Bento Box Strikes First Look Deal With ‘Summer Heights High’ Producer Princess Pictures To Develop Australian Animation

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Fox Entertainment-owned animation house Bento Box, the company behind Bob’s Burgers and Duncanville, has struck a first-look development deal with Australian production company Princess Pictures.

The deal will see Princess Pictures, best known for producing Chris Lilley’s live-action comedy Summer Heights High, develop animated content from undiscovered Australian-based, multi-hyphenate creators with Bento Box. Shows will be produced down under with local talent and crews for the global market.

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The deal was struck between Scott Greenberg, Co-Founder and CEO of Bento Box, and Laura Waters, Founder of Princess Pictures. The pair will exec produce projects alongside Bento Box Co-Founder and President of Production Joel Kuwahara and Creative Director Ben Jones and Princess’ Senior Producer Mike Cowap and Managing Director Emma Fitzsimons.

This comes after Bento Box was acquired by Fox Entertainment in August 2019. Earlier this year, it hired animation and VFX veteran Brooke Keesling as Head of Animation Talent Development and Caitlin Winiarski as Creative Executive as part of a push to expand content development.

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“Laura, Mike and their entire team have the keen ability to identify emerging, multi-faceted storytellers, and, in doing so, are delivering some of the strongest comedy material we’ve seen,” said Greenberg. “Expanding our creative footprint globally is a top priority of ours; and we are excited to partner with Princess Pictures in Australia on finding, championing and introducing animation’s next wave of creators who deserve a shot to showcase their voices and points of view across platforms in the U.S. and beyond.”

“Australia punches above its weight in animation talent, with scores of Oscar nominations and wins, and very successful children’s animation series,” added Waters. “There’s a slew of Australian talent making hilarious animation online, all with dedicated audiences. In collaboration with Bento Box, we’re excited to support this new wave of comedy talent with professional budgets and access to opportunities on major platforms.”

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