Barbie and Hot Wheels have a new home.
Mattel, the toy giant behind those iconic brands, as well as Fisher-Price, Bob the Builder and the Monster High and Winx doll lines, has set up a new, centralized division, Mattel Creations, which will bundle all its content production under one banner.
Catherine Balsam-Schwaber, who joined Mattel as chief content officer last year, will head up the new division, which aims to create spinoff films, series and digital shows based on Mattel’s toy line. Mattel has promoted longtime creative executive Christopher Keenan as senior vp content development & production at Mattel Creations.
Mattel Creations also announced the greenlight for Wellie Wishers, a new 2D animated pre-school series based on the company’s American Girl brand. Mattel will unveil the series for international buyers at the MIPTV television market in Cannes next week.
Mattel also announced that Dreamtopia, the latest CGI movie based on the long-running Barbie franchise, has been sold to multiple international networks, including Germany’s Super RTL, Pop TV in the U.K. and Cartoon Network for Latin America.
Mattel has been named MIPTV 2016’s Brand of the Year; and Richard Dickson, Mattel’s president and COO, will deliver a keynote speech to the market on Tuesday.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Christopher Keenan, not Catherine Balsam-Schwaber, would head up Mattel Creations. The Hollywood Reporter regrets the error.
