New York’s Baboon Animation is developing a Winnie-the-Pooh prequel franchise that will play out on big and small screens starting in 2024.

First up is a CG-animated/live-action feature film that’s currently in development, with a 52 x 11-minute series in the planning stages to follow close behind.

Former DreamWorks writers Mike de Seve (Madagascar) and John Reynolds (The Mr. Peabody & Sherman Show) are co-writing the script, and de Seve will also direct. Executive producers on the project include LA-based IQI Media’s Khiow Hui Lim (founder) and Charlene Kelly (head of production).

The iconic bear first appeared in A.A. Milne and E. H. Shepard’s 1926 children’s book Winnie-the-Pooh, which entered the public domain in the US this January. Walt Disney Productions acquired select rights to the IP in 1961, developing it over the ensuing years into a vast franchise that has many screen iterations.

Speaking to Kidscreen, de Seve says the idea to adapt it again came from listening to a sped-up version of the novel’s audiobook “on the hunch that this was really witty, funny stuff that everybody usually reads too sleepy-slowly.”

“At 2x speed, it was hilarious! Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet rival Gumball and Darwin as a duo filled with ridiculous kid ideas and even worse kid execution,” he says. “For me, that’s the real Pooh, and we’re super-excited to be the ones to make that version come alive for the first time.”

With the film-and-TV approach, Baboon is taking a page from the playbook of Paddington. French prodco StudioCanal adapted this literary bear from Michael Bond’s 64-year-old classic book into two theatrical films (2014 and 2017) and an animated TV series (2020).

Baboon’s reimagining will trace the backstory of Pooh and his well-known circle of friends from the original novel, such as Christopher Robin and Piglet. Tigger, who was created in 1928 (and isn’t in the public domain yet), is likely to join the gang a little later on in this iteration’s lifecycle. “The projects will include whoever is available at the time,” de Seve says. “Tigger will probably be in the sequel to our prequel, when we make it.”