Sky Studios to Adapt Tortoise Media Podcasts for the Screen

Sky Studios has signed an exclusive multiyear first-look deal with Tortoise Media to adapt the company’s original podcasts into high-end series and features across scripted and documentary.

The partnership gives Sky Studios first-look access to Tortoise’s award-winning slate of podcasts, including the weekly investigative podcast The Slow Newscast. Tortoise Media will collaborate with Sky Studios throughout the development process.

James Harding, editor and co-founder of Tortoise Media, said: “We’re hugely proud to develop this partnership with Sky Studios and excited at the prospect of seeing our journalism developed into film and television by one of the best screen storytellers in the world. At Tortoise, we hope that by taking the time to investigate stories and report them in full, we can get to the heart of things. And, together, we hope those stories will reach even more people.”

Sky Studios’ director of factual, Barnaby Shingleton, added: “Tortoise Media has built an enviable position as one of the U.K.’s leading podcast creators. Their stellar track record of investigative journalism and captivating storytelling, combined with our commitment to creating premium programming, is the perfect symbiosis. We’re looking forward to seeing these mediums collide, to deliver a bigger and more diverse slate to Sky customers and beyond.”