WildBrain’s Family Channel and RTL Netherlands have both picked up live-action YA drama Beyond Black Beauty (12 x 24 minutes, pictured) from global distributor Sinking Ship Entertainment, which is also co-producing the series with Canada’s Leif Films and Belgian studio Saga Film. 

These are the first sales for Beyond Black Beauty, which was originally commissioned in 2022 by Amazon Freevee. The AVOD platform has yet to set a premiere date, but Family Channel will launch the show in Canada on March 19, followed by RTL later this year. 

Beyond Black Beauty follows along with a young equestrian who relocates from her posh life in Belgium to her family’s ranch in Baltimore, where she bonds with a spirited horse.

This coming-of-age series is a modernized retelling of Anna Sewell’s 1877 children’s novel Black Beauty, which is among the bestselling books of all time with more than 50 million copies sold. The classic kidlit title has yielded numerous screen adaptations over the years, including a 1978 animated film by Hanna-Barbera, a 1994 family drama pic and a 2020 Disney+ feature.