Colin O'Donoghue

Ex Hornsey College of Art, in 1994 at Elstree Film Studios, I was designing my patented character Disney clocks, when Hunchback and Pocahontas tolled the end of the Disney Renaissance. The need for a traditional fairytale was in the air and the feud between Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg gave me the idea of a castle in turmoil, threatened not only by an external force but internal strife, rescued in part by the Wixy Witches on jet brooms, to interest the toy trade. I was also working with Lego designing their clocks and watches.

Katzenberg had just left Disney but replied he was busy building a studio, which turned out to be Dreamworks and went on to do ‘Shrek’. Warners declined as they were already into production with ‘The Quest for Camelot’. Hasbro said come back with the TV series.

Despite rejection, the concept of a Disney castle in decline never left me and the corruption, which weakened its defence, now had a very international relevance. So when in 2018 the London Borough of Barnet began illegally charging for refuse collection I began to see how to bring a corrupt court to life, not in typical fantasy fashion where a wand is all you need, but as the Saga of Draxfort, a satire of our modern world including banking crisis, fiat currency, fashion, religion and Veblen goods. Men don’t read, they play computer games, the market for novels is 80/20 female, so Draxfort revolves around the dilemma of princess who is a ‘real’ princess but also involves invention and the art of little known but greatly copied, Angelo d’Antangelo, godfather of the Italian Renaissance, inventor of ‘Blockism’.

I’ve written a few granted patents, which is why I have no problem reading law. After internationally patenting a pop-up display, which Warners used for Batman, Disney for Tangled, Rockstar for Grand Theft Auto and greatly used by Morrisons Supermarkets, I published ‘DIY Patent Online,’ as a hyperlinked Kindle to help new inventors understand international patenting. Amazon comments are more than I could have hoped for.

In business I’ve kept two fairytales in mind, firstly the ‘Little Red Hen,’ who nobody helps bake her cake but everyone wants a slice - moral - create your presentations the very best you can because NO is always the easy answer. The second fairytale is ‘The Pied Piper of Hamelin,’ - moral - deal honestly and never underestimate who you are dealing with.

The traditional piper story is not a big enough for Hollywood, which is my focus, however meeting Barnet stonewalling and rejection from every government agency, as well as discovering three months after Hamelin’s children were recorded as lost, Hamburg burnt down to the ground, took me off in a quite unexpected direction.

The piper now has a key role in ‘Rats,’ a much bigger story about Saxony and the Holy Roman Empire in 1284, which has all the stunts and retribution Hollywood needs for a major investment.

I’ve been a creative all my life, as thrilled at the age of eight discovering poster paints, as I am today up to my neck in the latest technology, the possibilities are truly fantastic but we all have to step up to another level and that takes lots of effort.

Ambition - to see Draxenland as a similar venue to the World of Harry Potter in Leavesden, a truly magnificent creative effort.