Billie B Brown optioned for TV

Fremantle and development partner 720 Creative have acquired screen rights to the children’s book character Billie B Brown, from the junior fiction series written by Sally Rippin, illustrated by Aki Fukuoka and published by Hardie Grant Egmont.

The acquisition is one of the first joint ventures for the two companies, in addition to a range of projects across different genres and platforms including children’s series, light entertainment and documentary. The team developing the animated children’s series includes Rippin along with comedy writers Fiona Harris and Mike McLeish. Funding has been provided by Film Victoria as part of their Development on Demand Fund.

Fremantle CEO Asia-Pacific Chris Oliver-Taylor said, ‘For our first foray into children’s series production with the 720 Creative team to be such an iconic and established brand as Billie B Brown with enormous potential for an international screen audience is beyond exciting.’

Rippin said, ‘I celebrated Billie’s 10th birthday by releasing three new books and now this; Billie and I are thrilled. It’s a great next step for Billie and I am loving this collaboration with Fremantle and 720 Creative.’

The option coincides with the 10th anniversary of Rippin’s series, which has sold over 5 million copies in 14 languages around the world, with over 4 million copies in Australia alone, making  Rippin Australia’s best-selling female children’s book author.

Category: Local news Rights and acquisitions