Natalie Osborne, former VP of acquisitions for Universal Pictures Visual Programming, has been tapped as exec VP of business development for a new distribution unit formed by animation studio 9 Story Ent. Osborne will head to MIPCOM Jr. in Cannes, France next month to lead distribution efforts for the animated properties Futz!, Best Ed and If The World Were A Village.
9 Story plans to wrap production on all 26 3-minue episodes of Futz! By September of 2007. The multiplatform, action-comedy series is aimed at kids 9-14, and follows the adventures of a comic anti-hero who is ready for anything and prepared for nothing.
Best Ed is a 52×11 comedy series for kids 8-12 that focuses on the unlikely friendship between a dog named Ed and a squirrel named Buddy. The show will be ready for broadcast in January of 2008.
Based on the 2002 book by the same name by author David J. Smith, If the World Were a Village is a completed half-hour special that delivers a message of tolerance and understanding by offering children a view of the world as if it were a village of just 100 people, where one person equals 64 million. In this village, 20 people earn almost nothing, 17 will never learn to read or write and 60 are always hungry.
Founded in 2001, 9 Story Ent. has delivered more than 60 half hours of animated television content. Producer of such popular shows as Peep and the Big Wide World and Skyland, the company is led by exec producers Vince Commisso and Steven Jarosz, who oversee a staff of more than 70 employees.
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