The Canadian Film Centre and Entertainment One have partnered to create a new program focused on fast-tracking the adaptation of existing IP into television series with strong potential to succeed internationally, it was announced Sunday at the CFC’s annual fundraiser BBQ.

The CFC/eOne Adaptation Lab, set to launch in spring 2016, is open to Canadian content creators who own the rights to creative properties that would be well-suited to TV series adaptation. The source material can originate from anywhere in the world, as long as the rights are held by and the adaptation executed by a Canadian.

The program is open to adapting a wide range of creative properties into TV shows, including comedy, theatre, stand up, novels, graphic novels, zines, web series and video games. Selected creators and their respective properties will then be put through a “bootcamp” to further refine the ideas and work closely with international experts and professionals to develop pilot scripts for their projects.

“The idea is that bootcamp will distill out from the best of the best, and then the goal from eOne is [to] commission several scripts from that,” John Morayniss (pictured), CEO of eOne Television told Playback Daily following the announcement. “The ultimate goal is that all of those scripts will end up going into production. eOne would develop that, fund it, and ultimately be the studio behind the production.”

While Morayniss noted adaptations are obviously not the only way to develop and produce internationally successful television series, projects based on an existing IP give producers good marketing and packaging options when approaching international buyers.

“There is something compelling about taking a story, a voice that is already made it in one platform and adapting it for another platform,” Morayniss said.

Photos: (top) Danilo Ursini; bottom: Tom Sandler