Production Slate At Ex-Disney Channel Exec’s Company Ramps Up With Daron Nefcy And Craig McCracken Projects

Nancy Kanter is fresh off three years at Netflix but spent 20 years at Disney before that

Nancy Kanter is a veteran of kids programming. Sure, she’s coming off of a three year overall deal at Netflix, but for the 20 years previous, she was a Disney Channels executive, starting out in 2001 as Vice President of original programming at Playhouse Disney and overseeing its transformation into Disney Junior, and everything it entailed. By the time she left, she was Vice President of content and creative strategy at Disney Channels Worldwide. With that longevity, she was bound to make a few friends.

Kanter is apparently relaunching her production company, Available Light Productions, which is the same banner she was supposedly developing and producing series and films, animated and live action for Netflix during the past three years, according to articles about that move. So it’s unclear what is the actual situation. She also still has animated and live-action projects across kid, YA and adult demographics still in development at the streamer despite the deal’s expiration. Regardless, several projects are in the works that aren’t part of it. This slate is being shepherded with William Goldberg, the company’s Head of Development, and will be pitched and shopped across the broader kids, family and general audience market. They’re full of familiar names, especially from her Disney Channel days.

First up, but in talent-highlighting personal priority order, Penny Phantom is an animated fantasy comedy adventure film based on the novel Little Thieves by Margaret Owen. Currently, Star vs The Forces of Evil creator Daron Nefcy is attached to direct in her first major project since the animated series’s 2019 end. The screenplay is by Diana McCorry. Working with Trustbridge Entertainment there’s the animated adventure comedy The Circus Ship, based on the best-selling picture book of the same name by award-winning author Chris Van Dusen. It’s being written by married animation legends Lauren Faust, who created My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and the TV iteration of DC Super Hero Girls, and Craig McCracken, creator of The PowerPuff Girls, Fosters Home For Imaginary Friends, Wander Over Yonder, and Kid Cosmic, the latter three he and Faust developed together. Sharing the news on Twitter, Faust said “Hey look! CrackMcCraigen and I are excited to make our way back into developing animated feature films. Circus Ship by Chris Van Dusen is sure to be a children's classic, and we're eager to help let loose his circus animals onto the world!”

Preschool is also in play, with animated series Alexander the Post Fox created by Amy Higgins, a Wander Over Yonder and Star vs the Forces of Evil alum in partnership with Copper Cup Entertainment & Kevin Jonas, yes Kevin Jonas, of the Brothers. Higgins writes it with Brian Clark, whose credits include Go, Dog, Go and Molly From Denali. Copper Cup’s Spencer Berman serves as executive producer. And finally there’s a live-action coming-of-age dramedy film Wayward Girls directed by Kimberly McCullough, whose work includes High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, with an original screenplay by It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia alumnus Kristin Belka Maier.

“My time at Netflix was a gift that allowed me to extend my creative development beyond Kids & Family, and while those projects will always be closest to my heart, I am excited to see some of my YA and adult projects move forward,” Kanter said. “I leave having had the great pleasure of working alongside so many talented folks on the live-action and animation teams, and I couldn’t be more grateful for their support. I look forward to landing new series and movies in just the right homes and continuing to develop material that speaks to me and to broad audiences in surprising and authentic ways.”

Source: Deadline