Henry Winkler continues TV role in series based on his best-selling novels
Halifax, NS, 22/07/15 – DHX Media (“DHX” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: DHXM; TSX: DHX.A, DHX.B), a key player internationally in the creation of content for families and children, has been commissioned by CBBC to produce a third season of the hit children’s comedy series Hank Zipzer, which is produced in association with Walker Productions and Kindle Entertainment, supported by Screen Yorkshire’s Yorkshire Content Fund. It returns to TV screens this summer with the second season due to air on CBBC in August.
Steven DeNure, President and COO of DHX Media, said: “This is a heart-warming, funny, relatable series that we enjoy making just as much as audiences enjoy watching. With CBBC’s commitment to a third season, and with season two set to air from the summer, Hank will continue to win fans with more playful misbehavior.”
The show is based on the New York Times best-selling book series, Hank Zipzer: The World’s Greatest Underachiever, which is co-written by Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver and published by Walker Books.
Inspired by Winkler’s own experiences as a child, the television series follows 14 year old Hank Zipzer, a smart and resourceful boy with dyslexia. Hank sees himself differently to the way the world sees him, so when problems arise, he deals with them in a way no-one else would – putting him on a direct collision course with his teachers. With the help of his best friends Frankie and Ashley, the young boy with a big heart goes on a multitude of mischievous adventures, but often ends up learning a valuable lesson or two along the way. Henry Winkler will return to play the popular music teacher, Mr Rock, the only teacher who seems to understand Hank.
For more information, please contact:
Trade Media: Aimee Norman at DDA Blueprint PR
aimee@ddablueprint.com
+44 (0) 20 8985 4708
Financial Media: Shaun Smith – Director, Corporate Communications, DHX Media Ltd.
shaun.smith@dhxmedia.com
+1 416-977-7230
Investor relations: David Regan – EVP, Corporate Development, DHX Media Ltd.
david.regan@dhxmedia.com
+1 902-425-3814
About DHX Media
DHX Media Ltd. (www.dhxmedia.com), a key player internationally in the creation of content for families and children, is recognized globally for such brands as Yo Gabba Gabba!, Caillou, Teletubbies, In the Night Garden, Inspector Gadget, Johnny Test, Slugterra and the multiple award-winning Degrassi franchise. The Company is owner of the Family suite of channels, operated as DHX Television. DHX Media Ltd. markets and distributes its library of more than 11,000 half-hours of entertainment programming worldwide, and licenses its owned properties through its dedicated brand-management and consumer-products business, DHX Brands. DHX Media Ltd.’s full-service international licensing agency, Copyright Promotions Licensing Group Ltd. (CPLG), represents numerous entertainment, sport and design brands. With offices in 15 cities worldwide, including Toronto, Vancouver, Halifax, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Barcelona, Milan, Munich, Amsterdam and Beijing, DHX Media Ltd. is listed on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the ticker symbol DHXM, and on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the ticker symbols DHX.A and DHX.B.
About Walker Books
Walker Books is the world’s leading, employee-owned independent publisher of children’s books. Working with the best authors and illustrators it is renowned for truly original publishing and outstanding quality. Home to books for all ages, Walker Books publishes many award-winning authors, illustrators and brands including Anthony Horowitz, Cassandra Clare, Lucy Cousins, Patrick Ness and Where’s Wally? Walker’s licensing division manages licensing activity across several Walker brands including Maisy, Guess How Much I Love You,Tilly and Friends, Helen Oxenbury’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and We’re Going in a Bear Hunt. Walker Productions develops Walker content for other media platforms with current on-air projects including Henry Hugglemonster for Disney Junior, CBeebies’ Tilly and Friends, CITV’s Fleabag Monkeyface and Hank Zipzer for CBBC.Walker Books UK is part of the vibrant, international Walker Books Group that includes Candlewick Press in America and Walker Books Australia. Further information can be found at www.walker.co.uk
About Kindle Entertainment
Kindle Entertainment is a UK-based independent production company that produces top quality, award-winning family entertainment for audiences across the world. It was set up by industry experts Anne Brogan and Melanie Stokes in 2007.
Kindle Entertainment’s portfolio has a wide range of scripted entertainment spanning pre-school, kids, teen and family shows: it includes pre-school favourites Big and Small voiced by Lenny Henry, and Get Well Soon with Dr Ranj; the internationally acclaimed CBBC seriesLeonardo which re-imagines Leonardo da Vinci as a teenage action hero; Some Dogs Bite, a thought provoking film about boys in care starring Thomas Sangster and directed by Marc Munden; Nick Nickleby, a modern retelling of the Charles Dickens classic with Adrian Dunbar; Treasure Island an epic action-adventure Christmas special for Sky One starring Eddie Izzard as Long John Silver and Elijah Wood as Ben Gunn; and Dustbin Baby, starring Juliet Stevenson and Dakota Blue Richards, a television film which premiered on BBC 1, based on the novel by best-selling author, Dame Jacqueline Wilson. Dustbin Baby won both an International Emmy and a BAFTA.
Recent productions include comedy, Hank Zipzer starring Henry ‘The Fonz’ Winkler; Dinopaws an animated comedy about a trio of dinosaurs, which won the Best Animation at the 2014 Shanghai TV Festival Awards and Dixi, an interactive mystery set in the world of social networking, which won the BAFTA for Best Original Interactive. Kindle Entertainment recently won their third BAFTA for Best Independent Production Company.
About Screen Yorkshire
Screen Yorkshire offers production financing for content in the TV, film, video games and the digital sectors in Yorkshire and Humber, through the Yorkshire Content Fund, the biggest regional investment fund for production in the UK. Backed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the fund is open to content producers working in film, TV, games and digital based in Yorkshire or from outside but looking to establish a base in the region. It has attracted £15m from ERDF as part of Europe’s support for the region’s economic development through the Yorkshire and Humber ERDF Programme 2007-13. Recent investments include: Dad’s Army, The Hunter’s Prayer, A Royal Night Out, Peaky Blinders, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, Testament Of Youth, The Great Train Robbery, Get Santa, X + Y, Death Comes to Pemberley, Catch me Daddy, ’71, Black Workand Bill. www.screenyorkshire.co.uk
Disclaimer
This press release contains forward looking statements with respect to DHX Media including the completion of the production and the timing of the production’s television debut. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward looking statements are reasonable, such statements involve risks and uncertainties and are based on information currently available to the Company. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations, among other things, include risk factors discussed in materials filed with applicable securities regulatory authorities from time to time including matters discussed under “Risk Factors” in the Company’s Annual Information Form for the year ended June 30, 2014, and annual Management Discussion and Analysis, which form part of the Company’s registration statement on Form 40-F filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof, and the Company assumes no obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances, except as required by law.