Bristol/London/Amsterdam/Toronto, February 25, 2025

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.

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 palaeontology, genetics and evolutionary biology to explore the dynamic processes that have and will continue to shape life on Earth. 

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. 

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.”