Blue Ant Studios has struck a deal with Canberra-headquartered WildBear Entertainment to finance three factual series.

The deal was announced today (Dec. 9) at the World Congress of Science and Factual Producers in Morocco. It was brokered between Lilla Hurst, Blue Ant’s global head of acquisitions and content strategy; and Edwina Thring of Wild Thring Media on behalf of WildBear. The agreement covers 18 hours in total in the history and engineering genres, with the projects due in Q3 2025.

The 6 x 60-minute series are Secrets of the Lost Cities, which examines ancient cities such as Thebes; World War II: History on Trial, which follows the postwar court trials across the 20th century; and Engineered by Catastrophe, which presents the world’s latest failsafe structures and delves into the historical disasters that led to their creation.

WildBear is in production on the series, led by WildBear CEO and executive producer Michael Tear (pictured, right). Blue Ant will retain worldwide distribution rights and Hurst will serve as an executive producer for all three series.

Blue Ant has been exploring investing in different financial models to bring titles to the screen, according to Blue Ant Studios co-president Mark Bishop (pictured, left) in a statement.

“We know that [WildBear’s] programming is extremely well-produced and always in demand … So, while greenlighting these 18 hours could be considered a risk, working with a trusted partner like WildBear mitigates that risk and ensures we continue to fuel our pipeline with the sort of great factual series that buyers are seeking,” said Bishop.

“This support not only demonstrates confidence in our productions but also greatly speeds up the process and allows us to quickly get series into the marketplace at a time when commissioning decisions are being made rather slowly,” added Tear.

Image courtesy of Blue Ant Studios