Two young chimpanzees are experiencing the joys of wildhood on a wooden surface. One playfully grabs the other's arm with its foot, while the other seems amused. The background is a soft blur of nature's green and brown tones, capturing their carefree moments perfectly.

Wildhood – Nature’s Teens

Nature & Wildlife·3 x 50 min·In Development

Teen nature as you’ve never seen: rebellious chimps, daring penguins, and bold dolphins navigate adolescence in a thrilling journey to adulthood.

Factsheet
Genre
Nature & Wildlife
Duration
3 × 50 min
Definition
4K
Audio
5.1
Status
In Development
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Synopsis

A worldwide tribe of heroes and an epic journey to adulthood

Teenagers: obnoxious, unruly, out of control. Too old to be babied, too young to be accepted by society.

Don’t roll your eyes just yet: what if we told you that teenagers are our planet’s greatest heroes? Innovators and risk-takers, each one on an epic journey to adulthood, facing the most precarious, most dangerous moments of their lives. And doing it alone.

The change from cub to lion or from joey to kangaroo doesn’t happen overnight. Whether it’s a few days or many years after birth, every individual on Earth goes through a period of adolescence. A time when, to become experienced, they must experience. To learn to be safe, they need to take risks. A time when the challenges they face and the journey they’re on means they have less in common with mum, dad or other members of the same species, but more with a worldwide tribe of youngsters coming of age on Planet Earth.

The quest for maturity through experience is the universal purpose of adolescence in nature. This innovative, visually stunning series reveals teen nature in its humorous, heart-breaking, and nail-biting glory.

A stage of life we can all relate to. This is teen nature as you’ve never seen it before.

Each episode of this immersive three-part series follows key charismatic animal heroes confronting a major trial of adolescence, at times breaking out to reveal some of the most jaw-dropping examples of the challenge they face.

The first is LEAVING HOME, learning to stay safe and finding food by yourself.

The second is LEARNING HOW TO FIT IN and navigate social hierarchies.

The third is LEARNING THE LAWS OF ATTRACTION and how to find a partner.

Every species goes through adolescence, so the options for key characters are very flexible. However, to maximise the drama, we suggest following the most charismatic animals of all. A young female chimpanzee leaves the comfort of her family to make it in a new troop. A young bull elephant is cast out and joins a raucous all-male gang. An awkward king penguin joins a teenage huddle, before braving predator filled waters and seeking a mate of her own.

Along the way we’ll meet tombstoning macaques, rebellious bottlenose dolphins, hilarious group-dancing manikins and fearsome great white sharks getting chased off by seals.

Produced and filmed by an exciting, innovative team, with contemporary music and Gen-Z narrator, this series will be a joyous, heart-warming celebration of these overlooked adolescent heroes. It will be as fun, dramatic and contemporary as it comes.

WHY NOW?

The concept of ‘growing up wild’ is a well-trodden natural history path, but one that only focuses on baby animals. This series offers something never explored before with a strong, clear concept to match. Appealing to viewers of all ages, from youngsters all the way through to parents and grandparents of teenagers, we appeal to a human sentiment everyone can understand and connect with.

Team

Written and directed by Matt Hamilton
Executive producers Sabine Holzer, Walter Köhler
Production companies A Terra Mater Studios / Dandy Lion Films production
Footage rights

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