Canada’s Sinking Ship Entertainment and SLR Productions in Australia have teamed up to develop a 90-minute CG-animated feature film called Monkey Base. The studios announced their partnership at the Australian Children’s Content Summit, which is running this week in Coffs Harbour, NSW. 

Monkey Base is a sci-fi comedy-adventure for families that focuses on a young Space Academy cadet assigned to work at the oldest (and most embarrassing) space base in the galaxy. But she has to put her disappointment aside quickly to rally a strange new crew of misfits and save Earth from a huge piece of space junk that’s hurtling towards the planet.  

Monkey Base will be the first of several family-friendly films that Sinking Ship and SLR plan to co-produce together as part of an agreement that was signed at the first Australian Children’s Content Summit in 2023. 

Sinking Ship will take the lead on the film’s design and animation, as well as handling international distribution outside of Australia and New Zealand, which SLR will manage. Funding for development is coming from Screen NSW and the Australian Children’s Television Foundation. 

SLR CEO Suzanne Ryan and Sinking Ship head of co-production and international partnerships Carla de Jong are on board as executive producers, along with Sinking Ship partners Blair Powers and Matt Bishop. 

This is Sinking Ship’s first animated feature co-production, and de Jong tells Kidscreen the company is currently developing several others. She adds that the goal is to finish development on Monkey Base in the next few months and then focus on securing production financing.

SLR’s Dean Sutherland (who directed Space Nova) came up with the concept for the film, and is producing along with his colleague Yasmin Jones. And Australian author/kids TV scribe Joel Slack-Smith (Space Nova, Reef School) is attached as screenwriter.  

“At its heart, the film is a celebration of friendship, resilience and the courage to embrace your own path—all wrapped up in an irreverent, cosmic adventure,” said Sinking Ship’s Carla de Jong. “With Erika’s journey from misfit to hero, we’re blending laugh-out-loud comedy with high-stakes sci-fi in a way that we know will resonate with audiences of all ages.”

Updated with info from Sinking Ship’s Carla de Jong.