People

 Beyond Entertainment, part of content powerhouse, Banijay, today announces it has entered into a new partnership with independent animation and creative studio, Custom Nuts.

The partners have agreed a slate development deal to co-produce cutting-edge animated series for the international market, with the first three projects (Jock and Sunny, Shape & Shapers and Classical Chaos) launching this month at Kidscreen. Further developments will be added from the pipeline through 2023 and into future years.

Melinda Wearne, Beyond Entertainment's executive charged with scripted development and production across kids and premium drama, has been driving the new relationship. With a wealth of experience, she has overseen the production of numerous award-winning animated and live-action series for prominent networks including Warner Media, Netflix, ABC and China’s CCTV. These include Netflix Original Beat Bugs, winner of the 2017 Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Writing in a Pre-school Animated Program, Motown Magic for Netflix, and Hoopla Doopla, a co-production between ABC and CCTV in China, which she also created.

Custom Nuts was co-founded in 2019 by Silas Hickey (formerly APAC regional head of development and original production at WBD’s Cartoon Network) and Matthew Howison. With a diverse slate of original and co-developed content with major studios and media platforms across the APAC region and beyond, the company was established to combine the best of Japanese anime and western cartoons into a new kind of hybrid animated entertainment. Based in Tokyo, it also has offices in Hong Kong and Los Angeles.

Beyond Custom Nuts’ launch slate
Jock and Sunny: (52 x 7) anime hybrid Sci-Fi slapstick-comedy for kids with strong co-viewing potential.
Jock and Sunny are stranded in a fantasy sci-fi version of Tokyo and must survive shady odd jobs, the local rock scene and deportation if they’re ever going to build awesome new lives.

Shape & Shapers: (26 x 11) factual / slapstick anime for a 13+ audience.
An anime inspired series about surfing, subculture, and the evolution of the modern surfboard.

Classical Chaos: 26 x 11-minute episodes and feature-length specials for kids with strong co-viewing potential.
A specially curated collection of kid-relatable animated classic literary adaptations, combining the aesthetics of anime and golden-era vaudevillian cartoons.