{"id":19164,"date":"2023-09-07T09:00:51","date_gmt":"2023-09-07T13:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev2.worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/worldscreen.com\/"},"modified":"2023-09-26T09:00:20","modified_gmt":"2023-09-26T13:00:20","slug":"paul-trijbits-jj-lousberg-launch-new-venture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/paul-trijbits-jj-lousberg-launch-new-venture\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Trijbits & JJ Lousberg Launch New Venture"},"content":{"rendered":"
Film and TV producer Paul Trijbits (Saving Mr. Banks<\/em>, The Casual Vacancy<\/em>) and producer and former Focus Features and Universal executive JJ Lousberg have launched Magical Society UK in partnership with Joann Sfar\u2019s Paris-based Magical Society.<\/p>\n Among the company\u2019s first greenlit projects is the six-part BBC One drama Virdee<\/em>, based on AA Dhand\u2019s best-selling crime novels. It follows Harry Virdee, a Bradford cop who is disowned by his Sikh family for marrying a Muslim. Amid the chaos of his personal life, he must hunt down a killer targeting the Asian community.<\/p>\n The series is being produced by Magical Society\u2019s crime-genre label Magical North in association with Screen Yorkshire. Cineflix Rights will distribute it worldwide.<\/p>\n Another project on the development slate is The Botanist<\/em>, from best-selling author M.W. Craven, to be adapted by Dhand. It is part of Craven\u2019s Washington Poe series of detective novels and combines a locked-room mystery where the chief suspect is one of Poe\u2019s colleagues with a poisoner targeting the rich and famous.<\/p>\n In advanced development is Monsters\u2019 Shrink<\/em>, based on Sfar\u2019s work and written and adapted by Jeremy Dyson (Ghost Stories<\/em>, League of Gentlemen<\/em>, Killing Eve<\/em>).<\/p>\n Joining the Magical Society team created from elements of Trijbits\u2019 former company FilmWave are Callum Dogdson as head of development and Laura Douras as director of finance and production finance.<\/p>\n Trijbits\u2019 recent credits include Netflix\u2019s The Letter for the King<\/em>, John Carney\u2019s Sing Street<\/em> and Disney\u2019s Saving Mr. Banks<\/em>. He was previously the head of the UK Film Council\u2019s New Cinema Fund.<\/p>\n Lousberg recently produced Day & Night<\/em> for NPO and was previously Focus Features\/Universal\u2019s senior VP of international productions and acquisitions. He worked across the slate on films such as Ex Machina<\/em>, Mama<\/em> and Theory of Everything<\/em>. He also led the local-language strategy for the studio, co-producing Heartbreaker<\/em>, Babysitting<\/em>, Spanish Affair<\/em> and Julia\u2019s Eyes<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Film and TV producer Paul Trijbits (Saving Mr. Banks, The Casual Vacancy) and producer and former Focus Features and Universal executive JJ Lousberg have launched Magical Society UK in partnership with Joann Sfar\u2019s Paris-based Magical Society.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1412,"featured_media":19165,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[7487,7488,7489,7490,7491,7492,7493,7494],"class_list":["post-19164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-top-stories","tag-jj-lousberg","tag-joann-sfar","tag-magical-society","tag-magical-society-uk","tag-monsters-shrink","tag-paul-trijbits","tag-the-botanist","tag-virdee","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\n