Georgia Hollywood Review January 2020

LOCAL STUDIO

META Studios By Je s s i ca Badour

T he nature of Paul Jenkins’s upbringing lends itself to the creative storyteller within. The U.K. native was raised by his mum on a farm in the British countryside. Growing up without electricity, he and his younger brother befriended nearby gypsy children, and imagination was the key to entertainment. “I was a bright child who was constantly inventing stories, comics, and making things up. It was all very conducive to creativity, and all that has made it into my work today,” Jenkins says. “Growing up in the magic of that U.K. countryside, you’d never imagine a kid like that coming here to the U.S. and doing the things I’ve done.” He moved across the pond in 1987. Shortly after landing in Massachusetts, he worked with Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird on their Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; originally to help publish, but quickly learning to license Intellectual Property rights as the books exploded into a film and video game franchise. “When 23 I became director of Kevin’s publishing company; as well as head of licensing and their editor- in-chief. In those circumstances, you either explode or fail…or maybe, just maybe, you swim,” he says. “I

was the youngest on the team and I was aware of that. I always said to everyone: ‘I’m here because we’ve done well collectively’, and that’s still my management style.” From there, Jenkins continued advocating creators’ rights at Mirage Studios and Tundra Publishing, where he witnessed the drafting of the Creators Bill of Rights. After that, he decided to move into freelancing and go out on his own, first with the Hellblazer comic (a gig he landed by approaching the editor at LA’s Comicon); and then at Marvel, where he worked on nearly every legendary comic character (S pider-Man, Batman, The Incredible Hulk, Wolverine: Origin – just to name a few). “Our work at META Studios follows a lot of what I was doing for Marvel. I wanted to bring that here to Georgia,” Jenkins explains. “I like it here and there’s so much that can be done, as much as we can be in film; and be independent. I want us to think differently.” META Studios in Atlanta is working to be an industry leader for Georgia’s cross-media development and production. The incubator was established in 2014 and continues making strides in all-things media; from graphic novels and books to film and TV, animation and video games, to virtual and variable reality projects.

Throughout his 25-plus year career, Jenkins has learned his passion lies in the value of the story and nurturing the creators behind it.

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