Canada’s Rainmaker Offloads Animation Studio

VANCOUVER: Rainmaker Entertainment, whose first feature film, Escape from Planet Earth, is due to be released by The Weinstein Company next year, has reached a deal to sell off its Canadian animation studio assets to Beijing-based Xing Xing Digital Corporation.

Through a new subsidiary, Rainmaker Studios Inc., Xing Xing is acquiring the Canadian studio assets by assuming C$7 million in debt and taking over the real-estate leases. Xing Xing has worked on a number of animated series, including Fireman Sam, Wild Animal Baby Explorers and Secret Millionaire’s Club.

Escape from Planet Earth is slated for release in February. Rainmaker is also working on several DVD films for Mattel and is producing its own IP.