A Brand New Series in Development

Zen's Extreme Adventures.

The battle to save our future will be fought thousands of years in our past.
Created by Kim Yost · Pilot by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens
i
Zen's Story Begins

After a tragic expedition to a lost Egyptian city, a young archaeologist returns home in sorrow.

Zen survived her journey only because her beloved grandfather sacrificed his life for hers. But now, in the midst of her grief, Zen makes a startling discovery within the unusual keepsake chests, called life chests, that her grandfather has left to her as her family legacy.

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"Zen can now travel through time."

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Zen's Startling Discovery

Somehow, Zen can now travel through time.

Because of a mysterious alchemy possessed by the keepsakes in her family's life chests, Zen can now travel through time.

Even as Zen struggles to control her newfound gift, she creates a unique travel agency as a cover for missions to explore the exotic locales of the world of 2171. But her true goal is to uncover the hidden secrets of the past that could reveal how and why she's been given her gift.

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Zen's Choice

Should she risk her life and those of her team in an unwinnable war to save the future?

Or should she use her gift to go back in time to save her grandfather's life, changing the world's past simply to end her own grief?

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"Zen must ask herself: is she the one?"

iv
Team Zen

Family. And friends, or...?

Twin cousins Tien and Tam, former colleague Calvin, and a roster of friends and adversaries. Tam is the Thomas Edison of the 22nd century. The incredible bots he creates might not always work perfectly, but their unique personalities and amazing bot-abilities make them vital partners for each member of Zen's team.

The Z Team roster, all members with their biomimetic companions
The full Z Team roster, ready for battle, with their AI botpacks and shapeshifting avatars.
Zen and Cricket the Manticore
The Traveler
Zen & Cricket
After discovering her time travel gift, Zen forms an extreme adventure travel agency as a vehicle to explore the extent of her new power.
Calvin and Howard the Hydra
Friends... or...?
Calvin & Howard
Calvin is Zen's former colleague whom she holds in high regard. But when Zen discovers his loyalties are divided, everything changes.
Zelda and Nambi the Tarandus
Friends... or...?
Zelda & Nambi
Zelda's an extreme travel buff, always looking for the next thrill. She thinks Zen's team is the place to find it. She's right.
Ace and Chase the White Ape
Friends... or...?
Ace & Chase
Ace is a former Marine, wary of technology, especially despite having his own bot, a biomimetic arm. But that's a topic, and a secret, Ace will not discuss.
Tien and Phoenix the Griffin
Twin Cousin · Family+
Tien & Phoenix
Tien is fascinated by the world's many different cultures, and envies Zen's ability to experience even more cultures through time.
Tam and Roxie the Griffin
Twin Cousin · Family+
Tam & Roxie
Tam is the Thomas Edison of the 22nd century. The incredible bots he creates might not always work perfectly, but their unique personalities and amazing bot-abilities make them vital partners for each member of Zen's team.
Theo and Galen the Zheng
Zen's Connection to Atlantis
Theo & Galen
A demigod and the love of Zen's life.
Safae, Minouch and Sahar the Chimera
The Prophecy Child
Safae, Minouch & Sahar
Zen's daughter, the child destined to defeat the Crimson Dark.
Raheem and Falcon the Cretan Bull
The Wild Card
Raheem & Falcon
A renegade time traveler. Joined the team because of his love for Tien.
Kusa
Zen's Conscience
Kusa
A time-traveling Buddhist monk with a psychic connection to Zen.
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"Seven thousand years ago, Atlantis fell, and two orders walked out of the rubble."

i
The Indigo Alliance plans for battle
The Indigo Alliance Plans for Battle
The infinity symbol of the Order of the Indigo Magic
Light

The Order of the Indigo Magic.

The original guild of time travelers, gifted with Poseidon's magic and tasked with creating a just and peaceful world. Forced to defend themselves, and all of humanity, from the Crimson Dark.

c
A Crimson Dark priest with young Safae
Crimson Dark Priest with Young Safae
The snake symbol of the Crimson Dark
Shadow

The Crimson Dark.

Their powers transformed into black sorcery, Crimson Dark practitioners spread chaos and evil in every era. Their ultimate goal: the destruction of the Order and all it stands for.

7,000
Years of War
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"The fate of humanity's future depends on which side prevails."

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The Worlds

Incredible worlds of the future and the past.

The Los Angeles Archipelago, 2171. And every age before. Even as Zen struggles to control her newfound gift, she creates a unique travel agency as a cover for missions to explore the exotic locales of the world of 2171.

Present Day
The Los Angeles Archipelago, 2171.
The exotic locales of the world of 2171. Zen's travel agency is the cover for missions to explore them.
Destinations
Egypt. Bangkok. Machu Picchu. Atlantis. Morocco.
The hidden secrets of the past that could reveal how and why Zen has been given her gift.
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Zen's Adversary

There is no greater nexus of corruption.

In the world of 2171, many things are different, but some things never change. Greed and the fierce hunger for raw power at any cost still exist in this time.

There is no greater nexus of corruption than the mysterious organization known as The Syndicate. And, as it turns out, Zen once worked for them.

The Crimson Dark has found their way to 2171–and an alliance with The Syndicate. They both want to possess Zen's power, but neither knows what it really entails.

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"And, as it turns out, Zen once worked for them."

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Book 5 · Mummies

The adventurer's torch is passed to a new generation.

Zen and her Grandpa Josh discover the find of the century: an ancient Egyptian city hidden deep inside a mountain. Tragedy results, but also a new beginning for Zen as she discovers her family's connection to a powerful ancient magic.

Adventure Passport · Book 5

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The Extreme Adventures Arc

Five novels. One epic war.

Series II, Extreme Adventures, opens with Bangkok and runs through Atlantis Resurrected and Crimson Dark. Each book is a destination, a discovery, and a turn in Zen's choice.

Zen and Kusa, Bangkok cover art
Book 6 · Bangkok
Extreme Adventures: Bangkok
Zen discovers unexpected dangers on a life-changing trip to Thailand, where the magic of the ancient Dynasty chest catapults her to exotic seventeenth century Bangkok.
The team flies on their bots' jetwings inside the sacred mine
Book 7 · Machu Picchu
Extreme Adventures: Machu Picchu
While touring South America, Zen's team is forced to battle both man and nature in their attempts to uncover a hidden gold mine once revered by the Inca. Zen must also navigate the responsibilities of being a time traveler.
Zen and Theo meet
Book 8 · Atlantis Resurrected
Extreme Adventures: Atlantis Resurrected
Team ZEA has discovered a small chest filled with magical coins, and soon learns the chest is no treasure. The discovery reveals a dark side of the Indigo Magic. To find out if the threat can be stopped, Zen must be ready to explore the unbelievable: the legend of Atlantis.
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Three Series. Eleven Novels.

A built canon. One handoff.

The Life Chest Adventures, Extreme Adventures, and Infinite Adventures. Three series, eleven novels. The franchise hands off to Zen's daughter Safae in Book 11.

i
Josh discovers the family life chests
Series I
The Life Chest Adventures
Books 1 through 5. Cousins Bernie and Josh, inspired by the keepsakes in their great-great-grandfather's life chest, solve mysteries and find treasures worldwide.
ii
Zen time travels for the first time
Series II
Extreme Adventures
Books 6 through 8. Zen, Josh's granddaughter, discovers that life chest magic enables her to travel through time, and plunges her into the centuries-long war between Indigo Magic and Crimson Dark.
iii
Safae fighting Damon's snake
Book 9
Crimson Dark
The black sorcery of the Crimson Dark returns stronger than ever. It threatens everything Zen holds dear, including her child, who is prophesied to end the war at last, if she survives.
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Safae encounters the Storyteller
Book 10
Safae and the Storyteller
Zen's daughter and her friend Izza become the center of a nefarious plot by the ruthless leader of the Crimson Dark. All the while, a mysterious figure known only as The Storyteller appears to Safae, offering both wisdom and challenge.
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The Infinity Universe
Series III
Infinite Adventures: Gods of Infinity
Zen's daughter Safae, great granddaughter of the god Poseidon, is introduced to the gods' Infinity Universe. Safae must use her new powers to defend the throne of Zeus and save the earth from destruction at the hand of Hades, now allied with the Crimson Dark.
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Series III

A new universe to explore and defend

Zen's daughter Safae, great granddaughter of the god Poseidon, is introduced to the gods' Infinity Universe. Safae must use her new powers to defend the throne of Zeus and save the earth from destruction at the hand of Hades, now allied with the Crimson Dark.

Gods and Safae at the Infinity Council · Series III · Infinite Adventures · Concept Visual
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Based on the epic novels by Kim Yost.

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Market Information

Tonal comparables and audience data.

Tonal Comparable
Avatar: The Last Airbender
41.1M
Netflix views in 11 days for the 2024 live-action remake. Serialized mythology with elemental warring orders sustains family co-viewing across 20 years and three release windows.
Netflix Tudum · March 2024
Tonal Comparable
The Dragon Prince
7 seasons
Wonderstorm and Bardel Entertainment, Vancouver. CG-2D hybrid with multi-season war mythology is a proven Netflix-renewable format. Built in BC. So is this.
Bardel · Netflix Top 10 Nov 2022
Tonal Comparable
Carmen Sandiego
33M
Households in month one. Female lead chasing historical artifacts hits the 9-12 sweet spot without softening for younger audiences. Netflix proved the appetite.
Netflix disclosures · 2019
Tonal Comparable
Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts
Emmy
DreamWorks and Netflix, 2020. Annecy official selection. Female-led mythology wins critical respect and the parent-co-viewer demographic ZEA targets.
Annecy 2020 · Emmy noms
Audience
Kids 9-12 (US + Canada)
18.5M
Combined addressable. Animated programming is the #1 watched genre for 9-12s on streaming, 67% weekly reach.
US Census · StatsCan · Nielsen 2024
Audience · Co-Viewing
Parents 35-50 + Grandparents 55+
80.5M
US adults 35-50 plus 70M US grandparents. 58% of parents co-view streaming animation weekly. AARP reports $2,562 per year spent per grandchild, books and media a top-five category.
Pew · Common Sense Media · AARP 2024
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Set against incredible worlds of the future and the past.

Zen meets time travelers from across history
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Production + Distribution

Production stack and target buyers.

BC Tax Stack
PSTC + DAVE + Federal
45-55%
28% PSTC + 16% DAVE + 16% Federal. Total labour recovery, fully refundable, no cap. The BC stack alone is structurally cheaper than any US jurisdiction.
Province of BC · Telefilm · CMF · 2026
Budget · Season 1
Thirteen Episodes
$9.65–16.1M CAD
$650K to $1.1M per ep, plus development and overhead. Net cost to financier after tax credits lands in the $5.3M to $8.9M CAD range.
Industry standard · BC CG-2D hybrid half-hour
Animation Houses
Three BC Studios
Bardel Entertainment (The Dragon Prince, Rick and Morty). Atomic Cartoons (Hailey's On It!, The Last Kids on Earth). ICON Creative Studio (Hilda, Dragon Riders of Berk). All three native to the format and the lead band.
Vancouver · 2026
Distribution
Six Buyers in the Room
Netflix Animation. Disney+. Max. Paramount+ / Nickelodeon. Canadian: CBC Kids and Knowledge Network trigger CMF Convergent Stream. International: BBC and ZDF Enterprises as Tier-2 co-pro partners.
Pitched at Banff World Media Festival
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And one more thing...

Donna, Kim, and Terie in Machu Picchu, Peru
xiv
The Creative Team

A built room. No hire required.

The show arrives with the writers, the visual developer, the author, and the producers already in place. The room exists. The bible exists. The pilot exists.

Founder · Author of the Canon
Kim Yost
Started the family tradition of keeping a life chest, then made the chest the engine of an eleven-novel saga in which he appears as the cousins' great great grandfather. To get every detail right, Kim and the team travel to each location the books visit. Lives in Victoria, BC.
CEO · Life Chest
Donna Atmore
The driving force behind the team's real-world adventures. Terracotta soldiers in Xi'an, elephant rides in Thailand, abandoned Spanish castles. Donna builds the itineraries and finds the expert guides, and adds her insight and humor to the stories crafted on the road.
Continuity · The Universe
Terie Spencer
Holds the vault. As editor and writing partner Terie knows every character down to their coffee order, and shapes the visual storytelling that makes the action sing. Works by the power of the AND. Add another battle? Sure. Send the heroine through a wormhole? Done.
Pilot Scripts · Story Consultants
Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens
Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes. The William Shatner novels. Two pilot scripts, 77 pages, in hand under Snow Crow Productions.
Consulting Producer
Christopher Bautista
Creative Strategist. Creative Director, Pitch Deck Designer, and Production Designer for Zen's Extreme Adventures.
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Who will be the victor?

The Warring Guilds

Who will be the victor?The noble Order of the Indigo Magic,or the evil devotees of the Crimson Dark?

Zen will discover that the outcome rests on the fateful decisions and desperate sacrifices of a single prophesied warrior. Zen must ask herself: is she the one?
11
Published Novels
3
Series in Canon
2
Pilot Scripts, in Hand
The Life Chest Adventure Series
Victoria, BC
thelifechestadventureseries.com
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