Toronto-based 9 Story Media Group is launching a new live-action division that will be led by Jeremy Slutskin (pictured) as the vice president of live-action development and production. He will be based in New York and report to 9 Story’s chief creative officer Angela Santomero, who is leading the division’s content strategy.

Slutskin is an Emmy-nominated producer, writer and director with more than 25 years of experience in feature films and television. Some of his major projects include co-creating and executive producing Chase Champion for Nickelodeon’s digital platforms; producing the live-action spinoff of Blue’s Clues, Blue’s Room; executive producing Sesame Street for more than 12 years; and producing Team Umizoomi. Then from 2006 to 2018, he owned and operated Hyperactive Content which produced long- and short-form content for all platform on multiple contents.

The new division will hit the ground at Kidscreen Summit next month with a slate of properties for kids ages two to 14 and their families as well as a three-series development deal with producer Tom Lynch (The Secret World of Alex Mack, Scout’s Safari and Make it Pop), and TombQuest, an interactive mixed media adventure series for ages nine to 14 based on The New York Times bestselling Scholastic book series.

Those productions join the upcoming preschool series Blue’s Clues & You for Nickelodeon, which is being produced by 9 Story’s new live-action team as well as Brown Bag Film’s animation teams.

9 Story has dipped its toe into the live-action space before with Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars and the YouTube Original Furze World Wonders, but has mainly stuck to animated content in the past. Including, deepening its longstanding relationship with PBS Kids recently with its new show Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum, a series for four- to seven-year-olds based on the bestselling children’s book series Ordinary People Change the World.

The shift into live-action follows the producer/distributor securing a deal to acquire Breakthrough Entertainment’s entire kids and family library and development slate which included 757 half hours of kids and family content, both animated and live action.

From Kidscreen