France Will Produce 500 New “Peanuts” Shorts

Peanuts Worldwide, a joint venture between Charles M. Schulz Associates and Iconix Brand Group, has partnered with Normaal Animation and France Televisions to produce five hundred 90-second animated shorts adapted from Schulz’s classic comic strip Peanuts.

The development is part of a business strategy designed to build new global content for the Peanuts franchise that also includes the upcoming CG feature Blue Sky.

“Partnering with a dynamic production house such as Normaal Animation and a leading broadcaster like France Televisions, is a key step in our strategy to build all new content based on the characters and storylines by Charles Schulz,” says Neil Cole, chairman and CEO of Iconix Brand Group. “The new collection and format will also provide us with the opportunity to continually keep the characters in front of new generations of Peanuts fans.”

It has not been officially confirmed whether the new shorts will be animated traditionally or using CGI, and Normaal Animation’s portfolio is no indication as the Parisian studio is responsible for productions like Tangerine and Cow, Gaston and Hello World, which were created in a variety of media.

The animated shorts will be available for international distribution in fall 2014, and will also air on French television station France 3.