James Norton was joined on stage by his Rabbit Track Pictures co-founder Kitty Kaletsky at the Series Mania Forum today to discuss the motivations, discoveries and ambitions of their production venture.
Norton, an Olivier- and BAFTA-nominated British TV, film and theater actor, known for roles in Happy Valley, War & Peace and McMafia, among others, set up Rabbit Track in 2019. “As an actor, I started to realize that there’s a disconnect between the way actors are treated and the credit they take from the overall production and their actual contribution, and I really started to hanker after more creative contribution,” he said. “I showed an interest in producing, and an investment opportunity came up, and I knew that I needed a partner in crime to make it happen. It was born of this idea that actors are often talked about as artists; I do believe that as an actor, you have a lot of contribution, but a lot of it is nonsense. You’re told where you stand, what to wear, the tone of the thing, all of it is decided for you, and I really hankered after a bit more of that creative contribution.”
He said he knew it was time to enter production when he began to feel a real need for greater creative control. “I started to realize that, quietly, the control freak in me was like, I could do this better and I want to be part of that conversation over there,” he said. “Now it’s a nightmare being on a set that I’m not producing on, because I see the producers huddled in the corner dealing with the big stuff and they are making the big creative decisions. What I have learned recently is that so much of the world-building is done years before the actors are invited onto the set. Once you’ve been in that room sitting around the table building worlds, building people, building these relationships, everything else pales into insignificance. I want to be in that conversation.”
Norton knew that he needed a partner in setting up a production venture, so he reached out Kaletsky, who was running Black Bear’s TV department in Los Angeles. “I asked her, Do you know anyone who might want to jump on board this slightly crazy, hairbrained idea? And at the end of the call, I said, Maybe you might also want to do it with me? And about a month or two later, she called me back and said, I’m looking for a reason to come back, and yes. That was the moment this whole project started. Honestly, everyone asks me, What’s the trick? If there is a trick to having a company, particularly in the current climate—and we have this wonderful momentum, and now we have Banijay behind us—but it’s all about the person you team up with at the beginning.”
Kaletsky said that the decision wasn’t without hesitation, though. “It was a real worry of mine at first because we were good friends; there are versions of this that don’t work out because you’re not a true partnership and you’re not working alongside somebody who’s throwing their all in from a not just creative perspective but from a strategy perspective and practically and devoting their time,” she said. “But I was really lucky with James. We didn’t know that it would work out, but he has it in his DNA. First of all, the luck worked in both directions. But then we made a really conscious decision at the inception period, on the one hand, to turbocharge the beginning of our journey by attaching James [to the projects]. First it was to a movie called Rogue Agent that we sold to Netflix, and then to our first two series. We hoped, despite the brilliance of the creative, that ideally it would help get those greenlights more quickly. Then, beyond that, in terms of how we’ve built our slate and what we choose, from a very general, more formal perspective, as viewers and as consumers, we love classy European storytelling, but with a global outlook and commercial outlook. When we read something, it’s just got to have that really surprising ‘We’ve got to do this, haven’t we?’ element to it. It’s got to have something that shocks us.”
The projects at Rabbit Track have been varied—from action-packed thrillers, to comedic horrors and female-led, genre-bending dramas. “At the beginning, as Kitty said, we were driven and guided by our shared taste, which was and generally is aligned,” Norton said. “As an actor, you come on these things for a couple of months. As a producer, you’re developing it for years; if you don’t love all the material, you’re screwed. So, we’ve made sure that everything we have jumped on board with, we love and are willing to spend those many years on. In terms of the through line, though, we look back in hindsight, and it’s family, it’s relationships, it’s character at the front and center. It’s authentic.”
The venture was conceived as a vehicle for both film and television, with a balance right now of about 20 percent in the movie arena and 80 percent in TV. Initially, the idea was for Norton to be in about half of the projects, irrespective of the medium—though he admits that he falls in love with every project and winds up wanting to be attached. “It’s important for us as a company to separate ourselves from those companies that are purely talent-led. That was never the intention. We didn’t want to be a vanity project; it was never meant to be a company to build things for me to be in. It was because I was interested in and excited about the prospect of producing. We as a company—Kitty and I and our team—aren’t interested in just making stuff for people like me.”
Banijay UK picked up a stake in Rabbit Track in 2023 via the Banijay UK Growth Fund. “The starting point for us in terms of investment in a new production company or an emerging production company is: are people in the market going to buy from these producers?” said Patrick Holland, executive chair and CEO of Banijay UK. “I was hungry, looking and eager to meet people who are at different stages of their journey in terms of production companies to invest in. The fundamental criteria are: are these people going to be able to get shows greenlit? Are they able to gain traction? Are they going to be able to attract writers? Have they got a unique offer to the market in a very, very busy landscape?”
The audience saw a clip from King & Conqueror, an upcoming historical epic starring Norton produced by The Development Partnership, Rabbit Track Pictures, Shepherd Content, RVK Studios and CBS Studios, in association with the BBC.
“No one’s told the story of the Battle of Hastings before, which is quite extraordinary in itself,” Norton said of the project. “We were very fortunate to team up with a brilliant writer, Michael Robert Johnson, who is obsessed with this period of history. Rather than start with the battle or make that our centerpiece, the story ends with the final episode as the Battle of Hastings. Our series is really about the relationship between William and Harold, and true to life, they met, became friends, fought alongside each other, and their lives were inextricably linked. They both had these incredibly powerful wives who were the force behind each of the men. This project really started to explode when Kitty realized the way to unlock it is through the surrounding characters, particularly the wives, played by Emily Beecham and Clémence Poésy. Even though it’s a big show about men fighting out the biggest and most epic battle in England’s history, it’s actually a show about family. It’s domestic, it is fathers and sons and daughters, and that’s following our taste of what we’re interested in.”
