Corus Entertainment has signed a development agreement with Duncan Studio, an L.A. based award-winning independent animation company, to produce original high-quality animated feature films for the global market.
Under the terms of the agreement, Corus’ Nelvana, a world-leading international producer and distributor of children’s animated and live action content, will invest in the development of new content created by Duncan’s in-house production division Duncan Originals as well as from Nelvana’s rich library of award-winning children’s IP, and from select third party properties. The collaboration represents an opportunity for the two companies to capitalize on growing global demand for long-form animation and for Nelvana to move more broadly into high-quality animated feature films.
The first title to be developed is Mother Nature, a character-driven, action-adventure feature film created by Duncan Studio founder Ken Duncan. The CG-animated film is a richly layered sci-fi fantasy set in a futuristic society and explores its relationship to the natural world.
“Our passion for bringing great stories to life is shared equally with our long-standing goal of expanding into animated feature films,” said Doug Murphy, President and CEO, Corus Entertainment. “We are excited to embark upon this new agreement and to leverage the acclaimed creative talents of Duncan Studio together with Nelvana’s robust portfolio of timeless, world-renowned animated characters and stories. Fully maximizing this caliber of premium animation expertise and our well-known IP advances our own more content strategy and provides us yet another path to reach audiences in new ways.”
“We are in a golden age for inventive, boundary pushing animated stories and visual concepts,” said Ken Duncan, Founder, Duncan Studio. “As Duncan Studio continues to imagine and develop new and exciting ideas and projects, our new relationship with Corus Entertainment provides the resources, scope and scale to make our creative vision a reality. As a Canadian myself, this deal is especially significant, having begun my career as an animator at Nelvana. We are thrilled to work together as we develop this slate of original films.”