"Totally Spies" Totally Comes to Big Screen

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France’s Marathon Media is bringing its animated TV series Totally Spies! to the big screen, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Co-produced by Orange’s Studio 37, the $12 million movie will feature a blend of 2D and 3D animation to explore how three teenage girls from Beverly Hills accidentally became international secret agents.

Totally Spies! The Movie is being described as “Clueless meets James Bond” as Groupe Un works to drum up international sales at the Cannes film market. The pic has already been pre-sold to films de l'Elysee in Benelux, Mikado in Italy and SPI in Eastern Europe. Mars Distribution plans to release the film in France in the summer of 2009.

The highest-rated animated series on France’s TF1, Totally Spies! is also a hit around the world. It airs in more than 166 territories and has built a strong fan base over five seasons. In 2005, Clover, Alex and Sam made their feature-length debut in a made-for-TV movie titled Totally Spies: Evil Promotion Much?, which aired in the U.S. on Cartoon Network. The series was created by key Marathon Media execs Vincent Chalvon-Demersay and David Michel. Michel describes the new movie as "Clueless meets James Bond."

This new movie is the first theatrical release for Marathon, which reportedly has two other features in development. Studio 37 is backing a feature film based on the hip-hop animated TV series Les Lascars (Round da Way) from Millimages. The movie is slated to debut in French theaters in May of 2009.