BAFTA-winning and Emmy-nominated Belfast-based studio Sixteen South introduced at this time that, along with Corus Leisure’s Nelvana, they’ve optioned and are co-developing and co-producing A Horse Named Steve, a brand new 2D-animated sequence (52 x 11’) primarily based on the acclaimed debut image guide by Toronto author-illustrator Kelly Collier. The difference will mix comedian storylines with classes in friendship, teamwork and appreciating one’s true self.
“It’s superb to see how far Steve has come,” stated author-illustrator Collier, “Significantly as a result of he began out as a little bit doodle I made to fill an empty image body! I can’t wait to see Steve strutting round on TV screens, having discovered the proper house with Sixteen South and Nelvana.”
Centering on an endearingly self-absorbed horse, A Horse Named Steve topped “greatest guide of the yr” lists when it was launched in 2017 by Canadian unbiased kids’s writer Children Can Press, celebrating its fiftieth anniversary this yr. Illustrated in vigorous black-and-white paintings interwoven with humorous commentary, the guide and its follow-up, Crew Steve, comply with the exploits of Steve, a good-natured, somewhat obtuse horse who thinks he’s abnormal however desires to be distinctive.
“We knew as quickly as we noticed the quilt of A Horse Named Steve that Steve was an ideal addition to Sixteen South’s steady,” stated Sixteen South’s Inventive Director, Colin Williams. “Kelly’s offbeat humor and quirky illustration fashion sealed the deal, aligning so nicely with the sort of tales we prefer to convey to life, so we moved rapidly to choice the rights from Children Can Press.”
Athena Georgaklis, VP of Nelvana Studios, provides, “Steve’s larger-than-life antics and slapstick comedy have delighted each kids and adults alike. We’re excited to not solely develop one more revered Children Can Press guide franchise into an animated sequence however are additionally wanting to collaborate with Colin and the Sixteen South staff to co-develop and co-produce a sequence that efficiently captures Kelly’s distinctive tone and illustration fashion on display.”
Lately the Vooks animated digital e-book of A Horse Named Steve, narrated by Emmy-nominated actor Rainn Wilson, helped earn U.S.-based Children Can Press a 2023 Bologna Ragazzi Crossmedia Award nomination within the inaugural Digital Library class. The awards are a part of the Bologna Kids’s Guide Honest, the premier international kids’s publishing occasion held yearly in Bologna, Italy.
“As we rejoice our fiftieth Anniversary, we’ve been reminded of how essential the big selection of partnerships we’ve fostered through the years are to the success of our enterprise,” stated Lisa Lyons Johnston, President and Writer of Children Can Press. “Growing these sorts of partnerships — with Sixteen South and naturally with our colleagues at Nelvana — helps to increase the attain of our creators’ books and places their characters and tales in entrance of kids and households wherever they might be. We’re all the time looking out for tales that can attraction to creators of different kids’s leisure media, as Kelly’s work clearly has.”
