MIPCOM Slates Producers’ Forum with Pillars of the Earth Partners

PARIS: MIPCOM’s Producers’ Forum, presented in association with World Screen, is to include a master class featuring the co-producers of the TV adaptation of Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth: Tandem Communications and Scott Free Television.

Tandem’s senior partner and managing director, Rola Bauer, and Scott Free Television’s president, David Zucker, will detail how the co-production deal was put together and spotlight the creative financial models and production strategies that were developed in making this eight-hour thriller.

This year marks the second Producers’ Forum event at MIPCOM, both of which organized in association with World Screen. The events take place October 4 and 5.

“The Pillars of the Earth is a ground-breaking co-production that perfectly illustrates how producers are now operating across borders for creative collaboration,” said Laurine Garaude, the director of the television division at Reed MIDEM. “This Producers’ Forum case study is a good way for producers to understand the process that makes such inspiring programme ideas a reality, from concept to distribution.”

"Ken Follett’s masterpiece, The Pillars of the Earth, became an instant worldwide bestseller," commented Bauer. “It became our challenge to do our job equally well and make the adaptation live up to everyone’s expectations. We did this in the worst worldwide economic crisis since 1929. Raising a US$40 million budget and making sure that it gets on screen, was not an easy task, but that’s what Tandem’s core business model has always been about. It’s not just understanding the most efficient way to put quality on screen, it’s about earning the trust of the key networks worldwide and listening to their voice and finding the common ground that everyone can benefit from. This one was especially challenging, but so well worth it."

"We approached the production of The Pillars of the Earth as if it were making a series of theatrical films, akin to Lord Of The Rings; beginning with a single director for the entire series, Sergio Mimica-Gezzan, whose vision provided a continuity of story-telling and cleverness in execution which was critical to both the quality and scale of the project," added Zucker. “Particularly because of this economic time, there was nothing routine about the production. A new world order needed to be achieved, and working with an international company like Tandem, which is truly expert in navigating international waters, proved emphatically that it can be done…it is still possible to provide networks worldwide with highest-calibre event fiction entertainment."