Black Sands Entertainment and Composition Media To Adapt 'Black Sands: The Seven KIngdoms' For TV
Despite some progress over recent years, the western animation industry is still overwhelmingly white. It's little wonder more and more creators of colour are deciding to tell their own stories. Black Sands Entertainment, the leading Black comic book company and Carl Reed's Composition Media have announced a multi-million dollar production deal to set a new standard for high quality content that celebrates African heritage and empowers Black youth. Their first collaboration is an adaptation of the comic book series Black Sands: The Seven Kingdoms into an anime-style TV series.
Black Sands: The Seven Kingdoms is a geopolitical story that follows a young boy named Ausar whose goal is to become the ruler of Kemet. His quest leads him to far-off lands in the ancient world. He deals with complicated issues such as wars and ancient gods that are out for his blood. Along the way he is joined by his family members Seth, Auset, and Nehbet.
Black Sands Entertainment was founded by army veterans Manuel and Geiszel Godoy and has been steadfast in its commitment to publish content that caters to Black families. The brothers secured funding from Kevin Hart and Mark Cuban after appearing on the TV series Shark Tank. This deal marks the company's first foray into animation.
Carl Reed was a producer on the Oscar-winning short Hair Love founded Composition Media earlier this year as a diverse and forward-thinking animation studio. The company is also developing 2D adult animation Bad Grandmas, animated feature Sky and Luna and Catapult Feud, based on the board game of the same name.
"We're deeply honored to collaborate with Black Sands Entertainment on such a groundbreaking project," said Reed. "We have an unparalleled opportunity to breathe life into beloved comic stories through the medium of anime, connecting youth with characters and narratives to which they can relate. This venture extends beyond mere entertainment—it's about affirming identity and igniting ambition in a generation that rightfully deserves to see themselves portrayed heroically on screen."
"We’re thrilled to be partnering with Carl Reed and Composition Media to help us reach a much larger audience and bring our Black Sands comic books to life through Anime," said Manuel Godoy, Chief Executive Officer of Black Sands Entertainment. "This is a major milestone for our company as this partnership will enable us to further fulfill our dream of showing the rich history of our people before slavery, a topic hardly ever mentioned in entertainment today."
The partnership is groundbreaking in that it allows the comic's original creators control over the property along with mutual collaboration during production. It will leverage the strength of both companies combining the creative vision and storytelling skills of Black Sands and Composition Media's imaginative and artistic expertise in the animation space.
