Exclusive Interview: Legendary’s Bruce Rosenblum

PREMIUM: Bruce Rosenblum, the president of Legendary Television and Digital Media, talks to World Screen about the team he is building, projects in development and his continued commitment to quality content.

WS: For nearly three decades at Warner Bros., you oversaw some of the most successful shows on television. Now at Legendary, what opportunities are you seeing in today’s evolving television programming landscape?
ROSENBLUM: I’m glad you mentioned Warner Bros. We certainly had a great run. The most meaningful growth at Warner Bros. was during a time when the industry was primarily a four-network universe. During the past handful of years, our industry has dramatically moved toward a global landscape that includes broadcast, cable and over-the-top players as buyers of content. At Legendary, as we look at that landscape today, it’s filled with tremendous opportunity. The reason I joined Legendary is that I believe we are at a moment in time when a really nimble, entrepreneurial, independent studio can be successfully built. We need to be global and we need to remain, in today’s ecosystem, entirely platform agnostic; it’s important that we develop content without a specific distribution platform in mind.

It is important to recognize that more people are watching more television on more platforms on a global basis than ever before, which provides tremendous opportunity for content suppliers.

I am the chairman of the Television Academy, and as we honor creative excellence with the Emmy Award, it has become clear that the quality of television content that is being produced today has never been better.

We are watching consumers experience this great content on their own terms, on their schedule, on on-demand platforms. And the opportunity for a company like ours to deliver great series to traditional and non-traditional buyers has never been better. As we focus on our development at Legendary, we’re not going to ignore the traditional broadcast and cable networks, but we clearly recognize that the playing field has widened. It has widened globally and the creative community is responding by recognizing that the world is no longer controlled by the five vertically aligned studios. There is a clear opportunity for independent television studios to thrive in this environment.

WS: To that end, as you build the television division, what kind of people are you looking for?
ROSENBLUM: The primary key to launching a successful television company is the quality of our partnerships with the creative talent that will trust us to support their passion and creative vision. Second is the quality of our executive team. Both the creative talent and the executives need to come to a company like ours with a global view toward quality content and innovative deal making—and an understanding that the series that we develop, produce and distribute must succeed not only on domestic platforms but internationally as well.

WS: How do you distinguish between television and digital media? A lot of scripted product is showing up on all sorts of platforms today.
ROSENBLUM: Our industry is evolving at an amazingly rapid pace; the changes that have taken place in the last decade, but even more so during the last 24 months, make it unclear what the word “digital” even means today.

If we say “digital” and we mean Netflix, Amazon and Hulu, we look at opportunities with those buyers the same way that we view a broadcast network like ABC or a cable network like FX or pay service like HBO. They are important buyers of episodic content and the types of series we intend to produce for FX, USA or HBO are the same types of series we are looking to produce for Netflix, Amazon and Hulu.

But if we think of digital as Crackle, Maker Studios or Fullscreen, then the environment is a little less certain, but we look at those opportunities as really intriguing and opportunistic. We just completed our first digital long-form project. It’s a 90-minute project that we produced for Crackle here in the U.S. called Dead Rising. It’s being distributed around the world as well. We have an active slate of digital projects for the Crackles and Fullscreens and Makers of the world, that offer an opportunity for us to incubate talent, create some new IP and also have the potential of developing really creative business models. It’s an uncertain platform and it’s one that we want to experiment with, we want to develop, but I can’t tell you it’s going to turn out to be the same as Netflix, Amazon or Hulu. The business model is less clear but it’s a place where our company wants to play.

The audience for our Legendary brand is experiencing content on platforms like Maker and Fullscreen and this is an opportunity for us to develop a deeper relationship with that audience as we experiment on these digital platforms.

WS: In film, Legendary is known for producing in non-traditional ways. Is that something that the television division is also going to embrace? Do you want to produce pilots? Do you also see instances where straight-to-series orders can work? Are you flexible in the way you want to finance and produce your television product?
ROSENBLUM: I don’t think there is a one-size-fits-all answer to that question. There are traditional opportunities to develop content and then there are less traditional ways and we are going to play in both. We have the flexibility of being nimble and innovative and responsive not only to the creative community but also to what our buyers look for from a company like ours.

But at the end of the day, it is ultimately about the quality of the content. On some projects there is clear value in seeing if the creative vision for the series works through the pilot process. You sometimes want to see if the chemistry of the cast can break through. But then there are projects that provide such a compelling package that it justifies the bet on a straight-to-series structure. These are ultimately challenging issues for the buyer.

As a seller of content we are going to be flexible. We will develop, where a pilot is necessary, through the pilot process. At the same time, if we see a straight-to-series opportunity we will take advantage of it.

What I will tell you wearing my Television Academy hat, and I’m not the first to share this with you, is that the pilot process—the broadcast pilot-production season—is really ineffective. It’s difficult to compress production of so many pilots into such a short amount of time. There is such a natural rush to hire actors and writers and directors and below-the-line talent in this compressed time that it creates a frenzy, which probably diminishes the effectiveness of the process. We’ve all talked about year-round development; it’s a reality now with basic and premium cable buyers, and certainly with the over-the-top buyers. Now that we have so many non-traditional buyers, I think you’ll see more year-round development, and that’s a good thing.

Straight-to-series projects are a reality. The success rate of straight-to-series? That story is yet to be told and we’ll see how it develops over time, but if buyers can experience enough successful straight-to-series projects, there is no reason why the industry won’t move in that direction as well.

Let’s not lose sight that it still comes back to making great product. Whether we are producing pilots or straight-to-series projects, it’s fundamentally about making great product.

Legendary has a legacy of making great theatrical content and I’m confident, whether we are in the traditional pilot-development process or less traditional processes, a company like ours is very well equipped and well positioned to deliver great television content as well.

WS: What television projects in development can you tell us about?
ROSENBLUM: In a relatively short amount of time, we have put together a very strong slate of development with some really diverse creative talent and a good cross-section of buyers.

We sold our first series to Netflix, a two-season commitment to Judd Apatow’s new project called Love. We’re thrilled to be in business with Judd; this is a really exciting project for us.

We just completed our first big drama pilot for USA Network, which is from Carlton Cuse and Ryan Condal and is called Colony. We are very excited about the possibilities this project.

We’ve put together a couple of really strong deals with non-writing producers: Lorenzo Di Bonaventura (Transformers, Red, G.I. Joe) has his television company here. And we just made a deal with Warren Littlefield, the former head of NBC, who recently won an Emmy for Fargo. We are thrilled to be in business with Lorenzo and Warren.

And we have a really strong pipeline of relationships on the theatrical side through our close alliance with Jon Jashni [the president and chief creative officer of Legendary Entertainment] and his team. Jon understands television extremely well and Legendary is a company built around collaboration. There are no defined lines between the theatrical side and the television side. If there is a great project, we will look at it and evaluate whether it belongs in theatrical or television. More importantly, a lot of the terrific talent that has worked with Jon and our theatrical team over the years want to do television. For example, we already have a couple of television projects with Guillermo del Toro, who has a strong history of great work with our theatrical team.

It takes a while for a new independent television studio to build scale, but we are really encouraged by our progress thus far.

WS: As viewers increasingly watch on demand, how do you see the future of linear channels? Some people say it’s just a matter of time before that business model falls apart. Do you agree?
ROSENBLUM: I firmly believe there will always be a place in our television ecosystem for linear channels, whether they are on broadcast or cable. What will evolve is how the consumer experiences those channels both on a linear and an on-demand basis. What will be important to watch is how the broadcast and cable networks collaborate with the rest of the ecosystem to respond to what is clearly the consumer’s appetite for on-demand access to their content. How will the linear channels navigate the competitive environment presented by exclusively on-demand platforms like Netflix and Hulu and Amazon?

But let’s not lose sight of the scale of the audience for linear networks. They have a terrific ability to deliver very large audiences for live content, whether that’s sports, news or entertainment shows. And they have very strong brands that currently exist in a linear fashion; these brands will rapidly evolve and be augmented by their nonlinear exposure as well.

While we all recognize the landscape is shifting, the industry is evolving and the way the consumer experiences content is rapidly changing, I genuinely believe that the notion that linear broadcasting and cable networks are dinosaurs is misplaced. I don’t believe that’s true.

WS: Despite the evolving media landscape, is this a good time to be in the content business?
ROSENBLUM: I was really lucky. I was able to join a company that has an 11-year track record of producing great content that resonates globally. I have watched Thomas [Tull, the CEO of Legendary Entertainment] build Legendary into a wonderfully successful global brand. Now, to be able to join that company and build a television division within an environment that knows how to create and execute successful global content, that’s a luxury.

I remember getting here about 18 months ago, and recognizing really early on that Legendary has a DNA for creating content for global audiences. The discussions in our meetings are not domestic-centric; the discussions revolve around building franchises that will translate and perform for audiences around the world. Our job is to translate the Legendary brand and DNA into successful television content. 

Starting a new independent television studio is challenging, but to have the head start of being part of a company with such a strong global identity and such a strong track record of global success really gives us an advantage. That’s encouraging for all of us on the television side of Legendary.