Apple has inked a multi-year overall deal with Skydance Animation to create animated features and TV series, and the partners have already lined up two films and a new show for Apple TV+.
The streamer has ordered two seasons of Skydance’s animated series The Search for WondLA, based on Tony DiTerlizzi’s book series of the same name. Lauren Montgomery (Santiago of the Seas, The Legend of Korra) is showrunner, writer and exec producer on the adaptation, with DiTerlizzi, Chad Quant and LA’s Gotham Group (The Spiderwick Chronicles, Maze Runner) attached as EPs.
The science fiction/fantasy series follows along as a young girl who’s been raised by a robot embarks on a quest to find other humans inhabiting a now desolate planet earth. Episode count, length and delivery details had not been announced at press time.
Skydance is set to deliver previously announced features Luck and Spellbound to Apple+ in 2022. Peggy Holmes is directing Luck, and Kiel Murray is writing a script for the film in which the unluckiest girl in the world teams up with magical creatures to discover a force more powerful than good fortune.
Spellbound, meanwhile, is an animated musical about a young girl who goes on an epic journey to break a spell that has divided her kingdom. Vicky Jenson is directing, with Lauren Hynek, Elizabeth Martin and Linda Woolverton attached as writers. Oscar-winning musician Alan Menken is composing the pic’s original score.
In other Apple+ news, the streamer recently greenlit Sinking Ship’s Jane, based on the life of a young Jane Goodall. And in spring 2020, it inked a deal with The Jim Henson Company for new live-action puppet series Fraggle Rock: Rock On!