STUDIOCANAL Makes Trio of Production Company Investments

CANNES: STUDIOCANAL is expanding its TV series production abilities with investments in three companies: Benedict Cumberbatch’s SunnyMarch TV, Urban Myth Films and Spanish outfit Bambú Producciones.

The French production and distribution giant did not disclose the size of the investments, which add to a TV portfolio that includes subsidiaries TANDEM in Germany and RED Production Company in the U.K. and stakes in SAM in Denmark and Guilty Party in the U.K.

STUDIOCANAL chairman and CEO Didier Lupfer and COO Romain Bessi announced the investments at a press conference in Cannes this morning. Both executives stressed the importance of STUDIOCANAL expanding its TV business given its storied reputation in film.

“All three companies form some of the most promising TV production companies in Europe and we are very excited at the prospect of working with them,” Lupfer said. “As with our approach to film, we aim to develop series with strong European roots that also have international appeal. This is why we are especially pleased to be able to collaborate and develop projects with top personalities such as the producers, screenwriters, and actors linked to all three companies. This is a significant step in STUDIOCANAL’s development, one which demonstrates its ambitions in the production of high quality series.”

“Being based in Europe and having the geographic advantage of being in the center of Europe, we see that local content performs better than U.S. content on all the TV networks in the European countries,” Bessi said at the press briefing. “We thought we could replicate what we did on the movie side and then go for high-end local series and let them grow internationally.”

Bambú, founded by Teresa Fernández-Valdés and Ramón Campos, is known for productions like the BBC Worldwide alliance Refugees and the international hit Gran Hotel.

Urban Myth was set up by ex Shine Drama heads Johnny Capps and Julian Murphy and Misfits creator Howard Overman.

SunnyMarch TV is the new U.K. production company founded by Cumberbatch, who has strong ties with STUDIOCANAL’s film division via Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and The Imitation Game.

The company is not ruling out any further investments, but it has no plans to acquire an outfit in the U.S., where TANDEM has been co-producing projects for many years. “The U.S. market is very different,” Lupfer said. “We are totally focused on talent and telling stories based in Europe. If we want to have an alliance in the U.S., we will see on a case-by-case basis… to co-produce or co-finance [projects].”

In Europe, meanwhile, “We are fully open to extend our networks and production facilities,” Lupfer said.