Sheldon Wiseman, president and ceo of Ottawa toonco Amberwood Entertainment, and renowned actor Leslie Nielsen have created a joint venture worth $150 million that will produce 390 half-hours of animated programming for tv, three animated features and one live-action film starring Nielsen over the next five years.

The new venture, which will be managed by Amberwood and also be involved in the distribution and acquisition of programming, has been set up, in part, to eventually buy Wiseman’s former Lacewood library from PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The library, consisting of roughly 150 hours of animated programming, including 39 episodes of Katie and Orbie (pbs, Family Channel), was taken over by now-defunct Paragon Entertainment when Wiseman failed to repay a $2.5-million debt in 1997. When Paragon folded the following year, the Lacewood assets were transferred to trustee PricewaterhouseCoopers.

An announcement regarding the acquisition of Lacewood is expected within the next couple of months.

Meantime, Wiseman says, ‘[the new joint venture] will permit Amberwood to expand its children’s and family programming very quickly.’

Although details on the new slate were not available, the new venture’s first production is expected to be underway this summer.