Marsh
The Disney Channel has greenlit "Jump" (working title), a two-hour movie musical about teenagers who compete as double-dutch dancer-athletes.
Trying to capture some of the mass-audience appeal of "High School Musical," "Jump" stars Corbin Bleu of "High School Musical" as an amateur boxer who becomes enamored with the discipline of double dutch, which the net describes as a "combination of lightning-fast dance steps, gymnastics and martial-arts moves -- all executed with pinpoint precision while leaping through two ropes twirling at blinding speeds."
Gary Marsh, prexy of Disney Channel Worldwide, also said at the TV Critics Assn. press tour in Pasadena that the network will expand another musical show, shortform series "Johnny & the Sprites," to a full weekly half-hour. "Sprites" creator-exec producer John Tartaglia ("Avenue Q") stars in the live-action series as Johnny T, a singer-songwriter who interacts with three sprites and talking animals and flowers in a magical forest.
Composer-lyricist Stephen Schwartz ("Wicked") has written the theme song and will do other music.
"Sprites," taped at Kaufman Astoria Studios in New York, will premiere in the Playhouse Disney preschoolers block early next year.
Also in the preschoolers block, "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" picked up a second-season renewal. Disney Channel calls "Clubhouse" the first 3-D computer-animated TV series. Exec producer is Rob LaDuca ("Lilo & Stitch: The Series"), and Sherie E. Pollack is the director.
In "Jump," Bleu will be joined by Keke Palmer, star of the movie "Akeelah & the Bee," and David Reivers, Bleu's real-life father.
Exec producer is John Davis ("Doctor Dolittle," "Daddy Day Care"). Regina Hicks and Karin Gist are the writers; Paul Hoen is the director, Kevin Lafferty the producer.
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