would make sense for children, but also the full level of imagination and visual imagery that the Beatles had in their songs,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat is it to go into a strawberry field forever? What would it be like to actually be inside that yellow submarine?\u201d<\/p>\n

So far, the buzz around Mr. Wakely\u2019s shows has centered on the licensing deals he struck to draw on iconic \u2014 and closely guarded \u2014 song collections in unusually extensive ways. For each show, Mr. Wakely and his team have access to vast catalogs not only for musical performances but also for plot devices and characters, extending the reach of the shows into the songs\u2019 most fundamental elements.<\/p>\n

Mr. Wakely said he chose the music catalogs partly for their storytelling potential, but beyond \u201cBeat Bugs\u201d he provided scant details. \u201cTime Out of Mind,\u201d he said, would feature characters from Mr. Dylan\u2019s songs \u201ccolliding\u201d in 1960s America. The Motown show follows an 8-year-old African-American boy named Ben who discovers magical powers that let him bring graffiti to life.<\/p>\n

\u201cBanksy for children as done by Pixar,\u201d Mr. Wakely said of the Motown show. \u201cThat was my pitch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Music licensing in film and television is nothing new, and the jukebox musical has been a Broadway standby for years. (For instance, \u201cMotown: The Musical\u201d debuted on Broadway in 2013.) But the kind of rights that Mr. Wakely sought are rarely granted, and the deals were all the more remarkable given his relative inexperience. He had just a handful of credits to his name as a writer and director when he began the process half a decade ago. Securing rights to the Beatles works \u2014 including more than 250 songs by John Lennon and Paul McCartney \u2014 took three years; the deal is estimated at nearly $10 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had no idea how complicated or how ambitious an idea it was,\u201d Mr. Wakely said. \u201cI\u2019m glad I was so na\u00efve, because I wouldn\u2019t have pursued it otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Wakely grew up in Newcastle, Australia, an industrial hub north of Sydney. He said he had been struggling for years as a screenwriter, working on scripts that often went nowhere, before he decided to set up his own production house, Grace: A Storytelling Company.<\/p>\n

Among his earlier work was \u201cMy Mind\u2019s Own Melody,\u201d a short musical film in 2012 in which he worked with Daniel Johns of the Australian rock band Silverchair. Yet Mr. Wakely remained well below the radar of the Hollywood press until making the Beatles deal two years ago for \u201cBeat Bugs,\u201d which features five childlike insects living in the tall grass of an overgrown backyard who learn a valuable life lesson \u2014 and a catchy Beatles tune \u2014 in each 11-minute episode.<\/p>\n

Like the most enduring animation series, the writing in \u201cBeat Bugs\u201d is crafted to appeal to children as well as to their parents, with plenty of allusions to lyrics. In the \u201cHelp!\u201d episode, Jay, a headstrong beetle, gets trapped in a glass jar and needs his friends to come to his rescue.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought you never needed anybody\u2019s help in any way,\u201d says Kumi, a ladybug.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sorry,\u201d Jay replies, \u201cbut those days are gone, and now I\u2019ve changed my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Sony\/ATV Music Publishing, which represents both the Beatles and Motown songwriting catalogs, the shows are a way to reach a generation of very young potential listeners. Still, Sony\/ATV was typically cautious in approving the deal for \u201cBeat Bugs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a company, we say no more than we say yes,\u201d said Damian Trotter, managing director of Sony\/ATV in Australia, who said he has known Mr. Wakely since the beginning of his career and encouraged him to develop ideas for projects using music. After an initial meeting, Mr. Wakely began to sketch out \u201cBeat Bugs\u201d in detail, and Mr. Trotter said the result impressed Sony\/ATV enough to give the green light.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe demonstrated the power of a great idea,\u201d Mr. Trotter said. (Sony\/ATV also controls the Motown catalog, and administers Mr. Dylan\u2019s songs in Australia; the Beatles themselves were not involved in the \u201cBeat Bugs\u201d deal.)<\/p>\n

Mr. Wakely, who splits his time between Los Angeles and Sydney, said at the time the Beatles deal was finally signed in January 2014, his funds were nearly exhausted. He could afford just six weeks of rent in Los Angeles and was prepared to return to Australia. \u201cI would say to my wife, \u2018I don\u2019t want to be the guy that nearly got the Beatles rights,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Netflix announced that \u201cBeat Bugs\u201d had been confirmed for a second season, to begin Nov. 18, with Beatles songs to be sung by Jennifer Hudson, Rod Stewart and Tori Kelly, among others. Mr. Wakely has his hands full, but he said he was already thinking of more music-focused shows.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels like beautifully uncharted territory,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BEN SISARIO\u00a0\/ The New York Times If Josh Wakely was feeling a little fried, it was understandable: He had quickly become one of the busiest young writers and producers in television \u2014 with a little help from the Beatles, Bob Dylan and Motown. Jet-lagged from repeated trips between New York, Los Angeles and his native … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,53],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBeetles Do Beatles: Music Coup for an Animated Netflix Show - Thunderbird Entertainment<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2016\/07\/27\/beetles-do-beatles-music-coup-for-an-animated-netflix-show\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Beetles Do Beatles: Music Coup for an Animated Netflix Show - Thunderbird Entertainment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"BEN SISARIO\u00a0\/ The New York Times If Josh Wakely was feeling a little fried, it was understandable: He had quickly become one of the busiest young writers and producers in television \u2014 with a little help from the Beatles, Bob Dylan and Motown. 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