Aardman picks up Peter and the Wolf and makes four sales

Aardman International, the distribution arm of the Bristol-based animation outfit, has picked up distribution rights to BreakThru Films’ stop-frame animation Peter and the Wolf and has already sold the show to four broadcasters.

The show, which is produced by Hugh Welchman, was first aired by UK broadcaster Channel 4 last year.

Alix Wiseman, head of sales at Aardman International, told TBIvision that it will only look at picking up programming from third parties if it would have been proud to make the show in-house.

“Our policy for picking up content from third parties is that we do it only as and when we find content that [fits] our existing catalogue. We’re not in the business of bulking up the catalog to reach a critical mass,” she said.

Aardman’s distributes only two other third party shows; Stressed Eric, an animated comedy for US cable channel TBS that is produced by the Gotham Group, and A Town Called Panic, the English language version of Pic Pic et Andre’s Panique Au Village.

Wiseman added it was also close to sealing a number of online and mobile deals for Peter and the Wolf. “We do a lot of business online so we’ve started to have these conversations and hope to have some good news in the New Year,” she said.

Watch the trailer for Peter and the Wolf here