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Super-indie Fremantle has made a strategic shift to center premium film productions within its global business model, global drama exec Seb Shorr said this morning during a keynote at Iberseries and Platino Industria in Madrid.
Shorr, joined by Fremantle’s Mexican Head of Scripted Manuel Martí, and Olivia Sleiter, Head of Production at Fremantle Italy, said the company has been on a “journey” from its traditional position as an “entertainment and nonscripted powerhouse” with formats like Idol, Got Talent and The X Factor.
“The TV drama journey at Fremantle was really started seven or eight years ago,” Shorr said. “And while we’ve always done a bit of film, over the last few years, we very much now want that to be a really important part of our portfolio and a major part of our business.”
Key to this transition, Shorr said, is the company’s relationship with talent, which he said is based on the pitch of helping established names launch independent projects.
“We have deals with Sorrentino and Guadagnino. With Rachel Weisz’s company and Kristen Stewart’s company and Angelina Jolie. And the proposition that we make to them always is, come in and we will help you navigate this market,” he said. “We will help you control your projects. “We want to be a place that can help them find the right home for their projects.”
Shorr added that “bringing in this talent with these projects is hugely important in a global market that is increasingly difficult.”
Shorr used the production journey of the company’s Martin Freeman starring crime series The Responder to illustrate what he described as the tightening global market.
“The Responder worked on the basis of quite a big U.S. sale. I don’t know if that would be there right now if we were making The Responder again,” he said. “If we were making The Responder again we would probably be looking at making it for a lower cost because we just don’t see the same market.”
Shorr added that he doesn’t think a substantial U.S. sale for a drama like The Responder would be possible today “because of the challenges in the market.”
But the session wasn’t all doom and gloom. Sleiter and Shorr teased the company’s upcoming crime series Costiera, starring Grey’s Anatomy alum Jesse Williams. In the series, Williams plays Daniel De Luca, a half-Italian former U.S. marine who returns to Italy, the land of his childhood, as a fixer in one of the world’s most luxurious hotels on the spectacular Positano coastline.
Shorr described the pic as a “very mainstream show” and said the project has “sold really well” internationally. Amazon initially held on to full exclusive rights in Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal. The streamer has since taken on more.
“We’ve actually sold a lot of the territories to Amazon that they didn’t take initially because Amazon was so excited about the show,” he Shorr.
Costiera is set to hit Amazon Prime next year.
Iberseries & Platino Industria ends on Friday.
