{"id":13140,"date":"2020-05-12T09:00:07","date_gmt":"2020-05-12T13:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev2.worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/worldscreen.com\/"},"modified":"2020-05-13T09:19:50","modified_gmt":"2020-05-13T13:19:50","slug":"wild-sheep-contents-erik-barmack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/wild-sheep-contents-erik-barmack\/","title":{"rendered":"Wild Sheep’s Erik Barmack"},"content":{"rendered":"

Erik Barmack, CEO of Wild Sheep Content, talks to <\/em>TV Drama about launching his own outfit following his tenure as head of international originals at Netflix.<\/em><\/p>\n

As head of international originals at Netflix, Erik Barmack developed a keen ability to spot standout concepts and creative storytellers in the global marketplace for shows that would resonate with a global fan base, resulting in hits like Sacred Games\u00a0<\/em>and Money Heist<\/em>. As CEO of his own outfit, Wild Sheep Content, Barmack is carrying on that tradition, recently securing investment from The Mediapro Studio.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA:<\/strong> When you founded Wild Sheep, what gaps were you looking to fill in the marketplace?
\nBARMACK: <\/strong>There are these huge global production companies like Banijay, ITV Studios and Fremantle, with significant infrastructure. Then there are disparate, talented producers around the world who are independent and not necessarily connected to Hollywood. And there\u2019s been a rise of global streamers looking for international content. The thinking was to build out packages of content for global streamers that want more \"***Image***\"international content and take advantage of the fact that content is really crossing borders. Wild Sheep was set up around that premise. For example, we\u2019re taking out a project, which is getting a lot of attention, where we optioned a Stephen King book called The Plant<\/em>. The vast majority of Stephen King\u2019s readers are non-English-speaking. But he\u2019s never done a project outside of the English language. What would it look like to take a book like that, package him with a director like Alexandre Aja, who has worked in both Hollywood and France, and then set it up in Paris? That\u2019s what we\u2019re in the process of doing right now. To do that, you would need to know local producers and you\u2019d also need to know the talent agencies [in the U.S.] Things like that are what get me going. And it could be the other way, too. We\u2019ve optioned important books in Turkey and packaged them up in a way that might be a little more palatable to the global streamers. IP is crossing boundaries and borders in a way that the traditional mode of production didn\u2019t anticipate.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA:<\/strong> In the short amount of time that Wild Sheep has been up and running, what have been some of the biggest lessons for you as a producer and packager of content?
\nBARMACK: <\/strong>You really have to love each project, because it\u2019s a lot of connecting the dots and two steps forward, one step back. Coming from Netflix and doing this on the other side had me fairly well prepared. On the positive side, there is such an appetite for international content now, and you can see it. The Witcher <\/em>is one of the top shows on Netflix\u2014that\u2019s a show I worked on, based on Polish novels\u2014La Casa de Papel<\/em> [Money Heist<\/em>] in Spain was a big hit, Parasite<\/em> at the Oscars. The ambition to be international has completely changed. I feel like that\u2019s changed in the [year] since I left Netflix.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA:<\/strong> Tell us about the alliance with The Mediapro Studio and what it enables you to do going forward.
\nBARMACK: <\/strong>Mediapro is one of the more aggressive companies in Europe. They\u2019re putting some investment into my company. I think of Laura [Fern\u00e1ndez Espeso, corporate director and co-head of television at The Mediapro Studio] as one of the smartest people in terms of thinking about international strategy. They have sales forces around the world, so if we\u2019re trying to piece together co-productions, they can help. And then they have physical production spaces, so if we need soundstages and things like that, that can be part of what we\u2019re doing as well. I just think of them as a very aggressive, big company that is focused on international production, and they\u2019re not super heavy in Los Angeles right now. So there\u2019s a good opportunity to find some synergies with me being L.A.-based and them being Europe- and LatAm-based.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA:<\/strong> I\u2019m hearing that production costs keep rising, and there\u2019s a strain on talent pools. How are you navigating that?
\nBARMACK: <\/strong>It depends on the market. In a lot of these markets, you may just run out of crews or established producers, so it\u2019s either going to be that people have to take chances on newer companies, or costs will go up. I think that\u2019s probably a good thing. Over time, the macro view is that it\u2019s going to lead to more stories from around the world being heard, and investment in regions besides the U.S. [will increase]. This false constraint that everything has to come through Hollywood has ended. But there will be disruption around that, too.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA:<\/strong> As a boutique outfit, how many projects can you reasonably manage at any one time?
\nBARMACK: <\/strong>I have a half a dozen projects so far in development. And that\u2019s out of a slate of nine or ten projects I took out towards the end of last year. I\u2019m in the process now of building a second slate of development projects. I\u2019ll take out another ten. Then you look at how many of those ten you can get to development and how many of those development projects you can get to series. I have the ability to hire people. Also, in all these cases, I\u2019m working with local production services companies or producers on the ground, so it\u2019s not as though I need to build out a big production infrastructure to be successful.<\/p>\n

This interview was conducted prior to the COVID-19 global pandemic. Media companies are currently shifting their strategies in the wake of production postponements and economic trends.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The CEO talks about launching his own outfit following his tenure as head of international originals at Netflix.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":290,"featured_media":13141,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,70],"tags":[3857,3538],"class_list":["post-13140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-interviews","category-top-stories","tag-erik-barmack","tag-wild-sheep-content","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\nWild Sheep's Erik Barmack - TVDRAMA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/wild-sheep-contents-erik-barmack\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Wild Sheep's Erik Barmack - TVDRAMA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The CEO talks about launching his own outfit following his tenure as head of international originals at Netflix.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/wild-sheep-contents-erik-barmack\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"TVDRAMA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-05-12T13:00:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-05-13T13:19:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2017\/07\/Erik-Barmack-WildSheep.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"416\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mansha Daswani\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mansha Daswani\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/wild-sheep-contents-erik-barmack\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/wild-sheep-contents-erik-barmack\/\",\"name\":\"Wild Sheep's Erik Barmack - TVDRAMA\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-05-12T13:00:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-05-13T13:19:50+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/#\/schema\/person\/83da304c8bad8bfdb3edd7eb47cfe5ad\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/wild-sheep-contents-erik-barmack\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/wild-sheep-contents-erik-barmack\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/wild-sheep-contents-erik-barmack\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Wild Sheep’s Erik Barmack\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/\",\"name\":\"TVDRAMA\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/#\/schema\/person\/83da304c8bad8bfdb3edd7eb47cfe5ad\",\"name\":\"Mansha Daswani\",\"description\":\"Mansha Daswani is the editor-in-chief and associate publisher of World Screen. 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