Annapurna TV is developing a raunchy new CG-animated series titled AMBERVILLE, about bad ass stuffed animals, for Amazon Studios and its distribution platform Amazon Prime Video, it was announced Monday.

Created by Chris McCoy and Sausage Party’s Conrad Vernon, Amberville is based on Tim Davys’ Mollisan Town book series, which is published by HarperCollins.

Amberville is a darkly comedic animated crime show set in a city populated by living, breathing stuffed animals. The story concerns a reformed Teddy Bear who is pulled back into the criminal underworld when his former boss enlists him for an impossible new job.

McCoy wrote the pilot and shares story credit with Vernon, who is attached to direct the pilot. Annapurna’s Megan Ellison, Sue Naegle and David Distenfeld will serve as executive producers along with Vernon and McCoy. Amberville continues the expansion of Annapurna’s slate under its new TV president Naegle.

The project reunites Vernon with Annapurna, which produced Sausage Party, one of Sony’s most profitable movies in recent memory, having grossed over $140 million worldwide on a very modest budget for an animated movie. Vernon also directed the animated films Shrek 2, Madagascar 3 and Monsters vs. Aliens.

McCoy previously wrote and directed 2016’s Good Kids and authored two novels, The Prom-Goer’s Interstellar Excursion and Scurvy Goonda, both from Knopf.

UTA represents Vernon and McCoy, who are respectively managed by Mosaic and The Gotham Group. Davys is with Einstein Literary Management for publishing and UTA for film. Chris Corabi negotiated the deal on behalf of Annapurna.

Jeff Sneider | Editor in Chief