London -- Silvergate Media has secured several major new pre-sale deals for Peter Rabbit, its brand new CGI animated series, co-owned with Penguin UK. Deals have been secured with ABC TV Australia, France Television, RTE Ireland, SVT Sweden, NRK Norway and Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE following a deal with CBeebies in the UK.
The series, co-produced with Penguin UK and Nickelodeon US consists of 50 x 11’ and three half-hour specials and will launch in 2013 in the US, UK, France and Australia. A half-hour Christmas Special, Peter Rabbit’s Christmas Tale, premiered in December 2012. The premieres on Nickelodeon in the US, CBeebies and BBC One in the UK and ABC TV in Australia drew excellent audience numbers in advance of the series launch in 2013.
Mary Durkan, CEO at Silvergate Media says: “We are incredibly proud to have been charged with re-imagining the world of Beatrix Potter for a contemporary children’s audience and we’re genuinely thrilled that key global broadcast partners are already on board. We look forward to announcing further deals shortly.”
The new animated Peter Rabbit is produced by Brown Bag Films and Executive Produced by Silvergate Media’s Paula Rosenthal. The addition of UK writing team Nick Ostler and Mark Huckerby have helped define the series with an authentically British voice. They infused Peter with wit, charm and a hint of mischief, writing stories full of adventure and danger that remain appropriate for today’s pre-schoolers.
Paula Rosenthal says: “Having grown up with The Tale of Peter Rabbit, developing the property for broadcast has been both daunting and exhilarating. In Peter we found a character to whom children could connect; and in Potter's world, endless fodder for rich, heartfelt stories of friendship and adventure. From the first, we were committed to delivering something that was a true reflection of Potter's work and the extraordinary attention to detail is apparent in every frame and testament to the amazing work of a crew that spans cultures, locations and demographics.”
David McCamley, Series Director at Brown Bag films adds: “To work on a project as beloved as Peter Rabbit was a real honour for us all. For the series we created our own software to produce a realistic fur simulation for the characters which helps gives the series such a unique look and brings the much-loved characters to life.”
Silvergate Media holds worldwide licensing and merchandising rights for the Classic Peter Rabbit and holds all audiovisual, licensing and merchandising rights for the new CGI Peter Rabbit worldwide, excluding the Americas and India which are controlled by Nickelodeon US. Penguin will be supporting the animation in 2013 with a full publishing programme with other licensed merchandise to follow.
Source: Silvergate Media