Zodiak Kids announced that it has entered a co-development and co-production deal with influential animation company Fantawild Animation Inc. for a children’s television series based on ‘Tiger Team’, the best-selling series of books by Thomas Brezina. Zodiak Kids and Tower 10, the Austrian production company founded by best-selling children’s author Thomas Brezina, had previously entered into an agreement together with a view to realising the television potential of the Tiger Team books.

As the IP holder of more than 20 animation titles including the #1 animation brand in China, Fantawild’s animation has been distributed to over 100 countries. Its parental company, Fantawild Holdings, is the leading entertainment and technology enterprise in China with 24 theme parks in operation across China, and 10 more coming up in the next five to eight years.

 

Tiger Team follows three central characters, young detectives Leonie, Luke and Patrick, as they travel to exciting locations, solve baffling cases and face sinister felons. Tiger Team is already an acclaimed book series, having sold more than 30 million copies worldwide with over 100 editions published and translated into 24 languages. In China alone more than 18 million books have been sold since their launch in 1995 with 15 new illustrated books launched into the market last year.

 

Jean-Philippe Randisi, CEO of Zodiak Kids, said: “In Fantawild we have found a great partner to work with to bring Tiger Team to life. The Tiger Team books have already achieved massive success with audiences in China and it feels a natural fit to produce the series from there.”

 

“We are quite happy to work with Zodiak Kids to co-develop this brand, with the great foundation of this brand based on the books and the global strength of Zodiak and Fantawild, we believe that we can make this program a very globalized one” said Daisy Shang, General Manager of Fantawild Animation Inc.