Calimero finds Italian nest

A major Italian broadcaster has picked up Alphanim and Studio Campedelli’s CGI remake of a classic European toon series.

Calimero

The new version of Calimero (104×11′), about a loving but hapless chicken, has been acquired by Rai TV, which aired the original.

It should be delivered in time for the property’s 50th anniversary in 2013, and will also been carried by French broadcaster TF1.

The original Calimero, created by Nino and Toni Pagot and Ignazio Colnaghi in 1963, aired on Rai throughout the 1960s and 1970s as animated segments of advertising-themed series Carosello.

Alphanim, Rai’s production unit Rai Fiction and Milan- and Turin-based Studio Campedelli are attached as coproducers of the new show. Paris-based Alphanim, part of the Gaumont group, distributes the series on behalf of rights owner Calidra.

Calimero is based around a loving but hapless chicken.