MAXUS: THE NEW KING

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CAREER CHALLENGES
The MAXUS: THE NEW KING story

NEIL’S NEWSLETTER

The Creation of MAXUS: THE NEW KING story

Ten years ago I accidentally wound up creating an animation superhero from Africa. When I say accidentally, I mean without intent.

As a side note, I have found that some of my very best ideas and career choices have been accidental or without intent.  It seems as though manifesting happens when there is neither a “must do” or a “must avoid.”  But that’s a subject for another newsletter.

Back to my animation story.

There I was sitting at my dining room table in Nairobi, Kenya with an artist and his business partner.  The two of them had approached me with the desire to do an animated series at an astonishingly reasonable rate.

Much to my surprise, they didn’t have any ideas for characters or a story.  I mean, they came to me and thought I had an idea!

I knew pretty much zero about animation then.  I had heard it was expensive without any hands-on knowledge.  But that was all I knew.  So when these two entrepreneurs said what their budget was for a half hour episode, I was surprised at how doable it was and could be sold to even the local Kenyan market.

In my mind, I attributed this low fee to Kenyan labour costs.

Wow!  Was I wrong!

Their budget, which was born out of ignorance and desire, was about one-tenth of what it actually cost.

While sitting there shocked at my dining room table of them coming to me without an idea, I threw out the name Makmende - a name I had heard bantered around while I was on set directing a Kenyan drama series ‘Higher Learning’ five years prior.  At the time, the Nairobi crew kept repeating this name ‘Makmende’ which was followed up by laughter and some Swahili.

After hearing it so many times, I had to ask, “What does Makmende mean?”  I was promptly told that Makmende was a Kenyan superhero.

That was that.

Three years later while directing another Kenyan drama series entitled ‘Rush,’ I cast an actor who, as it turns out, played Makmende in a music video.  It was that video that the crew was referring to three years prior as it was a new release then.

Again, I didn’t really know anything about Makmende other than this new information that it was a music video.

Back to the dining room table.

When the artist and his business partner had no ideas, I blurted out, “Makmende.  Let’s find out who owns Makmende. Check the copyright office.”

Nothing turned up at the copyright office.

At this point in 2015, I knew there were absolutely no African animations for kids let alone an African superhero animation.

I gave the go ahead to start making drawings of characters I created.  There was a bit of a team effort but I was creating and directing it.

I liked the drawings of the characters and posted them online.  Within a day or two, the band that made the Makmende video sent me a “Cease and Desist” letter.  No problem.  I would change the name since our characters, including the lead, were nothing like what they had in their video which, of course, meant my story was nothing even remotely similar to theirs.

Also, I did some research and found out where the name Makmende came from.  Remember the old Dirty Harry movies where Clint Eastwood would point his gigantic hand gun at a bad guy and say, “Make my day!”?  Well Kenyans turned that line of Clint’s into “Makmende.”  Kenyans have a fantastic sense of humour.

I managed to get investors to help me finance an eleven minute animation and I called is Machismo.  I thought the name sounded cool.  But there was trouble ahead with that name too.

I got the video accepted into an animation film festival in Johannesburg, South Africa.  It then got noticed by the Paris office of Turner (Cartoon Network).  Exciting!!

After two meetings with the Turner rep one year apart, I received a devastating critique - “You’re characters are too classic and Machismo means misogynist in Europe.”

I almost quit.

After I licked my wounds, I changed the name to Maxus, found an incredible visual artist who was doing comic books named Rishwealth Orphan (yep, his legal name) in Soweto, South Africa and revamped the story.

I raised more money, found a very competent animation crew headed up by Segun Kolade in Lagos, Nigeria and hired awesome talented actors in Kenya for the voices - Olive Tambwe, Nick Ndeda, Brenda Wairimu and Samuel Murega.

I had written a kick-ass thirty minute pilot episode with help from Olive Tambwe and Ian Kimanje to ensure it was completely authentically African.

But, I didn’t have the funding to make the pilot.

Maxus was pitched everywhere it seemed - studios, broadcast companies, bigger independent production companies, etc.  No one wanted it.

What to do?  Quit?  Not a chance.  I was fired up.

It so happened another producer I knew was putting together a big marketing campaign for a company based in the USA to sell their products in Africa.  He pitched to that company in the USA the idea of using various animated short episodes to help promoted their products online.  He asked me if I was interested.  I was.

I extracted out of my thirty minute pilot episode I wrote, a three minute script that could work as a pilot episode of a web series.

The producer I knew liked it and pitched it to the company.  They, too, liked it but were hesitant about moving forward with this proposed marketing strategy.

I decided, at great risk, to used the funding I raised earlier and some of my own money to make the pilot webisode anyway.  Even without their go ahead.  I was betting that the USA company would see it and be convinced to go ahead.

That did not work out.

I got it made alright but the company completely changed their course.

At least I had the pilot episode of the web series done.

Now what?

I pitched and pitched and pitched.

Nothing.

One day I spotted a notice that was posted in an fb group I was part of, the Edmonton Canada Filmmaker group.  (I’m a member of a lot of these fb groups across Canada and elsewhere.). It was from a company called Kold Open stating they were looking for web series to distribute.

Since I had only one episode I wasn’t too sure if they would be interested but I sent it anyway.

Their team reviewed it and accepted it, agreeing to represent Maxus to American studios and broadcasters.

That was a year ago.  As a result of their hard work at Kold Open, this weekend, March 1, 2025 MAXUS: THE NEW KING will premiere on Fox SOUL at 6 p.m. Pacific Standard Time.

I invite you all to log on to www.foxsoul.tv and watch this little beauty and enjoy the action.

If you have a project you’re developing or a dream career you are establishing, don’t give up like I almost did.

Will Maxus become a TV series?  I have a TV pilot script.  Will Maxus become a movie?  I have written a feature film screenplay.

In my mind, MAXUS: THE NEW KING will be a web series, a TV series, a feature film and a comic book, not only for Kenyan kids and Africa kids to enjoy but for all kids everywhere.