Wild Sheep Content Seduced by ‘Sweet Paprika’

Former Netflix veep Erick Barmack’s new L.A. outfit Wild Sheep Content is joining the frisky fray of Mirka Andolfo’s Sweet Paprika, an original adult-targeted animated romantic comedy. The studio will serve as creative producer on the project, announced in July, and work with Turin, Italy-based co-producers Arancia Studio and Grey Ladder Productions to bring the intriguing toon to platforms around the world.

“Mirka has the rare ability to enchant readers across the globe, and I couldn’t be more excited to help adapt her vision from page to screen with Sweet Paprika,” Barmack told Variety. “It’s a charming, relevant and hilarious foray into romantic comedy, and a project I couldn’t resist.”

Andolfo, creator of the acclaimed comics Unnatural and Mercy, added: “Erik has been a pioneer in global storytelling, introducing the most vital global voices to the biggest audiences. It’s an honor to have him collaborate on Sweet Paprika.”

From an original idea by Italian artist Andolfo, Sweet Paprika is set in a contemporary world inhabited by angels and devils. Paprika, a New Yorker of Italian origins, is a workaholic princess who lives in a large metropolis instead of an enchanted castle. Her successful career has sucked her in, leaving no room for relationships. To her erotic rescue comes Dill — a naive, pleasant man whose “angelic” behavior could not be further from Paprika.

The series will be directed by Gabriele Pennacchiolo, a 25-year DreamWorks Animation features veteran who shared the 2019 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Short Form Animated Program as supervising director on Netflix’s Love, Death + Robots, “The Witness.”

Andolfo is also writing and illustrating a Sweet Paprika comic-book series to be produced by Arancia and published by Image Comics in July 2021; Edizioni Star Comics and Éditions Glénat are on board to release the comics in Italy and France, respectively.

Barmack and Wild Sheep Content announced in July another excitingly different animation project, teaming up with artist Nicholle Kobi on African women’s history anthology Queens. The partners are also developing La Femme Noir, a Sex in the City-style romance inspired by Kobi’s popular Instagram art series about Black women around the world, at BET (ViacomCBS).

[Source: Variety]