AI animation studio Toonstar, HarperCollins team up on animated book projects

April 2, 2026 12:02 PM EDT

April 2 - Artificial intelligence powered animation ‌studio ​Toonstar ​on Thursday unveiled a multi-year partnership with News Corp-owned HarperCollins to ‌produce a slate of original animated series ⁠based on select titles from the book ‌publisher.

The partnership aims to ‌expand access to HarperCollins' literary catalog through digital-first animation.

The first project in development ​under the deal is "Friendship List", based on Lisa Greenwald's popular series for ⁠tweens about friendship, self-discovery and the challenges of growing ​up.

A graphic novel inspired by the Toonstar series will be published by ​HarperAlley, the graphic novel ‌imprint of HarperCollins.

Los Angeles-based Toonstar was founded by former Disney and ⁠Warner Bros. executives John Attanasio and Luisa Huang to build a new pipeline of ⁠direct-to-consumer animated IP.

HarperCollins, which is part of News ​Corp's book publishing segment, saw revenue rise 6% to $633 million in the second quarter.

The company has ‌a print and digital catalog of more than 250,000 titles and ‌publishes about 10,000 new books every ⁠year in 16 ‌languages, according to ​its website.

(Reporting by Juby Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Tasim ‌Zahid)



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