The company is a teaming up of Niles and Denton’s longstanding work in the genre space and some of their projects. Monster Forge enters the entertainment space with a multi-platform production division bringing their monstrous library of titles and creator relationships to film, television, interactive entertainment, gaming, and merchandising.
“Comics, animation, games, and toys have grown into a cultural phenomenon over the past two decades — especially for younger generations,” said Niles. “Monster Forge will build a bridge from our own creations and those of like-minded creators’ works to film, TV, toys, games, and beyond.”
With access to Niles’ and Denton’s vast published works from years of working in comics publishing to the Actionopolis book line, Monster Forge will partner with a pool of talented artists and writers to build franchises across all media platforms and appealing to audiences of all age ranges.
The company has already established partnerships and projects with a slew of genre names, including Star Trek: Picard supervising producer Marc Bernardin, legendary toy designer James Groman (Madballs), N.W.A. co-founder Arabian Prince, BOOM Studios co-founder and Hellboy screenwriter Andrew Cosby, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator Kevin Eastman, The Grudge 3 screenwriter Brad Keene, Hack/Slash creator Tim Seeley and the estate of legendary horror illustrator Bernie Wrightson, among others.
“Horror, sci-fi, kids’ animation, Hammer films, black-and-white creature features, and modern VFX-driven genre fun is all the stuff we love and what this company is all about,” said Denton. “Some folks may hear ‘monster’ and conjure up a limited definition, but Steve and I hear that word and our minds race from Marvel’s live-action Thanos to last year’s Invisible Man to Pacific Rim to Minions to Star Wars. For us, it’s a word that leads to the beyond.”
Niles’ 30 Days was an indie comic hit that was adapted into a hit horror movie starring Josh Hartnett in 2007. His zombie comic, Remains, was released as part of Chiller Network’s Chiller Presents series while his comic October Faction was made into a series for Netflix.
Denton has worked for animation studios, toy companies, and video games on projects for Marvel, DC Entertainment, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Blizzard Entertainment, Sony, and more. His projects have been optioned for live-action and animation.
