Catalyst Entertainment’s international affiliate The Britt Allcroft Company has been busy lately striking programming and distribution deals with Nickelodeon, Paramount and Disney.

As part of an ongoing plan to promote Thomas the Tank Engine’s feature film debut, Thomas and the Magic Railroad, the London, Eng.-based entertainment company has licensed Shining Time Station to Nickelodeon in the u.s. for an exclusive summer run.

As such, Thomas the Tank Engine, an integral part of the Shining Time Station package, will appear on Nick Junior every weekday starting in June.

The following month, Thomas and the Magic Railroad, a coproduction between Gullane Pictures (a wholly owned Britt Allcroft prodco in the u.s.) and Destination Films, starring Peter Fonda, Mara Wilson and Alec Baldwin, will launch simultaneously in more than 2,000 theatres in the u.s., u.k. and Canada. The film has also been sold to Japan, Germany, Australia, South Africa, Portugal and the Middle East, where it will be released at a later, unspecified date.

Catalyst ceo Charles Falzon and president Nancy Chapelle serve as exec producers on the us$20-million film.

Alliance Atlantis Communications has Canadian distribution, Icon is distributing in the u.k. and Allcroft has worldwide.

As part of a 15-year distribution deal with Paramount, 39 half-hour episodes of Allcroft’s preschool animated series Mumfie will be brought to video in North America. Paramount will release two videos a year in the u.s. and Canada during the first two years of the deal.

Finally, Walt Disney Company has commissioned Britt Allcroft to produce an additional 104, 20-minute episodes of the award-winning series Art Attack, which the company acquired through its recent $32-million purchase of u.k.-based Media Merchants.

The new episodes, to be delivered in December, are for the Latin American market – 52 will be produced in Latin Spanish and 52 will be produced in Brazilian Portuguese.

Earlier this year, Allcroft acquired 50% the hit u.k. series Sooty from Sooty Productions.