France’s StudioCanal has launched a new business unit that will focus on book-to-screen adaptations, and one of its first projects is based on Dick Bruna’s classic Miffy preschool books. 

Canal+ and StudioCanal Stories, which is still assembling its full team, are developing a brand-new CG-animated Miffy series (78 x seven minutes) for 2025.

Sarah Reese Geffroy has been promoted to lead the new unit as SVP of TV development. She starts in her new role on May 1 and will report to M-K Kennedy (executive managing director of TV series) and Ron Halpern (EVP of global production and talent management). 

StudioCanal has been successful with recent screen adaptations such as Paddington, which it turned into two animated films that have collectively grossed around US$500 million at the global box office. A third title, Paddington in Peru, is due out this November. 

Book adaptations are good business in general these days. According to France’s National Book Center, the number of TV and film projects based on publishing source material has increased by nearly 30% between 2015 and 2021. More historically, 42% of the US box office’s top 100 most successful films of all time are literary adaptations, with the French market mirroring this statistic at 44%. 

In related news, StudioCanal and publisher Editions Albert René have put a sixth live-action feature film based on popular French comic strip Asterix into development. The brand has sold more than 400 million books in 130 languages since launching in 1961, as well as spawning 10 animated movies and a 35-year-old French theme park that has seen roughly 52 million visitors come through its gates.