Studio 100 will follow Maya with Heidi and Vicky remakes

Kids producer and distributor Studio 100 is on the remake trail and will produce CGI versions of three classic shows in its catalogue: Maya the Bee, Vicky the Viking and Heidi. At MIPCOM it launched a 3D version of classic series Maya and Vicky and Heidi will follow.

Having acquired EM.TV for €41 million last year, Studio 100 owns numerous classic kids brands and in February it set up a Paris-based animation studio with the goal of producing two series a year.

“One of the reasons we bought EM was because of the big brands it had, like Maya, Pippi Longstocking, Heidi, Tabaluga,” managing director Patrick Elmendorff explains. “The key is these are already huge brands and at the moment broadcasters are more risk averse so it helps being able to show them something new based on something that has been successful already.”

The new 78x11mins Maya series will start delivering in mid-2011. French broadcaster TF1 has already pre-bought the series.

Vicky the Viking will be next up and is scheduled for 2012 and Heidi for 2013. All of the new series will take the classic characters from 2D to 3D for the first time.