Off The Fence (OTF), the Academy Award-winning independent producer and distributor, has entered into a one-year co-development partnership with Amsterdam-based AI specialist Return to Earth Studio. Under the deal, OTF and the newly launched creative studio will produce AI-powered storytelling projects that bring together each partner’s distinct but complementary track records in factual production and collaborative funding models spanning legacy broadcasters, streamers and brands.
Bo Stehmeier, CEO of OTF, said: “We’re at an inflection point, both in terms of AI and what audiences around the world expect from factual storytellers. We know there’s still huge demand for traditional blue-chip documentaries, particularly from older-skewing audiences. But in parallel, the data is showing us that younger demographics want their natural-history programming served up in a fresher, more visual, more surprising format. To deliver that, it’s vital that OTF partners with companies who are native to this brave new world — partners who have the creative and economic skills to operate in this environment but who also share our core corporate, environmental and social values. We believe that Return to Earth Studios is that partner and that, together, we will re-imagine the future of factual storytelling.”
The co-founders of Return to Earth Studio, creative director Laen Sanches and executive producer Tony Stearns, bring wide-ranging creative, managerial and technological expertise to their new venture. Sanches has been at the forefront of generative AI filmmaking since 2022, when his animated short film PLSTC won 20 international awards and was screened on Franco-German broadcaster ARTE. Stearns has more than 25 years of production experience at top creative agencies in the US and Europe.
Stearns said: "Return to Earth Studio has embraced AI as a means to a more efficient and sustainable production model, and enabler of thrilling new possibilities for visualising the what-if’s of our human imagination. We are honored to partner with the renowned storytellers of OTF to help them create fresh, never-before-seen content."
The first project to come out of the new collaboration is "What If Evolution…" (3 x 60 mins), which will fuse the latest applications in generative AI video with OTF’s world-class expertise in natural-history storytelling. A team of scientists and AI artists will work together to imagine the animals that might have evolved had the Earth’s history played out differently. The three-part series will blend state-of-the-art technology, robust science and the latest thinking in paleontology, genetics and evolutionary biology to explore the dynamic processes that have and will continue to shape life on Earth.
Sanches said: “Imagining how life could have evolved differently is fascinating, but visualizing the details can be challenging. With the latest generative creative tools, we can now explore these possibilities with a new approach and greater precision. This allows us to study for example different shapes, textures, behaviors, and even sounds. Through our partnership with OTF, we’re excited to bring these visions to life and share them with the world.”
Among the intriguing questions that will be addressed is how life would have evolved if the continents never split, and what hybrid creatures might have resulted if the animal species we know today had interbred with each other — or, indeed, with our own species. The series’ leading scientists and biologists will also share their own evolutionary fantasies, making a case for their favourite counter-factual origin stories. Some of the concepts featured will explore scientifically plausible outcomes of environmental shifts or evolutionary pressures, while others — though more fantastical — will seek to inspire debate by illuminating fundamental biological principles.
"What If Evolution…" will be introduced to the global content market at The London TV Screenings, alongside OTF’s more traditional slate of premium natural-history programming, which this year includes two new feature docs currently in production. "Last Mermaids of Korea" looks at the ‘Haenyo’ – female divers who hold their breath for more than two minutes to depths of 20 metres hunting culinary treasures for restaurants. "Beavers from Above" takes us to remote locations in the quest to find out what an invasion of beavers means on the frontline of climate change, doubling their number and taking over the entire western Alaskan tundra in the last 20 years.