MARKET TRENDS

Dan March Dynamic

By Kristin Brzoznowski

Comic-book fans rejoiced when news broke that Vagrant Queen was going from the page to the small screen. SYFY picked up the series, and Dynamic Television is taking it out to the worldwide market. This type of buzzy sci-fi series has become something of a sweet spot for Dynamic, which is also home to the horror-tinged Van Helsing and Creepshow. Dan March, the company’s founder and managing partner, talks to World Screen about the power of known brands in today’s competitive marketplace.

WS: How have you positioned Dynamic Television in what is an incredibly competitive drama landscape? MARCH: Your shows define you at the end of the day. We’ve been fortunate to build off of our successes both in the U.S. and in Europe. In Europe, we’ve had great success with crime dramas. We started with Trapped, which we’re incredibly proud of, and season two is bigger and more ambitious. We had The Day, which is a great show based on

a brilliant and unique idea. We now have Deliver Us, which is a serialized crime show from creator Christian Torpe and DR in Denmark. We are premiering The Sommerdahl Murders, which is an altogether different crime show. It’s a procedural for TV2 in Denmark and ZDF that is more bluesky than noir. In the U.S., we’ve had success with our shows on the SYFY channel. It started with Z Nation and includes Wynonna Earp and Van Helsing. We now have Vagrant Queen, which is the biggest, loudest, most fun and most impressive show we’ve helped put together for SYFY. So, we’ve ended up in these categories, but obviously, there’s more we’d like to do. The key for us is when we figure out how to do something well, we try to keep doing it! As long as our clients still want our product, we’re going to keep giving them those shows, and fortunately, all of these shows have been a success for all stakeholders.

In a broader sense, we understand that we’re in a qualityover-quantity industry. The amount of time and effort we have to put in—whether it’s a show that we’ve developed from scratch, a co-production where we’re involved as a partner or passively as an acquirer of rights—we have to be committed to helping that show be the best show it can be.

WS: How has the market for non-English-language drama opened up new opportunities for Dynamic? MARCH: Non-English-language has been a pillar of our company since the day we opened our door. It’s probably the biggest growth market in our industry today. The quality of shows that are being produced in Europe has never been better, and they’re going to continue to get better and better. There are a couple of things factoring into that. The talent is getting better, the production expertise is getting better. There are more and more young creators beginning to master the craft. Secondly, one way that linear broadcasters are trying to compete against the digital market is by pulling back from buying U.S. shows and investing in more of their own. Therefore, there’s more money being invested in European content, and that creates more opportunity. It also raises expectations and means that we have to continue to deliver great shows, not just good ones. On the U.S. side, the door was open for a little bit when Netflix and Amazon were looking to stock their shelves by bringing in non-English-language series. As they’ve shifted into their in-house production models, it’s gone the other way. Selling non-English-language programming into the U.S. is now a little bit harder. There are other avenues that might be opening up, whether it’s AVOD or other niche platforms, but it’s gotten more challenging.

WS: In what ways is Dynamic scouting the arena of known IP for future projects? MARCH: We’ve certainly had success with brands, from Van Helsing to Creepshow. The Sommerdahl Murders is based on a successful book. We’re fortunate to develop a little bit on our own. We’re optioning things and doing what producers do. We’re also fortunate that our producers bring us projects that they’ve done the heavy lifting on already. Going forward, we have to do more of that ourselves.

We all understand that IP matters and brands matter. It’s such a crowded marketplace that if you want to rise above the noise and want your broadcaster to have a product that they can promote and market, it really helps if a lot of people already know what it is. We try to lean into that.