A pple TV+ has picked up the 2D-animated kids series Pinecone & Pony (pictured), produced by DreamWorks Animation and Toronto-based prodco First Generation Films (The Artists: The Pioneers Behind the Pixels), with Stephanie Kaliner as executive producer and showrunner. The 8 x 30-minute series is based on the book of the same name by Canadian author and comic-book creator Kate Beaton.

Beaton, Christina Piovesan and Mackenzie Lush are attached as executive producers on the series, about a young girl named Pinecone who sets out to become a warrior. With her Pony best friend at her side, she discovers that warriors can come in all sorts of shapes and sizes.

Sovimage

U.S. distributor Olympusat has acquired all four seasons of the Quebec crime drama series Faits divers. Encore Télévision-Distribution, Videoplugger and production house Sovimage say the 32 x 45-minute episodes will soon be broadcast across all Latin America as well as in the U.S. with subtitles and dubbed into Spanish, Portuguese and English.

First broadcast on Radio-Canada, Faits Divers is written by Joanne Arseneau, directed by Stéphane Lapointe and stars Isabelle Blais, Émile Proulx-Cloutier and Patrick Hivon. The series is currently available on ICI Tou.TV Extra and on CBC Gem with English subtitles. Adaptation rights have already been acquired in France.

Underknown

Toronto-based digital-first media company Underknown has acquired the popular science, philosophy and psychology YouTube channel Aperture. The collection of video essays becomes the eighth series in Underknown’s expanding brand portfolio of shows focused on science and the humanities.

Aperture will now also be published across Underknown’s network on Facebook and Snapchat. Other series in Underknown’s portfolio include the Webby-winning What If; How to Survive; Your Body On; Origins of Food; Crazy Creatures; What If Kids; and VS.

Underknown’s short-form series What If was optioned by Thunderbird Entertainment in 2020 to be developed into a premium unscripted series. San Andreas director Brad Peyton, who hails from Gander, Nfld., and U.S. scientist Michio Kaku joined the project in late 2021.

With files from Kidscreen