California-based Duncan Studio has signed a development deal with Corus Entertainment’s Nelvana for original features. Nelvana is investing in high-quality animated feature films and will develop features from Duncan Originals, the studio’s in-house production division, as well as films based on its library of children’s IP and select third-party properties.
“Our passion for bringing great stories to life is shared equally with our long-standing goal of expanding into animated feature films,” said Corus Entertainment president and CEO Doug Murphy. “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 maximising 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.”
The first title to be developed is Mother Nature, a character-driven action adventure created by Duncan. The CG feature is a richly layered sci-fi fantasy set in a futuristic society and explores its relationship to the natural world.
“We are in a golden age for inventive, boundary pushing animated stories and visual concepts,” said Duncan Studio founder Ken Duncan. “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.”
Duncan Studio, which has more than a decade of experience as a service studio on films like 9, Mary Poppins Returns and The Nut Job, expanded last year to create its own IPs with the launch of Duncan Originals.
