Video Interview: Gaumont’s Christophe Riandee

NEW YORK: Christophe Riandee, vice CEO of Gaumont, talks to World Screen about productions on both sides of the Atlantic and his teams’ commitment to constantly mining the company's rich library, which holds nearly 1,000 titles, for ideas and talent that can cross over from feature films to television.

Founded by Léon Gaumont in 1895, Gaumont is widely considered to be the oldest studio in the world. It set up shop one year before Pathé, and almost two decades before the first studios in the U.S., Universal Studios and Paramount Pictures, were established in 1912.

Gaumont championed the pioneers of the French film industry, and after the country overcame the devastation of World War II, the studio became home to the directors of La Nouvelle Vague, the French New Wave, who created a new cinematic look and style of storytelling. Through the decades, Gaumont continued to attract top feature-film talent, while also branching out into television series and animation production.

Today, Riandee is vice CEO of Gaumont. Through his vision for expansion, the studio’s television divisions have been extending the storied brand to the small screen. Gaumont Television Europe has used a co-production formula to finance its first series, Spy City, which is being produced with Odeon. Riandee recently announced a second series, 1001, created by Lars Lundström of Real Humans fame.

Riandee also had the vision for expansion into the U.S. In 2010, Gaumont International Television (GIT) was set up in Los Angeles, and in the five years since its launch it has already produced Hannibal for NBC, and Hemlock Grove, Narcos and the animated series F is for Family for Netflix.

Riandee and GIT were able to break into the crowded and competitive U.S. market thanks to the ideas they were pitching, as well as to the financial model they were proposing: straight to series, which Riandee finds to be much more efficient than the traditional pilot model.