Banijay Rights & Touchdown Films Ink Development Pact

Banijay Rights has entered into a development deal with factual specialist Touchdown Films, and the companies are already working on a documentary about the Apollo 8 space mission.

Apollo 8: The Mission That Changed the World, a one-off documentary produced by Touchdown Films, will mark the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 8 space mission. The archive-driven documentary is directed by John Osborne (Hillsborough Remembered, The Story of Skinhead), who founded Touchdown Films. The documentary features interviews with key people directly involved in the Apollo 8 mission and the environmental campaigns that followed.

As part of the first-look deal, Banijay Rights and Touchdown Films are also working together to develop and produce returnable factual series in the history, crime and celebrity genres. They already have several projects in development with U.K. and U.S. networks.

Emily Elisha, the head of factual at Banijay Rights, said, “Working with Touchdown Films has given us a really exciting opportunity to develop programs that we believe will have broad international appeal—especially those linked to landmark events and anniversaries. Touchdown’s John Osborne has renowned expertise in unearthing previously unseen archive. Add to that his ability to secure strong contributors who can speak personally about the events featured and we believe we have a winning formula.”

Osborne, the founder and managing director of Touchdown Films, added, “I’m excited to be working with Emily and the Banijay Rights team. Our goal at Touchdown Films is to create factual television with global appeal and Banijay shares that ambition. Apollo 8: The Mission That Changed the World epitomizes the kind of project that we’re looking forward to working on together.”