Talent Scouts

Andy Fry checks in with leading distributors about the hunt for scripted talent and the art of successful collaboration.

Demand for TV drama in 2017 remains as rampant as ever, so it’s no surprise to see that international distributors continue to invest significant sums in producers and writers. Some are lucky enough to have access to in-house talent, either from related production divisions or through the group level acquisition of independent labels. But even such access doesn’t diminish the competition for third-party content creators. For every equity investment, there is a complex array of first-look and development deals.

Explaining the importance of these relationships, Liam Keelan, the director of scripted content at BBC Worldwide, says it’s all about the pursuit of great stories that can work on an international stage. “We have strong in-house relationships, but we want to work with the best creative talent we can get hold of, wherever it is.”

Inevitably, the types of deals being done by distributors vary according to their scale in the market. Pancho Mansfield, Entertainment One (eOne) Television’s president of global scripted programming, says that his firm’s activities range from the $133-million acquisition of a 51-percent interest in The Mark Gordon Company to the recent multiyear overall TV first-look deal with Olive Productions, the company founded by actors/directors Steve Buscemi and Stanley Tucci and executive producer Wren Arthur. Such is the range of commercial and creative relationships that it’s hard to distill eOne’s requirements down to a simple formula, says Mansfield. “If I had to summarize it, I’d say it’s about access to material and talent.”

FremantleMedia’s activity in drama has involved a string of investments, among them Kwaï in France, Wildside in Italy and Miso Film in Scandinavia, and the revival of Euston Films in the U.K. Christian Vesper, executive VP and creative director of global drama at FremantleMedia, observes, “The companies we are involved with are among the best at what they do. But what they also have in common is a desire to grow internationally. My job is to work with each of them to achieve that in ways that suit their cultures.”

HEAD START
Rola Bauer, the managing director of STUDIOCANAL TV, oversees a similarly complex set of relationships. Her view is that recognizable talent can give projects a boost right at the outset. “We have long-standing relationships with best-selling authors Harlan Coben and Ken Follett. Having well-known and universally admired creative names or brands to tap into means that you already have a strong international fan base at the start.”

That producers are willing to go along with more involved arrangements with distributors is, in part, a reflection of the changing complexion of the international drama business, says David Ellender, the president of global distribution and co-productions at Sonar Entertainment. “Companies like Sonar aren’t just distributors. We have sales teams that feed intelligence back from the international market, but our partnerships with producers are more complex than that. We’re a studio, providing production support at every level.”

The international nature of the business means that the search for first-look and development relationships is now a global pursuit, says Caroline Torrance, the head of scripted at Banijay Rights. “We are looking everywhere,” she says. “We have a relationship with U.S./U.K. producer Arise Pictures, but we are not limited to English-speaking markets. We have distribution deals with the likes of Haut et Court in France and Entre Chien et Loup in Belgium, for example.”

“Producers and writers with proven track records are in strong demand, so a big part of our job is finding new voices,” observes Amelie von Kienlin, the senior VP of scripted acquisitions and co-productions at Red Arrow International. “A lot of our efforts go into talking to feature film and theater talents that are interested in moving over to TV series. Or maybe looking at markets where the talent isn’t so well known internationally.”

These fresh voices can then be partnered with talent that is already found within the Red Arrow family. A good example, says von Kienlin, is Embassy Down, a co-production bet­ween Red Arrow International and MTG Studios in Scandinavia. The show is a political thriller created and written by Anders Frithiof August, marking his first English-language project. One of the executive producers on the show is Henrik Bastin, who heads Red Arrow’s U.S. production division Fabrik Entertainment (producers of Bosch). “We are able to take Anders’ vision and help him create something that will work on the international stage,” von Kienlin says.

TALENT CHECKLIST
Content Media is keen to expand its network of drama producers, following successful partnerships with the likes of World Productions on Line of Duty and several other shows, including The Secret Agent, The Bletchley Circle and The Great Train Robbery. “We have also recently partnered with Deadpan Pictures on an exclusive first-look deal,” says Greg Phillips, Content’s president of distribution. Deadpan’s lineup includes the RTÉ hit series Can’t Cope, Won’t Cope, which Content licensed to BBC Three in the U.K.

“We look for quality, innovative and exciting ideas,” says Phillips. “A twist, something that will have resonance with audiences throughout the world. Things that are universal and yet individual enough to pique the audience’s interest. When there are so many other things out there, you have to give every project something special. [You want] characters who viewers want to watch on a week-by-week basis or who, frankly, make them want to sit up all night and lose sleep! That’s a fairly tall order, and for that, you need to find a balance between writing, execution, talent, ideas and sometimes you need to go out on a limb for things. We look for what we believe will be excellent. For us as an independent, it’s just much more necessary to pick winners.”

Similarly, Keelan says that third-party producers need to bring an editorial focus that fits BBC Worldwide’s strategic goals—without replicating existing partnerships. “They also need to be collaborative. Go back a few years and companies like ours would wait for shows to come off the production line. But now we expect to have a much closer relationship during development and production—to make sure that the end result is right for the international market.”

STARTING EARLY
Among BBC Worldwide’s portfolio of partnerships is Cuba Pictures, the production arm of literary and talent agency Curtis Brown. Initially signed in 2014, the partnership was renewed in 2016 and now involves an equity investment from BBC Worldwide. “Cuba gives us great access to new literary properties as they come to the market,” says Keelan, “so that’s a relationship where we talk about projects at the earliest stages of development.”

One Cuba project that has come to fruition is McMafia, an eight-part underworld thriller based on the book of the same name. With a star-studded writing team and James Norton (War & Peace) in the lead, the show has recently secured AMC as a co-production partner in the U.S.

For Ellender at Sonar, “The key to third-party relationships is finding talent that can rise above the competition. You have to have the best talent and the best projects, because if you get stuck in the mid-range, your project probably won’t get seen.”

Examples of Sonar projects include Taboo, the BBC One/FX series starring Tom Hardy and produced by his Hardy, Son & Baker and Ridley Scott’s Scott Free London. Sonar also has development deals with George Clooney and Grant Heslov’s Smokehouse Pictures and Robert Downey Jr.’s Team Downey.

Hardy, Scott, Clooney and Downey are obviously eye-catching names, but Ellender stresses that relationships of this kind are not just about badging projects. “We approach every relationship very diligently—regardless of who is involved. You have to be certain that you share a creative vision and philosophy, and that they have specific projects in mind that will work for the international market. There’s no room in this business for vanity deals.”

MATCHMAKING
At MarVista Entertainment, new creative pacts are enabling the company to move into the series space after building a thriving TV movie business. For CEO Fernando Szew, a key development has been “the growing amount of film talent looking to work in TV and digital. We are working with John Singleton [Boyz n the Hood, Shaft] on Rebel, a police drama for cable channel BET. John brings experience, marketability and rich storytelling skills. In addition to all of that, he is the right person to specifically target the audience that BET is trying to attract.”

MarVista’s push into series has also seen it join forces with the U.S. production firm Piller/Segan on Sea Change (working title) for Lifetime in the U.S. “Relationships with established U.S. showrunners are core to our business because there is such a rich array of talent,” says Szew, “but we are also looking to the international market for partnerships. We’re very comfortable in Latin America and have worked with leading players there, such as Caracol in Colombia.”

Echoing the trend toward global drama, Mansfield says eOne has U.S. and international relationships that are managed out of L.A., Toronto, London and Sydney. “Sometimes we are working on projects that have been generated in-house and sometimes by third parties. In the case of Sharp Objects, we are the producer. We secured the rights to Gillian Flynn’s novel and that has now been placed as an HBO series with Marti Noxon as showrunner, Jean-Marc Vallée as director and Amy Adams in the lead. That’s different than a project like Cardinal, where Sienna Films had the rights to the books and we came on board because we liked them.”

Torrance says that Banijay is always interested in working with producers who have good relationships with writers, “but we’re also looking for companies that have a real desire to work with a distributor. Some producers are very focused on their domestic market, but we need partners who are creatively interested in the international market, not just the upfront distribution advance.”

She cites the example of Banijay’s relationship with Racine Media. “We are working with Racine on a new detective franchise. We are helping them shape and orient the project to the international market. We think there will be huge interest in a new detective franchise.”

TRACKING PROGRESS
Distributors’ level of involvement in the creative process differs by company and by nature of the deal.

“Whatever the setup, we are very involved in the material,” says Mansfield at eOne. “You have to trust and believe in the talent, but you also need to stay connected to the casting, the choice of director and so on because that’s how you ensure a return on your investment. You have to have a point of view.”

That said, Mansfield notes that it’s important not to micromanage projects. “You want to be very involved at the start to make sure it has been set up in a way that works for everyone. But if you are too involved in the specifics after that, it’s probably a sign that things aren’t going as well as they should.”

“The intrinsic integrity of a project has to be maintained,” states Content’s Phillips. “For us as sales agents or distributors, we’ve got to be interested in a project for what we believe it will be. We signed up for it on the basis that on a macro level, and hopefully on a micro level, it will meet our customers’ needs. Through the process, it’s necessary to give input where you think what’s going on is affecting the commercial integrity of the piece. The commissioning broadcaster is paying the lion’s share of the bill and they have highly experienced and highly creative people on the case. We don’t want to come down to the set and tell someone how to light it; we trust that they know how to do that. We’ll give a comment if we think it makes sense. As things go along, we are interested in looking at rushes, first cuts and rough cuts from the point of view of marketing. The earlier that we see what we’re getting, the earlier we can make our plans and get the word out there that this is something special and here’s why. Being involved throughout and being aware helps us do our job in the end.”

BALANCING ACT
Banijay’s Torrance agrees that distributors have to find the right balance between trusting a producer’s instincts and setting specific goals for them. “Some visionary authored pieces become massive hits, so you have to find room for producers who have passion projects. But we also look for partners who want to work with us in response to the market’s needs. Part of our development with Arise, for example, is looking at how we can reinvent the procedural, which is in such demand in Europe.”

Much of STUDIOCANAL’s relationship-building is handled at the level of its individual production companies, explains Bauer. “Our production companies have deep alliances and connections with the writers and creatives they work with.” Examples include RED Production Company with Danny Brocklehurst, and TANDEM Productions with Callie Khouri (Nashville) and music producer T Bone Burnett on Deep City. Also out of TANDEM is Brazza, which is a co-production with Save Ferris Entertainment in association with Idris Elba’s Green Door Pictures.

Keelan reports that BBC Worldwide wants to be “as involved as we can be, without being prescriptive. It’s about ensuring that the production is progressing well without giving notes on every page of the script.”

As an example of Sonar’s involvement with its creative partners, Ellender cites Das Boot, a venture with Bavaria Fernsehproduktion and Sky Deutschland. “We have global distribution rights (outside of Sky’s European territories), but we’ve also been involved during the early stages of the production to ensure that the show can work in the U.S. and globally. One way we have done this is by bringing in American writers to support the show’s lead writer.”

TEAM SPIRIT
FremantleMedia’s Vesper says that it’s important to be involved in scripting and casting decisions, to ensure that the project is progressing in the right way. He cites the example of Picnic at Hanging Rock, a FremantleMedia Australia production for Foxtel that will star Natalie Dormer. “We were able to introduce Australian writer Beatrix Christian to Canadian director Larysa Kondracki, who has worked on series like Better Call Saul and The Walking Dead. That’s the kind of creative connection that we are well-placed to initiate.”

There can be a perception—perhaps as a throwback to the days of drama Europuddings—that distributors will force-fit cast members into TV series to appeal to buyers in that country.

“You can’t shoehorn actors into shows, but I think the situation has become more flexible because today’s audiences are more comfortable with actors from different countries or the use of subtitles in dramas,” Banijay’s Torrance says.

Red Arrow’s von Kienlin says that the right casting decision from a distributor can also improve a show’s prospects on the international market. For example, it was Red Arrow that first suggested Iain Glen (Game of Thrones) for Cleverman, the ABC Australia and SundanceTV U.S. co-pro set in a futuristic dystopia. In the early days of development, Glen’s involvement became the hook for promoting the series to international buyers.

An emerging mandate for distributors is discovering new talent. “It’s about having a mindset that makes room for new talent and encourages diversity,” says eOne’s Mansfield. “We do that through a scriptwriting competition that we support and by creating opportunities for people to join writing rooms on shows.”

“Our approach would be to bring talent up through long-running series,” says Banijay’s Torrance, “because it’s a great way to learn the realities of production. It’s something all of us need to think about as producers and distributors, because you can wait 18 months or two years for the top writers to become available.”

Pictured: Red Arrow’s Cleverman.