TOFFLER DRAWN INTO NEW MUSIC TV VENTURE

Van Toffler took the pairing of music and image to new heights during his lengthy tenure at MTV, and now the exec has launched a new venture to tell music stories with innovative visuals. Via his new entity, Gunpowder & Sky, Toffler has partnered with T Bone Burnett, music TV producer Bill Flanagan (Storytellers, Crossroads) and animator Drew Christie for an animated series, Drawn & Recorded.

The series, now in production with distribution TBA shortly, will tell stories about influential and iconic figures of roots, rock and hip-hop, including trailblazers like Elvis Presley, Louis Armstrong and Blind Willie Johnson (the latter is rendered by Christie in the image above). Drawn will conjure the mythic and folkloric dimensions of these and other innovators.

“Music has pretty much defined the emotional highs and lows of most of our lives,” said Toffler (seen in classic animated form at right). “So it’s an honor to be able to shine a light in a unique, unfiltered way, along with T Bone, Bill and Drew, on these buried fables covering the creation of great music, chance artist meetings, untimely deaths and freak occurrences that altered the course of modern music. Also, animation is an ideal way to teach kids about important stuff like groupies, cocaine and publishing advances.”