Vancouver digital studio Rainmaker Entertainment is getting into original animated feature production.

Former DreamWorks Animation cartoonist Jacob Medjuck has been hired to write the screenplay for Ogo, a comedy-driven theatrical feature.

Other original toon projects in Rainmaker¹s pipeline include Ting & Juma: Journey, a feature that stars Rainmaker¹s two mascots, and Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes, three half-hour animated holiday specials for broadcast and DVD distribution.

Bernice Vanderlaan (Life With Derek) will write a screenplay for the Country Bunny project, which is based on the 1939 kids book by American author DuBose Heyward that Rainmaker optioned.

The Canadian producer is currently fielding pitches from prospective writers for the Ting & Juma project.

Former Lucasfilm Animation executive producer Catherine Winder told Playback Daily that the slate of proprietary animation aims to steer Rainmaker away from solely doing visual effects and animation on fee-for-work basis, without owning original rights.

‘We’ve shifted as a company from being strictly a service provider to return to our roots as an innovative story-teller,’ she said, pointing to Rainmaker-predecessor Mainframe Entertainment and its original ReBoot CG animated series.

The three projects are the first original family content out of Rainmaker since Winder became company president and executive producer a year ago.

Winder led a recent Rainmaker road show in Los Angeles and Toronto to showcase its new original projects, and possibly bring on board potential distribution partners.

Rainmaker expects to have its first animated feature out in two years.

Rainmaker is also looking to expand its fee-for-work business with U.S. producers. The digital studio is currently producing two direct-to-DVD Barbie films for Mattel.