Major raft of kids sales for Gullane

Gullane Entertainment has seen a number of sales for its children's properties across Australia and Lat-Am, as well as UK and Israeli deals for its family films and factual entertainment series.

In Australia, Gullane has licensed three seasons (78 episodes) of its flagship Thomas & Friends to children's cable network Nickelodeon.

The same channel also picked up the rights to 26 half-hours of The Longhouse Tales, an animated mystical fantasy that surrounds a young coyote and his group of animal friends.

Public broadcaster ABC picked up two seasons (52 episodes) of Thomas & Friends, as well as 26 half-hours of Eckhart, a toon series that follows an eponymous little mouse.

Disney Channel Australia has walked away with the 44×20-minute series It's A Mystery, a live-action show that examines the everyday mysteries that occur in nature and in the mind.

Disney also licensed Virtual Mom, a movie that has a computer glitch transforming a mother into a 13 year-old, who then hangs out with her own teenage daughter. It stars Sheila McCarthy and Debbie Reynolds.

In Latin-America, Multivision has also picked up Eckhart and plans to air it on their pan-Latin SAS channel.

Discovery Kids in Latin America has also bought the entire Thomas series (130 episodes plus 26 new episodes) for launching in 2002.

Mexico's leading broadcaster Televisa has licensed three movies from Gullane's Popcorn Pictures collection, namely Virtual Mom, family film What Katy Did and Cinderella & Me, starring Tom Conti, Brenda Fricker, Sheila McCarthy.

The network also secured broadcast rights for the feature-length toon Thomas & the Magic Railroad, which was released last year.

In the UK, Hallmark Channel bought the dramatic movie Shadow Lake, which follows the mystery surrounding a 14 year-old murder, and Row Your Boat, a romantic thriller starring rock idol turned actor Jon Bon Jovi.

In addition Hallmark in Israel bought What Katy Did, while neighbouring pre-school channel Hop TV picked up Why, a series of 40 three-minute segments aimed at pre-school viewers, and Wanna Play, a collection of playground games and rhymes presented, again, in 40 three-minute segments.

Hop TV also purchased Funny Farm, a quirky series of shorts featuring children and animals interacting and learning through games, music and play. The channel also took Grandma Look What I Found, which combines live-action and animation.

On the factual front, Discovery Latin America has bought both Healthy Home and Entrada – Journey's in Latin American Cuisine. The former looks at the unique ways that people transform their living spaces, while the latter is a half-hour series about the Lat-Am cuisine from historical, cultural and geographical perspectives.

Other Gullane sales include the Healthy Home series, plus 130 episodes of Thomas & Friends to ATV Hong Kong; French-speaking Canadian cable rights for What Katy Did were sold to Super Ecran and SRC in Canada; and Hope & Beauty was sold to RTP in Portugal.