Jan Mojto

This interview originally appeared in the MIPCOM 2013 issue of World Screen.

One of the first television executives to set up international co-productions, Jan Mojto, the managing director of Beta Film, has more than 20 years’ experience bringing together partners and bridging cultures, viewers’ tastes and broadcasters’ needs. In the process he has witnessed the development of the European television industry, one that two decades ago struggled with making episodic television, but today, across the continent, is able to create high-end successful series.

WS: What were the challenges involved with co-producing mini-series and TV movies back in the early ’90s?
MOJTO: The European television business was dominated by public broadcasters and the fact that they were the key players meant that these co-productions were of high quality and very often adaptations of works of literature. These were high-class programs, in terms of content as well as production values.

WS: How different are co-productions today?
MOJTO: Today we are in a completely different world. The players on one side are still European public broadcasters, but also commercial networks and the Netflixes of this world. The players today do not have the same objectives. The public broadcasters in the ’90s, notwithstanding all their differences, were ruled by certain basic principles, which were accepted by all of them. Now with this mix of Internet channels, classic public television and commercial networks, it’s much more complicated. It’s more work to bring those together. You need to finance the production before you start. In terms of program format, the ’90s were very much dominated by mini-series and TV movies and today’s it’s series, 12 episodes, like Borgia for example. Not so many subjects these days are based on literature or if they are, it’s a different kind of literature. It’s not Tolstoy; it’s more commercial, works that are more easily accessible to the viewer.

WS: If the partners now are so varied, is it harder to find common ground on the subject matter?
MOJTO: Strangely enough it’s not, because given all those differences, if you have the right elements such as the right subject and the right showrunner, you can bring the partners together. This is a completely new element in TV co-production. Who the showrunner is may be the determining factor in putting together the financial package. In the ’90s, it was very, very, rare that we had U.S. partners. Today, in order to complete the financing, you often have to also take into consideration the requirements of the American market. And that means their style of the storytelling. The essential, and quite often the only necessary element is the showrunner and perhaps the cast. Borgia is a perfect example of what’s happening now. If you have a subject that has international potential and you have the right creative elements, then you can attract interest from major players also in the English-speaking world.

WS: In the early ’90s, Britain and Germany were the only two markets that had considerable experience producing and writing series for television. Has that changed?
MOJTO: Completely. At MIPTV this year we presented—and it was a deliberate choice—programs that illustrated how rich serial production in Europe is. We had the series Grand Hotel from Spain, which now has 60 episodes of 45 minutes. This is a high-end production, similar in quality to Downton Abbey. Also in Spain we are in production with Alatriste, 12 hours based on very popular novels by Arturo Perez-Reverte set in the 17th century during the golden age of Spain. It’s an international production, not shot in English. Grand Hotel has great potential for distribution and we hope so does Alatriste. In Italy, we are producing Gomorra, a series based on a film by Roberto Saviano that won at the Cannes Film Festival. We developed this 12-part series together with Cattleya for SKY Italia and it is in production now. In France, along with Atlantique, we are the main producers on Borgia.

Another element that is new today, compared to 20 years ago, is that whatever you produce, in whatever country, the question is: Does it have potential for international distribution? If yes, you should try to do it properly, respecting international standards of storytelling and production values. What is also new is that this doesn’t apply only to English-speaking productions but also to Grand Hotel, which was shot in Spanish. It aired in Britain on Sky Arts [in Spanish with English subtitles] so there is no longer a language barrier, and the one between Europe and the U.S. will disappear soon.

WS: What kind of locally produced series and mini-series is Beta Film interested in representing? Does it depend on the subject matter, whether it can be exported and the quality of the production?
MOJTO: We do not have any strict rules about what we represent. If the day came that we had a rule, it would definitely mean that we would exclude something; we would be limiting ourselves, and this we should not do. My aim, and the corporate culture of Beta Film, is to remain open and not maintain any sort of rigid beliefs about what might work or what might not work.

I can give you an example: the series Generation War. We are used to seeing war movies from the American point of view or from the French point of view. Why do something where you tell the story of World War II from the German point of view? There are only reasons not to do it; nevertheless we decided to do it and started developing a Band of Brothers from Germany. We financed the deficit in order to achieve high international standards of quality because the stories were good. What came out was a fascinating drama. It has sold to more than 60 territories already. Swedish television has not shown any German programs in prime time in the last ten years, but Generation War achieved the highest ratings in July. It was broadcast in Denmark with similar results. It aired in Poland and was very controversial because the Poles really suffered very much during the war because of the Germans, but it was very successful there as well. We sold it to the U.S. and Australia for theatrical release. All the broadcasters in France were interested and Canal+ bought it.

Having said all that, you do not know at the beginning if something will work. The subject has to be interesting, and perhaps can have a general appeal. Then you have to produce it properly but you also have to be lucky. As I said earlier, you always have to steer away from preconceived notions: the danger comes the moment you are sure you know what does not work, because then you may miss opportunities. But if you start a project believing you know what does work, it’s even worse. This is very simple and nothing new and perhaps one of the basics of the industry.

WS: What reaction has Generation War been getting?
MOJTO: It has generated a similar reaction in everyone—people who have watched it were completely taken. It’s fascinating storytelling. I have shown it to many clients and when we have people here at Beta Film screening it, I try to sit in a corner and see what the buyer or the network executive is feeling, and I have never seen such undivided attention. At the end of the day, it’s very simple: yes, we are telling the story about the war, but we are telling human stories and human destinies in the most exceptional times and in the most difficult situations. And perhaps this is one of the big changes compared to the ’90s. Back then we were very inclined to portray historical events. Today, even if it is a historical subject, we are telling human stories. And given the number of channels, linear and nonlinear, that are available today, we have so many more opportunities to tell stories. Channels are hungry for programming and this leads to the production of series like Borgia, Gomorra, Alatriste, and so on.

WS: Since U.S. dramas have been selling better in Europe in recent years, has that had an impact on the quality of European productions?
MOJTO: Yes, CSI and HBO series have changed the way we tell stories in Europe. U.S. series are the best series and this is what we measure ourselves against, this is the art of storytelling. The nice thing is that from time to time we succeed in producing something similar. Currently, we have a Flemish crime-series called Salamander, a fascinating piece, could be an American series, in the best sense of the term.

WS: Are there upcoming series you would like to mention?
MOJTO: I am developing with my partner Niko Hofmann (with whom I did Generation War) a series of eight hours, probably ten, on Adolf Hitler. It’s a controversial subject, but we want to tell it from the German point of view and definitely for the international audience. This is a big challenge creatively for many reasons. If we succeed in doing what we want, it will be interesting and should also be successful.

WS: Are there projects you still have not done that you would like to do?
MOJTO: Yes, there is one idea, which we are already developing. Kaliningrad, a seaport city in the Russian enclave between Lithuania and Poland was, for more than 600 years till 1945, a German city called Königsberg and the surrounding area was populated by Germans. The country life there was very similar to English country life, with large estates, big houses, people coming and staying for weeks at a time. It was a different world. My dream is to do a long-running series, which tells the stories and uniqueness of this world that vanished at the end of World War II because the whole population had to leave. There are many fascinating elements to the series: the people who loved the outdoors and nature, the big estates, the importance of the family, fight for survival, geopolitical situations…and unique characters. It should be a mix of Brideshead Revisited and Downton Abbey, but German.