{"id":21046,"date":"2024-07-02T08:50:41","date_gmt":"2024-07-02T12:50:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/worldscreen.com\/"},"modified":"2024-07-03T11:00:10","modified_gmt":"2024-07-03T15:00:10","slug":"buccaneer-medias-richard-tulk-hart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/buccaneer-medias-richard-tulk-hart\/","title":{"rendered":"Buccaneer Media\u2019s Richard Tulk-Hart"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the last few years, Buccaneer Media has been tapping into book-based IP and churning out successful adaptations of beloved novels, including Whitstable Pearl<\/em>, Irvine Welsh\u2019s Crime<\/em>, The Doll Factory<\/em> and The Burning Girls<\/em>. Earlier this year, the company took the rights to adapt Erik Axl Sund\u2019s best-selling thriller The Crow Girl<\/em> for Paramount+ as well. Richard Tulk-Hart, co-CEO of the production company, tells TV Drama<\/em>\u00a0about Buccaneer\u2019s overall creative ethos, the keys to producing book adaptations and navigating the current industry climate.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA: <\/strong>What is the driving force behind Buccaneer Media\u2019s creative decisions?
\nTULK-HART: <\/strong>It\u2019s belief in a story. Primarily, it\u2019s belief in the writer that we bring on and allowing for action, emotion [and] jeopardy to come through and marrying that with the commercial requirements of an industry that\u2019s in an interesting shape. It\u2019s always driven by the creative. That\u2019s what leads the company first and foremost. We believe that if a story is good and well-told, whatever is going on in the industry at the time, a cycle will come along and it will be right for the moment. It\u2019s [about] marrying that creative with the commercial. That\u2019s where we\u2019re finding our success.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA: <\/strong>What has been working best in scripted lately?
\nTULK-HART: <\/strong>It\u2019s a quiet market at the moment. There\u2019s a state of change that\u2019s been on for a bit longer than I think everybody thought it would. Things in the U.S. continue to work themselves out. [In] the busier areas, the likes of Acorn, BritBox, PBS MASTERPIECE, those that are very much focused on a specific audience, people are finding success. But equally, we\u2019re still developing as if nothing is going on and the world is normal because it will right itself at some point. Nobody knows what it will look like necessarily, but everyone\u2019s still going to need content. It\u2019s just about where you\u2019re going to go with it and how you\u2019re going to finance and put it together. One thing that we talk about a lot is trying to ignore everything that\u2019s going on around us. Our job in this whole equation is to create compelling, moving stories that are going to resonate with as big of an audience as possible, and if we were to listen to what everybody is telling us is happening and [saying], Oh, you should be developing X, Y or Z, [we would] quickly become irrelevant because the point of each individual company and writer and producer is to create their own vision, and sometimes people want to see us and listen to it and sometimes they don\u2019t. Believe in what you\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA: <\/strong>Buccaneer does a lot of work with book-based material. Recently, you added The Crow Girl<\/em> to the lineup. What do you look for in a novel to determine if it would be ideal for the screen?
\nTULK-HART: <\/strong>IP has been driving the industry now for quite a few years. Books are the obvious starting point for that, but equally, we look at stories from the papers and wider. The book adaptation has been a rich vein for us. We\u2019ve [just] finished production on The Crow Girl<\/em>. That\u2019s a great example of a book that you would read and go, That\u2019s not going to get translated directly to television. In the U.K. and the U.S., it\u2019s one book. In the rest of the world, it\u2019s a trilogy of books. It\u2019s a multimillion-selling book. That obviously is a big part of it. If you\u2019re going to go for IP, make it big. It\u2019s already noisy, and it gives the broadcaster or the SVOD service or whoever it is an obvious marketing hook. That then leads to adapting to the screen. You take [The Crow Girl<\/em>] by Erik Axl Sund, which we\u2019re making for Paramount+, and then you take Whitstable Pearl<\/em>, which we make for Acorn, and they couldn\u2019t be further apart in terms of what they are, but at the core of both of those books is the action, the emotion, the jeopardy, strong characters, a sense of belonging. It\u2019s relatability. And that comes whether it\u2019s a dark story or not.<\/p>\n

Equally, we pride ourselves with the likes of Irvine Welsh, who we work with. We\u2019ve done season two of Crime<\/em> for ITV\u2014fingers crossed for season three. And we\u2019re in the late stages of development and going out with the continuation of Trainspotting<\/em>. In that, there\u2019s a piece of IP that the world knows and loves. Then, you\u2019ve got the likes of CJ Tudor. We made The Burning Girls<\/em>, and we have also got her books The Chalk Man<\/em> and the latest, The Drift<\/em>, which is big and epic and world-building stuff. Whichever one of those it may be, at its core, is all those things that I\u2019ve said. You can visualize, to an extent, those stories on television.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA: <\/strong>When you are working with book-based material, how much does Buccaneer work with the original author on the adaptation? And what are the keys to making a \u201cgood\u201d or faithful adaptation of a book?
\nTULK-HART: <\/strong>The truth of it, with what we\u2019ve done, in most cases, the authors haven\u2019t actually wanted to be particularly involved in the adaptation. A few years ago, I would say we weren\u2019t first in line to receive books, but what we do is lay out up front what we\u2019re going to do with a book, and that may involve the agent and the author. Sometimes, you can largely stick to the book. That tends to be a fairly straightforward, easy thing to do. But if you\u2019re not going to do that, make sure that you\u2019re telling the author up front that this is the plan and that the author is comfortable with that, and [then] actually stick to that plan. There is so much in this industry. Just being straight with people makes life a lot easier down the road. But as I said, with the work that we\u2019ve done, it tends to be [that] authors recognize their skill as a novelist, and they recognize the skill of scriptwriters. They\u2019re quite different spaces to be in. And some can do both\u2014Irvine Welsh, for example.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA: <\/strong>Is there anything more you can tell us about The Crow Girl<\/em>?
\nTULK-HART: <\/strong>When we bought the rights to [the book], it was a great big tome of a thing. We then realized that it was, in fact, part of a trilogy across most of the world. At one point, it held the top three spots in the German book list. It is a much-loved piece of writing. Jerker Erickson and H\u00e5kan Sundquist, who are the writers, when they and The Salomonsson Agency agreed that we were the right people to make it, it came with a bit of responsibility. You are dealing with something that you know you\u2019re going to adapt from the book. It\u2019s not something you can translate straight from page to screen. But the team behind it [and] the incredible Milly Thomas, who led the writing room, have pulled together what I\u2019m now seeing coming through. It\u2019s an exciting, different piece of television that is surprising. That\u2019s the best way of putting it. I can\u2019t go into too much detail because [if I] give away too much, you really will miss the twists and turns, but it has been an exciting piece to work on in Bristol, which turned out to be a great place to work, with an amazing crew [and] a fantastic cast in Eve Myles, Dougray Scott and Katherine Kelly in the three leads. It\u2019s an exciting one that hopefully does well so that we can go into season two.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA: <\/strong>With last year\u2019s U.S. writers\u2019 and actors\u2019 strikes rippling throughout the industry, current economic conditions and just the overall state of the industry right now, how is Buccaneer navigating the current climate? Are you seeking different financing strategies, doing more co-productions, etc.?
\nTULK-HART: <\/strong>In a way, we\u2019ve always done that. We have a very international outlook in terms of what we make, what\u2019s on the slate and what\u2019s in development. So, yes, co-production is one thing. It is a rough time, and I think there\u2019s a case of needing to see out what is going on at the moment and not forcing a situation that\u2019s going to result in a really well-written script being rejected simply because it\u2019s the wrong moment in time. I think the first thing is to accept that there is a reset\u2014probably an understatement. Work within that. We\u2019re lucky enough that we made five shows last year, and we\u2019re in production on two now, and we have another one coming later in the year, so we can, to an extent, see out the storm. But in the meantime, we are continuing in the way we\u2019ve always worked. We\u2019re not changing the way we develop, what we develop or who we work with. If anything, we\u2019re doubling down on making the slate bigger and wider and ready for whatever comes next. I think if anyone says they know what is coming next, they\u2019re either lying or they\u2019re the people who are deciding what\u2019s coming next. So, we\u2019re just continuing to do what we\u2019ve done in the last few years, and fingers crossed that will work.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA: <\/strong>Though no one knows for certain what\u2019s coming next, what opportunities do you potentially foresee over the next year or two in the drama business?
\nTULK-HART: <\/strong>I think one of the big things that\u2019s going to come is, [with] those massive shows that we\u2019ve been seeing, some of them will still get paid, but that will largely be for the U.S., probably with owned IP and large-scale ownership. The SVODs will probably be doing territory-by-territory-based deals, which will bring the distribution world back to life. Co-productions are an inevitability that will keep going. In my personal opinion, the cost of production has peaked, and it will have to come down to fit in. Otherwise, nothing is going to get made, and that\u2019s not an option. It\u2019s always going to be about sticking to what you do, on the whole. Yeah, you need to pivot and change various bits and pieces, but whatever technology changes, the delivery mechanism is still into somebody\u2019s home, their laptop, their telephone. And people are savvy. They know when they\u2019re being cheated with a script. If you remain at a very high quality of development and work with the best talent, I think that\u2019s going to be the way to see it through.<\/p>\n

The world of independent film is probably going to see a bit of a comeback, particularly now, while you have nowhere near as much television being made at the moment. I\u2019d say that\u2019s going to continue for a few years. That makes talent availability something that comes onto the desk where it wasn\u2019t before because everyone was so busy. Independent films have been hurt for quite some time. Are people a bit fed up with the massive action films that we all know have been running the cinemas for some time? I think certain age groups want to see different things. Younger age groups are the ones that have been, on the whole, fed in the film space. So, I think smart and interesting indie films will be a thing that we\u2019re going to explore and are exploring. Just get through the rough patch, and the other side will bring a level of clarity that will allow for a proper strategy to be put in place rather than guessing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The co-CEO discusses the company\u2019s overall creative ethos and the keys to producing book adaptations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1412,"featured_media":21047,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,70],"tags":[873,5434],"class_list":["post-21046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-interviews","category-top-stories","tag-buccaneer-media","tag-richard-tulk-hart","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\nBuccaneer Media\u2019s Richard Tulk-Hart - 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\/buccaneer-medias-richard-tulk-hart\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Buccaneer Media\u2019s Richard Tulk-Hart - TVDRAMA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The co-CEO discusses the company\u2019s overall creative ethos and the keys to producing book adaptations.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/buccaneer-medias-richard-tulk-hart\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"TVDRAMA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-07-02T12:50:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-07-03T15:00:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2024\/07\/BuccaneerMedia-RichardTulkHart-0724.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"394\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jamie Stalcup\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jamie Stalcup\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"9 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/buccaneer-medias-richard-tulk-hart\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/buccaneer-medias-richard-tulk-hart\/\",\"name\":\"Buccaneer Media\u2019s Richard Tulk-Hart - TVDRAMA\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2024-07-02T12:50:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-07-03T15:00:10+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/#\/schema\/person\/0da12602224807cc7b179b8405018deb\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/buccaneer-medias-richard-tulk-hart\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/buccaneer-medias-richard-tulk-hart\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/buccaneer-medias-richard-tulk-hart\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Buccaneer Media\u2019s Richard Tulk-Hart\"}]},{\"@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\/0da12602224807cc7b179b8405018deb\",\"name\":\"Jamie Stalcup\",\"description\":\"Jamie Stalcup is the executive editor of World Screen. 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