diff --git a/direct/src/showbase/TaskThreaded.py b/direct/src/showbase/TaskThreaded.py
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..7cc8ab508c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/direct/src/showbase/TaskThreaded.py
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+from direct.task import Task
+
+class TaskThreaded:
+    """ derive from this if you need to do a bunch of CPU-intensive
+    processing and you don't want to hang up the show. Lets you break
+    up the processing over multiple frames """
+    _Serial = SerialNum()
+    
+    def __init__(self, name, threaded=True):
+        self._name = name
+        self._threaded=threaded
+        self._taskNames = set()
+
+    def destroy(self):
+        for taskName in self._taskNames:
+            taskMgr.remove(taskName)
+
+    def scheduleNext(self, callback):
+        if not self._threaded:
+            callback()
+        else:
+            taskName = ('%s-ThreadedTask-%s' %
+                        (self._name, TaskThreaded._Serial.next()))
+            assert taskName not in self._taskNames
+            self._taskNames.add(taskName)
+            taskMgr.add(Functor(self._doCallback, callback, taskName),
+                        taskName)
+
+    def _doCallback(self, callback, taskName, task):
+        self._taskNames.remove(taskName)
+        callback()
+        return Task.done