Banijay Group Taps Drama Veteran for New Scripted Role

PARIS: Banijay Group has appointed Takis Candilis, who has worked at TF1 and Lagardère Entertainment, to the newly created post of head of scripted.

In this role, Candilis will be responsible for Banijay’s scripted production company in France, expanding the French scripted business and international drama output. He will also oversee the entire scripted production business for Banijay Group.

Candilis’s career spans more than 40 years. He has produced award-winning drama series such as Navarro, L’Instit and Quai No. 1. Candilis became head of drama at TF1 in 1999, taking on the additional responsibility of general assistant director of TF1 Production in 2002. He joined Lagardère Entertainment as the senior VP of audiovisual production in 2008.

Marco Bassetti, Group CEO of Banijay, commented, “We are extremely pleased to have one of the leading exponents of international scripted programming join us at Banijay Group. Takis has extraordinarily deep knowledge [of] and experience [with] developing and creating scripted content. It is an important next step for the group to grow its business in this important genre and, with Takis at the helm, we look forward to expanding our global presence in the drama arena.”

Candilis added: “It is certainly an exciting time to arrive at Banijay Group following the recent merger which has made it the world’s largest independent content-creation company. There are many award-winning fiction producers within the group and I look forward to working with them to determine new projects and to support them as they develop and widen their production slates.”