Nat Geo, Arte board Zed’s spider doc

The National Geographic channel in the United States and Franco-German broadcaster Arte have come onboard major international coproduction Super Spiders from French producer distributor Zed.

The one-off documentary is produced by Zed in association with French Canadian producer Nova Media.

“It looks at spiders next door, the ones that are on your desk. Spiders can fly, swim, sing and dance, they have developed superpowers,” Zed’s head of distribution and acquisitions Céline Payot told TBIvision.

The show has also been presold to Canadian broadcasters eq HD and TV5. It is launching production in May and is set to deliver in 2012. It has a budget of around €500,000 and Zed is nearing completion of funding as it heads to MIP TV.

“You have to have a big budget for a film like this because we’re shooting in three countries. We’re almost there, we’re missing 10/15% [of the funding] that we’re trying to get on presales,” she adds.

Zed is also producing and distributing international copro The Conquerors, a four part series, that has been picked up by Arte and US network Science Channel.