Lookout Point’s Simon Vaughan

Simon Vaughan has more than 25 years of experience producing scripted television for outlets on both sides of the Atlantic. He’s the chairman and joint CEO, with Faith Penhale, of Lookout Point, an independent production company focused on high-end British drama, of which BBC Worldwide holds a 49-percent stake. Lookout Point has made ambitious series such as War & Peace and The Collection. Vaughan has recently partnered with Access Entertainment and BBC Worldwide to form Benchmark Television, an entity that offers a new way of bringing projects to market.

WS: Tell us about your new venture, Benchmark.
VAUGHAN: It came out of a conversation with Danny Cohen [of Access Entertainment] who Faith [Penhale] and I knew very well from the BBC. When he was at the BBC, he had been a key man in helping us set up War & Peace with Harvey Weinstein. [Danny and I] talked about this idea of agnostically greenlighting drama before we take it out to the marketplace. We’re looking to work with the cream of the independent producing world. It’s really about getting the best people in a zone where they can do their best work and give them that creative space and protection. We hope they choose to work with us, a) because they know and trust in Faith and Danny, who are experienced in commissioning and talent-relationship management, and b) we hopefully offer a fast path [to production]. Even the most successful projects need patching together these days and doing the rounds of various broadcasters, not just in England but also in America and maybe another country or two. That’s quite normal now if you are trying to finance a TV series, particularly a big, ambitious TV series. There is a lot of schlepping and lots of dog and pony shows! What we’re saying is, if we love the project and we love the people and the material, and we know and trust them, let’s take the schlep out of it and just make the project free from any marketing process. It feels a bit like the book publishing industry. The writers are left free to write their work, and the publisher publishes their work. That’s how we see Benchmark.

We’re fully financed to greenlight the projects in the meeting if we like them enough. Getting our money back is where we and BBC Worldwide come into it. BBC Worldwide in my view is the world’s best distributor with impeccable global partnerships and relationships.

WS: It seems the demand for drama is at an all-time high. What stories do you want to tell?
VAUGHAN: At Lookout Point and Benchmark we are focused on working with the top writers, producers and on-screen talent. We are a writer-driven company. We just delivered a project with Sally Wainwright about the Brontë sisters called To Walk Invisible. We’re in preproduction on Les Misérables, written by Andrew Davies. We’re in preproduction for Press, our newspaper industry drama written by Mike Bartlett. The common denominator is that we’re working with the most significant writers from the U.K. telling the stories that they feel passionate about.

WS: Is Les Misérables going to be another big production in the style of War & Peace?
VAUGHAN: It’s even bigger! It’s an epic. Harvey is back on board. We’ve got a fantastic creative team. It was recently announced that Chris Carey is producing. Chris is probably one of the U.K.’s leading producers and is behind the hit series Apple Tree Yard. We are about to announce a wonderful director, and we’re crewing it up as we speak. It’s big and expensive, and it looks like we’re going to shoot in France and Belgium. Harvey is pulling out his phone book to help us attract the biggest and best cast we can.

We’re trying to unpack and retell a book that is arguably one of the greatest novels ever written. It’s a real privilege and not one we take lightly. The creative risk on War & Peace was terrifying. We take that incredibly seriously. With Les Misérables we are in very safe hands with Andrew Davies. He’s now written and delivered all the scripts and it’s fantastic. It tells the story that many people won’t have seen. It’s a lot of the bits that aren’t in the musical, which is what most people know it from.

WS: Is it easier to get some projects sold today than it was five or ten years ago?
VAUGHAN: It’s definitely easier because there’s a platform in each country that is probably right for any good project, emphasis on the word “good.” Niche projects are more in demand in some cases than mass-market projects. You can make more subtle idiosyncratic worlds, and you can play less to the crowds and really focus on what the creators want to say, what’s their unique vision? Sally Wainwright is a very good example of that. Sally doesn’t play to the crowd. By not playing to the crowd, her projects are phenomenally successful.

WS: Is it realistic to say that good quality work always finds a home?
VAUGHAN: Absolutely. The cream rises. I don’t think there is any danger that great projects won’t sell. Great projects sell very well. The trick for us is to make sure we only invest in great projects!