London-based Serious Kids has teamed up with Ottawa’s Mercury Filmworks for the first time in a coproduction deal for CG-animated special A Mouse Called Julian (30 minutes), which Serious will distribute globally.
Both partners are planning to introduce the book-based project to buyers and investors at Kidscreen Summit in February 2024 in hopes of raising more financing. Mercury is also developing a spinoff series.
A Mouse Called Julian originated as a picture book from Brit author Joe Todd-Stanton, telling the story of a shy mouse who befriends a fox. It was first published in 2019 by Flying Eye Books and has since been translated into 19 languages.
Flying Eye and Mercury have already struck gold together as partners on Hilda, an adaptation of Luke Pearson’s graphic novel series that Mercury produced for Netflix (season three dropped worldwide on Dec. 7).
A Mouse Called Julian is the first CG-animated project for Mercury, which is on a mission to expand beyond 2D animation in order to meet demand from service clients and create proprietary content with a fresh look. The Ottawa-based studio is currently developing several other CG-animated series, including Pangors of Puddle Peak and Octicorn & Friends, the latter of which is a copro with France’s Stim Studio.
This story originally appeared in Kidscreen
Photo courtesy of Mercury Filmworks