Former Coppola colleague new head of arts for CBC-TV

CBC-TV has named film and TV producer Fred Fuchs, the former president of Francis Ford Coppola's production company American Zoetrope, its new head of arts and entertainment programming.

Over his 25-year career, Fuchs has produced a range of TV programs and movies, with credits including the acclaimed 1980s children's TV series Faerie Tale Theatre andsuch feature films as The Godfather: Part III, The Virgin Suicides and The Rainmaker.

After more than a dozen years working with Coppola at American Zoetrope, Fuchs left in 1998 to start an independent film, TV and new media production company in San Francisco. A few years later, he relocated to Canada to work in the Canadian independent production community.

Fuchs's recent credits include working with animation whiz Brad Peyton on his acclaimed What It's Like Being Alone, the dark stop-motion series about an orphanage filled with strange characters, scheduled to air on CBC-TV later this year.

Richard Stursberg, executive vice president of CBC Television, announced Fuchs's appointment Wednesday and praised his "passion for powerful, engaging, meaningful stories."

"His broad range of experience, his commitment to exceptional storytelling and his familiarity with and understanding of Canada's film and television production community make him the ideal choice," Stursberg said in a statement.

During his time in Canada and in his past work with the CBC, Fuchs said, he has observed one of the public broadcaster's main challenges: "both producing great Canadian programming for Canadians and bringing more Canadian viewers to it."

He added that he was looking forward to working with the "remarkable array of talent" in Canada and felt "honoured" to become one of those upholding the CBC mandate.

Fuchs is set to start his new post Monday.