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Zodiak Media Group’s new equine-themed toon Secret Ranch has scored presales from European broadcasters and secured its entire €6m (US$7.6m) budget.
The series was developed for French commercial channel TF1 as Mistral Ranch. Zodiak’s French prodco Tele Images Productions debuted it at Cartoon Forum in September with 80% of funding already in place, as first reported by C21.
The rest has now been secured from France’s Teletoon+ and Equidia, a horse and country-themed satellite and cable channel; German broadcasters ARD and Ki.Ka; and Zodiak’s Italian broadcast sister DeA Kids.
Preproduction has now begun for a 2013 international market debut. Children’s unit Zodiak Kids has distribution rights, while TF1 gets home video distribution. In French-speaking territories, the programme will continue to be known as Mistral Ranch.
The girls-skewed series follows four teenagers who set about rescuing horses and build a ranch to house them. As previously reported, Tele Images has developed an online platform in which children can farm their own animals at the ranch from the programme.
