Rakia Media and Crystal City Entertainment Acquire Media Rights to the Chia Pet® Brand
With a vision of building an animated feature film or animated series, Adam Jay Epstein, Rakia Media and Crystal City Entertainment proudly announce the acquisition of the media rights to the iconic Chia Pet® brand. The deal was spearheaded by Producer/Writer Adam Jay Epstein and Producers Ari Daniel Pinchot and Jonathan Rubenstein, who secured the rights under their IP holding company, Rakia Media, and their film/TV production banner, Crystal City Entertainment.
Since its launch in the early 1980s, Chia Pet® has grown from a novelty gift item into an iconic pop culture brand, selling over 30 million units in the U.S. to date. The terra cotta planters broke into the mainstream in 1982 courtesy of memorable TV spots featuring the instantly recognizable jingle “Ch-ch-ch-chia!” Over the decades, the line expanded to include dozens of animals, licensed characters.
This media rights acquisition represents the second major piece of beloved legacy IP brought into Rakia Media under the leadership of Ari Pinchot, who also co-owns the legendary Backyard Sports video game franchise—currently being re-launched in partnership with Playground Productions.
Ari Pinchot and Jonathan Rubenstein bring a track record of prestige and commercial success to the adaptation with credits that include Everything Must Go, He Wanted the Moon, The Ides of March, The God Committee and Lee Daniels: The Butler. The duo is currently adapting the Lisa Jewell New York Times Bestseller Then She Was Gone and will be announcing a partnership with another piece of popular children’s IP next month.
Adam Jay Epstein is the internationally best-selling author of Snared, Have You Seen Gordon? and is the co-author of The Familiars. He has written, directed and produced projects for Paramount, SYFY, Amblin, WB, Netflix, Fox, MGM, Sony Animation, Spyglass, Disney+, Lionsgate, Riot Games and MTV. He co-created the horror series The Unsettling for AwesomenessTV and co-wrote the teen comedy Not Another Teen Movie starring Chris Evans for Sony.
Crystal City is repped by UTA. Adam Jay Epstein is repped by UTA, Fourth Wall Management and Lichter, Grossman.
The Rakia Media and Crystal City team is actively exploring strategic partnerships and collaborators to fully realize the commercial and storytelling potential of the Chia Pet® franchise.
