CANNES – Corus Entertainment is teaming up with U.S. studio Bento Box Entertainment on a new animation production company to be known as Bento Box Canada.
Bento Box Entertainment is known for producing the Emmy award-winning series Bob's Burgers, as well as Brickleberry, The Awesomes, Allen Gregory, and Out There.
Based in Toronto at Corus Quay, home to Corus and its production company Nelvana, the joint venture will see the two organizations work together to develop and produce original, primetime animated series for Corus networks that will be distributed internationally by Bento Box Entertainment. First up is a new series called The Pandas, billed as irreverent, animated family comedy full of hard jokes, whimsical wonder, biting satire and just the right amount of heart.
“Over the past year, our teams at Corus and Bento Box Entertainment have been collaborating on a creative pipeline that will see a raft of edgy new animated series come to light for 2016,” said Nelvana president Scott Dyer, in the news release. “We’re excited to be bringing two world-class teams together to produce fresh new content for the savvy, millennial demographic.”
“Bento Box Entertainment is thrilled to be joining forces with Corus to develop a creative slate of primetime animated programming,” added Bento Box Entertainment co-founder and CEO Scott Greenberg. “The Pandas is an ideal first project to launch this collaboration as it brings together a team of strong creators in (Mikael) Wulff and (Anders) Morgenthaler, as well as the production expertise of both Bento Box Entertainment and Corus.”
Bento Box Canada’s board of directors will include Dyer, Greenberg, and Colin Bohm, executive vice president and head of Corus Kids. Along with other executives from Corus, Nelvana and Bento Box Entertainment, the board will provide strategic leadership and assist in growing the production slate.
