Tintin Forums

It now appears that the Blake & Mortimer TV Series DVD is out of print in the UK and is going for nearly £100 second-hand. I purchased my copy years ago for £3.
It's a great little series that is very similar to the early 90's Tintin series.
I wonder why there seems to be zero interest in this series?
I certainly can't recall the show ever being on UK TV.

Yes, I agree it is a really good production, which in some cases improves the stories, as they really rattle along on screen, when they can drag a bit on the page (there's a lot more dialogue-heavy pages in B&M than Tintin). It's also interesting that, being prior to the "new" books produced by later writers and artists, they also chose to introduce some original adventures to expand the run of the cartoon.

I don't know if there is "zero" interest (presumably if someone is willing to pay £100 to watch it they would be interested) but the characters do remain pretty much unknown this side of the channel, so perhaps the biggest surprise was that they got a release here at all?

Part of the reason that they are now out of print might be that Anchor Bay is no longer in existence; its parent company in the US was swallowed up by a takeover deal by Lionsgate.
The UK arm was sold separately, and has since changed its name to Platform Entertainment, then sold to Kaleidoscope.
The rights may still be tied up in there somewhere, but might have gone with Lionsgate, rather than Platform; or they may have been retained by the UK company, which may not have got around to using them, or don't see it as a product that fits with the direction they are taking. Business is complicated!
I think that they were also unavailable in France for a while, so there could be some other issue at stake too - the film rights for the books have been in development hell for a couple of decades at least, so if those are somehow caught up with the cartoon series, that might make a release complicated. The positive from that is that we might finally get a movie! :-)

True. Was it ever even broadcast in the UK?


In about 25 years perhaps.

Well, the rights are currently with Belga Films, who announced in 2015 that a Blake & Mortimer project was in the pipeline (this is different to the two previous attempts to mount an adaptation of The Yellow 'M'); the script is said to be being developed by Jaco Van Dormael and Thomas Gunzig.
Interestingly, Belga Films have also recently announced that they have made a distribution deal for their output in some territories with Lionsgate - so, as I speculated above, there may still be some connection of that company to the Blake & Mortimer screen adaptation rights...