By: Ryan Tuchow and Sadhana Bharanidharan 

Nickelodeon tells stories with Ryan Reynolds

Nick Jr. will start airing the cozy live-action series Bedtime Stories with Ryan (pictured, 10 x 22 minutes) next month. Starring the actor as he reads bedtime stories to viewers, the show hails from his company Maximum Effort Productions (Free Guy) and Fubo Studios. It debuted on the company’s dedicated channel on Fubo in 2023. (While Fubo is a sports-focused live TV streamer, the platform also offers kid-friendly entertainment as part of its lineup.) Maximum Effort already has a good working relationship with Nick’s parent company Paramount on the film side, with upcoming kids fare like a Mighty Mouse feature and an adaptation of the book I Eat Poop in development at Paramount Animation.

France TV recruits The Inbestigators 

France Télévisions has picked up the Australian light-hearted mystery/comedy series The Inbestigators (40 x 15 minutes) from Madgic Distribution. Australian Children’s Television Foundation (ACTF) distributes the series, and Madgic represents the ACTF in French-speaking EMEA. Aimed at eight to 12s, the series revolves around four kids who solve mysteries around their neighborhood, like who messed with the school’s sprinkler system or who stole the principal’s favorite mug. ABC Australia and Netflix (it has worldwide SVOD rights) commissioned the series, which premiered in 2019.  

CJZ cracks the book-to-screen case with Friday Barnes

Australian production company CJZ has optioned the rights to adapt R.A. Spratt’s Penguin Random House children’s book series, Friday Barnes. The series spans 13 titles and focuses on Friday, an 11-year-old detective who solves all manner of mysteries, from finding missing homework to figuring out why the handsomest boy in school is out to ruin her. CJZ makes live-action scripted and unscripted programming, with a focus on murder mystery/detective stories (like My Life is Murder for Network 10 and TVNZ). 

Banijay Kids & Family to help kids shows & films grow on YouTube 

The company, which works to grow kids’ brands presence on digital, is now handling several new projects. This includes Banijay’s Simon’s Cat series, Signature Entertainment properties such as Momin, Maya the Bee specials and the film Combat Wombat, as well as Hoho Rights preschool series such as Cloud Babies and Shane the Chef. Banijay Kids & Family is tasked with growing an audience for these brands, and it’s going to be putting the content on its ZeeKay-branded network of YouTube channels (including ZeeKay Junior, ZeeKay Music and ZeeKay British Cartoons). 

ZDF picks up a film and series from Beta 

Germany’s public broadcaster has acquired the six x 27-minute series Astrid Lindgren’s Seacrow Island and the 76-minute feature film Benjamin Bat from distributor Beta Films’ Beta Kids & YA division. SVT premiered Astrid back in October, and that series drew 6.5 million views, according to a release from Beta (Sweden only has 10 million people). The series is about a family that turns a run-down rental cottage into a holiday paradise. SF Studios, SVT and The Astrid Lindgren Company (which manages and promotes the rights to the popular author’s works) co-produced the series. Benjamin Bat is a 2D-animated film about a bat who’s afraid of the dark until he meets a songbird who teaches him how to be more courageous. Storytellers Film & TV and Zelit Productions co-produced it with Avrotos and Il Luster. 

TF1, RAI Kids and RTBF renew Alice & Lewis for third season 

The trio of broadcasters has renewed Blue Spirit Productions and Italian studio Mobo’s CG-animated preschool series Alice & Lewis, which reimagines Alice in Wonderland stories. The show premiered in 2020 on TF1, and TF1 is its international distributor. The series has previously sold to Globo in Brazil, WBD EMEA and JY in China, among others. 

Image courtesy of Nickelodeon.