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Tune in to C21FM today from 10am

Today we hear from Chloe Rickard, partner, chief operating officer and executive producer at Jungle Entertainment in Australia, and Heath Kenny, chief content officer at Mercury Filmworks in Canada, about how they are both ploughing ahead with busy production slates and creating original IP that travels the world.

Tune in to C21FM by CLICKING HERE.

As one of the few companies globally with three comedies concurrently on screen at three different US networks and streamers, it’s fair to say Sydney-based Jungle Entertainment has successfully cracked the American market.

Chloe Rickard, the firm’s partner, chief operating officer and executive producer, told Nico Franks how No Activity, its comedy series about two detectives on a stakeout, which began life on Stan in Australia, is proving to be pandemic-proof, with more remakes in the pipeline.

Since the late 1990s, Canada’s Mercury Filmworks has made its name in service animation, providing work for the biggest names in the industry, including Disney, Netflix, Apple TV+, Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon. A push into original IP has been in the pipeline since as far back as 2011 but it took a major step towards its goal of producing its own shows when it hired Heath Kenny, a former Gaumont creative executive, as its chief content officer in early 2019.

The company has now announced some of the new shows on its slate, which have been developed alongside its in-house animators and creatives, including one idea for four- to six-year-olds from Kenny himself, based on his childhood in New Zealand.

Kenny, who is now based in Ottawa, spoke to Nico Franks about creating an environment conducive to a push into original IP, determining whether there’s a genuine appetite for your show in the marketplace and why Martin Scorcese’s hatred of the word ‘content’ may be misplaced.

C21FM is live 24/7, with a block of interviews starting at 10am BST every day at c21fmradio.com. You can download the audio from the C21 Podcast by CLICKING HERE.

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