“This film made milk come out my nose, but at the time, I was drinking beer!”
-Victor Varnardo, actor, “My Name Is Earl,” “End of Days,” “Late Night with ConanO’Brien”

“Inventive…hilarious…daring…goes where no puppet crime-show has ever gone before” - Perry Grebin, director, “American Cannibal”

“Clever…twisted…what would happen if the Brothers Grimm directed Crank Yankers.” -Joshua Neuman, publisher, Heeb Magazine

“Humor, drama…and vomit!” - Liv L’raynge, singer, Soulspazm Records

“Mr. Dead is reminiscent of Clark Gable in Gone With the Wind and Ralphus, the midget from Bloodsucking Freaks.” -Prince Paul, producer and DJ

ABOUT THE SHOW
FTI: Fairy Tales Investigated is the first TV series that blends fairy tales, forensic science and comedy, realized in the fast-paced style of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and using a mixture of human actors with Muppet-style puppets.
“For the first episode, ‘Little Red Rosenfeld,’ we’ve taken the classic fairy tale of Little Red Riding Hood and re-imagined it as a crime, investigated CSI-style,” says creator Ben Fine. “The title character is a tough-talking party girl who ends up in a tequila fueled fiasco with an opera-loving wolf she met on J-Date. The wolf gets framed as granny’s killer.”

CONCEPTS AND MARKETING
Ideas for future episodes include re-workings of such classic fairy tales like Jack and the Beanstalk, Hansel and Gretel and Sleeping Beauty and the Seven Dwarves. “With hundreds of popular fairy tales to inspire future shows, FTI: Fairy Tales Investigated has no shortage of material,” says Fine. Some of the most-watched primetime shows are crime dramas (Without a Trace, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Law & Order, NCIS, and CSI: Miami). Recent comedies with puppets include Comedy Central’s acclaimed Crank Yankers and the Tony awardwinning musical Avenue Q. “Combining these elements and using classic stories that are well-known in many cultures,” says Fine, “FTI is uniquely situated to have broad crossover appeal.” Episode 1, “Little Red Rosenfeld,” has been submitted to the Downtown Film Festival in Los Angeles, the Rooftop Films Festival in New York, the First Sundays Short Comedy Festival in Chicago and the Orlando Film Festival.

PRODUCTION AND CREW
Written, produced and directed by FTI creator Ben Fine, the debut episode was shot in New York City and upstate New York and features performances by Scott Sowers (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, The Black Donnellys) and Mr. Dead, a former XM Radio DJ who has performed with De La Soul producer Prince Paul’s hip-hop group Handsome Boy Modeling School. The crew includes cinematographer Rick Lopez (Strange Girls, Swedish Auto), producer Crystal Whelan (Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, Herbie Hancock: Possibilities), Emmy-nominated editor Amanda Zinoman (Now with Bill Moyers, Frontline) and editor Jeremy Siefer (Nova, Weird U.S.). The puppets were fabricated by master puppeteer Louay Assaf (Aladdin, Angels in America), a former set designer and puppetry consultant for the Performing Arts Center and Theatre School of the Queen Noor Al Hussein Foundation in Amman, Jordan. FTI’s original music was composed by Matt Hauser of Big Foote Music and Sound (Independent Lens: Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room).

ABOUT THE CREATOR
FTI: Fairy Tales Investigated creator Ben Fine is also the co-founder of Studio Iodyne, a digital production company that promotes new media collaborations between cinema, stop-motion animation and puppetry. Ben has directed stop-motion commercials for Nike and Puma as well as promotional spots for VH1, MTV and PBS. In addition to producing the music video for the song “Pin” for the Grammy-nominated band Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Ben has co-produced several short comedy films, including The Rise and Fall of Dix with Prince Paul. He was one of the lead animators for the Miramax documentary Naqoyqatsi, and also served as the animation director for the Academy Award-nominated Independent Lens documentary Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room.