Global Indies Form Creative Alliance

Nine independent production companies from eight countries have formed a creative and development alliance called The Creatives, which has the backing of Fremantle.

The Creatives is comprised of Haut Et Court (France), Maipo Film (Norway), Unité (France), Lemming Film (Netherlands), Razor Film (Denmark), Masha (U.S.), Versus Production (Belgium), Spiro (Israel) and Good Chaos (U.K.). The alliance was designed to house a slate of high-end drama series and films and increase their collective power.

The new label has struck a three-year partnership agreement with Fremantle, which will help develop and fund high-quality international drama series. They will be working in collaboration with Christian Vesper, president of global drama.

The films and series produced by the group will be signed under the newly formed label The Creatives. The group will work closely together in co-production and strategic partnerships, sharing information and combining each other’s talent and networks.

The Creatives said: “Nine companies, nine different identities, who want to keep their individuality and their cultures as well as that of the talent they work with. We cooperate, we exchange ideas, we develop, we produce and we maintain our idiosyncrasies. In return, as a response to the exponential growth of the market, we offer writers and directors a home of a significant scale where they will benefit from a global approach. At the same time, they retain control of their stories and keep hold of rights as much as possible. In this hugely competitive world, we all believe it is the only way to swim upstream and stay ahead of our competitors.”

Carole Scotta, Haut Et Court co-founder, said: “We have pioneered this unique deal structure, with the valued support and backing of Fremantle. The Creatives will protect the independent development process that has been the backbone of storytelling in Europe for decades. We unite in order to stay as free and creatively interesting as possible and supply films and series which audiences will respond to. We are committed to offering fair conditions to the talent we work with and to strengthening the long-term relationships with our writers, showrunners and directors as well as with new talent. Fremantle has given us their full support and, importantly, complete creative freedom, and we look forward to partnering with Christian, Andrea and the Fremantle team as we look to build a diverse slate of high-quality series.”

Vesper said: “At Fremantle, we proudly support the independent production community and the array of exceptional talent that it represents. Today’s announcement underlines this commitment, and we look forward to partnering with each of the brilliant production companies which represent The Creatives. At Fremantle, we believe passionately in providing our valued partners and our brilliant talent with the right level of support, whilst also fully embracing their independence, creativity and complete freedom to work unencumbered with the network or platform that is best suited for each project. This successful formula is in the Fremantle DNA and represents a perfect fit for this groundbreaking and innovative new label. We believe The Creatives will deliver a consistent slate of high-quality, authentic and sophisticated productions, each of which will have creative freedom at its very heart, and we are extremely proud to be partnering with them.”