TORONTO — Corus Entertainment announced today it has purchased a majority stake in Aircraft Pictures Limited, an Academy Award- and Emmy Award-nominated production company founded in 2005 by Canadian producers Anthony Leo and Andrew Rosen, who are the company’s co-presidents.
Aircraft Pictures produces scripted content for kids, families and young adults. Recent projects include the Oscar-nominated animated feature film The Breadwinner in 2017, the Emmy-nominated live-action series Holly Hobbie for Hulu, three TV movies based on the Bruno & Boots book series by Canadian young adult fiction icon Gordon Korman, which first aired on YTV in 2017, and the recently announced animated series Summer Memories.
“Aircraft Pictures has a robust slate of family-friendly scripted projects that are poised to capitalize on market demand for that genre, and Corus’ investment will assist Aircraft Pictures in expanding its capacity for developing, financing and producing premium content, with a focus on international co-productions,” reads a Corus press release.
“Bringing Aircraft Pictures’ demonstrated creative capabilities and entrepreneurial talents into the Corus orbit will help to accelerate our strategy of expanding our global content business,” said Colin Bohm, executive vice-president of content and corporate strategy at Corus Entertainment, in the press release.
“We are thrilled to be in business with two of the most respected producers in the industry,” Bohm said.
“Andrew and I are truly fortunate to work with outstanding creative talent, exceptional co-producing partners and distributors and world-class broadcast and streaming platforms,” said Leo.
“As we plan to grow the company in new and exciting ways, the additional resources that this landmark step provides will increase the value Aircraft Pictures can extend to our partners exponentially.”
Rosen added: “Having worked with Corus for many years achieving tremendous success with the Bruno & Boots films, we’re looking forward to turning this exciting partnership into a legacy of family-friendly content that resonates with audiences around the world.”
Corus’ investment in Aircraft Pictures builds on the company’s growing content business, “with Aircraft Pictures joining venerable studio Nelvana, respected publisher Kids Can Press, and Corus Studios, each of which brings best-in-class content to leading platforms such as Nickelodeon, Discovery, the CW, Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon,” the press release says.
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