WS_1014_COVER_WIP_3.e$S_COVER-1011 9/21/14 2:39 PM Page 1
THE MAGAZINE OF INTERNATIONAL MEDIA • OCTOBER 2014
www.worldscreen.com
MIPCOM Edition
THE GOLDEN AGE OF
DRAMA
SCANDAL Shonda Rhimes AMERICAN HORROR STORY Ryan Murphy THE WALKING DEAD Robert Kirkman DOWNTON ABBEY Julian Fellowes LAW & ORDER: SVU Dick Wolf HOMELAND Alex Gansa THE BLACKLIST Jon Bokenkamp THE STRAIN Carlton Cuse THE AMERICANS Joe Weisberg BROADCHURCH Chris Chibnall BATTLE CREEK David Shore THE BRIDGE Lars Blomgren WAYWARD PINES M. Night Shyamalan PERSON OF INTEREST Jonathan Nolan
Leslie Moonves CBS CORPORATION Tony Hall BBC James Murdoch 21ST CENTURY FOX Anke Schäferkordt RTL GROUP Bertrand Meheut CANAL+ GROUP Tim Worner SEVEN WEST MEDIA PLUS: 2014 TRENDSETTER AWARDS
Kevin Spacey
+
Ted Danson, Taylor Schilling, Anthony Bourdain & Julia Stiles
WS_1014_ITV_STUDIOS_SPD_Layout 1 9/18/14 7:47 PM Page 1
WS_1014_ITV_STUDIOS_SPD_Layout 1 9/18/14 7:48 PM Page 2
SPREAD TEMPLATE_Layout 1 9/9/14 4:34 PM Page 1
SPREAD TEMPLATE_Layout 1 9/9/14 4:35 PM Page 2
WS_1014_KANAL D_SPD_Layout 1 9/18/14 10:56 AM Page 1
WS_1014_KANAL D_SPD_Layout 1 9/18/14 10:58 AM Page 2
SPREAD TEMPLATE_Layout 1 9/16/14 11:29 AM Page 1
SPREAD TEMPLATE_Layout 1 9/16/14 11:29 AM Page 2
WS_1014_CALINOS_SPREAD_Layout 1 9/18/14 7:01 PM Page 1
WS_1014_CALINOS_SPREAD_Layout 1 9/18/14 7:07 PM Page 2
WS_1014__Layout 1 9/16/14 11:04 AM Page 1
WS_1014__Layout 1 9/16/14 11:04 AM Page 2
WS_1014_TOC_NEW_1_05 WSN TOC 9/29/14 8:48 AM Page 2
CONTENTS
OCTOBER 2014/MIPCOM EDITION DEPARTMENTS WORLD VIEW
Publisher Ricardo Seguin Guise
26
A note from the editor.
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE
Editor Anna Carugati Executive Editor Mansha Daswani
28
By Bruce Paisner.
VIEWPOINT
Managing Editor Kristin Brzoznowski
30
Associate Editor Joanna Padovano
By Jérôme Delhaye.
MARKET WATCH
Editor, Spanish-Language Publications Elizabeth Bowen-Tombari
32
By Rod Perth.
UPFRONTS
TANDEM AT 15
KEVIN SPACEY 53
A special report on the powerhouse producer as it turns 15.
Profiles of this year’s honorees.
106
AMC Networks’ Bruce Tuchman.
OLE TURNS 10
92 TED DANSON
96 TAYLOR SCHILLING
SPECIAL REPORTS
125
The music-rights company marks a milestone anniversary.
This special report on drama’s new golden age includes interviews with Scandal’s Shonda Rhimes, American Horror Story ’s Ryan Murphy, The Walking Dead ’s Robert Kirkman, Law & Order: SVU ’s Dick Wolf, Downton Abbey ’s Julian Fellowes, Homeland ’s Alex Gansa, The Blacklist ’s Jon Bokenkamp, The Strain ’s Carlton Cuse, The Americans’ Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields, Broadchurch’s Chris Chibnall, Battle Creek ’s David Shore, The Bridge’s Lars Blomgren, Wayward Pines’ M. Night Shyamalan and Person of Interest ’s Jonathan Nolan and Greg Plageman. —Elizabeth Guider & Anna Carugati
168 THE BIG GET BIGGER A wave of M&A activity is taking hold across the media sector. —Jay Stuart
MADE IN MEXICO
176
Mexico is the country of honor at MIPCOM.
ONE-ON-ONE
233 CBS CORPORATION’S LESLIE MOONVES
ADVERTISERS’ INDEX
705
WORLD’S END
708
In the stars.
Assistant Editor Joel Marino Contributing Editor Elizabeth Guider Special Projects Editor Bob Jenkins
110 MAGIC OF DRAMA
WORLD SCREEN CONTENT TRENDSETTERS 100
GLOBAL NETS
86
36
What’s new for MIPCOM.
Associate Editor, Spanish-Language Publications Jessica Rodríguez
Under his leadership, CBS Corporation is delivering hits across broadcast and cable and devising innovative ways to finance and distribute shows. —Anna Carugati
Production & Design Director Victor L. Cuevas Online Director Simon Weaver Art Director Phyllis Q. Busell Sales & Marketing Director Cesar Suero Sales & Marketing Coordinator Faustyna Hariasz Business Affairs Manager Terry Acunzo Production Associates Chris Carline Meredith Miller Contributing Writers Steve Clarke Andy Fry Juliana Koranteng Jane Marlow Joanna Stephens Jay Stuart David Wood Copy Editors Maddy Kloss Kate Norris Kathleen Payne
ON THE RECORD
373 21ST CENTURY FOX’S JAMES MURDOCH The co-COO of the conglomerate discusses the importance of scale— and quality—as Fox continues its expansion across the globe. —Anna Carugati
IN CONVERSATION The British pubcaster’s director-general weighs in on the license fee, production quotas and the Beeb’s commitment to top-quality content. —Anna Carugati
EXECUTIVE BRIEFING
493 SEVEN WEST MEDIA’S TIM WORNER As CEO, Worner is responsible for Australia’s most-watched network, plus the company’s publishing, online and radio assets. —Anna Carugati 18 World Screen 10/14
Anna Carugati Executive VP & Group Editorial Director Mansha Daswani Associate Publisher & VP of Strategic Development
425 BBC’S TONY HALL WORLD SCREEN is published nine times per year: January, March, April, May, June/July, September, October, November and December. Annual subscription price: Inside the U.S.: $90.00 Outside the U.S.: $160.00 Send checks, company information and address corrections to: WSN INC. 1123 Broadway, Suite 1207 New York, NY 10010, U.S.A. For a free subscription to our newsletters, please visit www.worldscreen.com.
Ricardo Seguin Guise President
WORLD SCREEN is a registered trademark of WSN INC. 1123 Broadway, Suite 1207 New York, NY 10010, U.S.A. Phone: (212) 924-7620 Fax: (212) 924-6940 Website: www.worldscreen.com ©2014 WSN INC. Printed by Fry Communications No part of this publication can be used, reprinted, copied or stored in any medium without the publisher’s authorization.
WS_1014__Layout 1 9/24/14 11:41 AM Page 1
SPREAD TEMPLATE_Layout 1 9/24/14 5:15 PM Page 1
SPREAD TEMPLATE_Layout 1 9/24/14 5:16 PM Page 2
WS_1014_TOC_ALT_1_05 WSN TOC 9/29/14 10:23 AM Page 3
CONTENTS
OCTOBER 2014/MIPCOM EDITION THESE TARGETED MAGAZINES APPEAR BOTH INSIDE WORLD SCREEN AND AS SEPARATE PUBLICATIONS:
OVER THE TOP CANAL+ GROUP’S BERTRAND MEHEUT RTL GROUP’S ANKE SCHÄFERKORDT ZODIAK MEDIA’S MARC-ANTOINE D’HALLUIN TELE MÜNCHEN’S HERBERT L. KLOIBER
188 198 208 218 222
RAINBOW TURNS 10 SHOP UNTIL YOU DROP BRIT KIDS GIRL POWER TURNER’S CHRISTINA MILLER
275 298 308 318 326
CRIME TIME RYAN MURPHY JULIA STILES CARLTON CUSE STARZ’S CARMI ZLOTNIK
400 410 414 418 420
PITCH PERFECT RETURN TO FOREVER FOX’S SIMON ANDREAE BROADCHURCH’S CHRIS CHIBNALL THE BRIDGE ’S LARS BLOMGREN
456 464 472 478 482
WILD! WE ARE FAMILY ANTHONY BOURDAIN NAT GEO’S WARD PLATT
508 514 520 525
PAY DAY NHK’S KATSUTO MOMII GMA NETWORK’S FELIPE GOZON NBCUNIVERSAL’S CHRISTINE FELLOWES REWIND NETWORKS’ AVI HIMATSINGHANI
544 554 558 560 562
AFRICAN ALLURE MBC’S SAM BARNETT
570 576
PASSION WITHOUT BORDERS MEXICO IN CANNES A+E NETWORKS’ EDUARDO RUIZ COMAREX’S MARCEL VINAY THE RED BAND SOCIETY ’S PAU FREIXAS
608 620 632 634 652
LISTINGS FOR 150 DISTRIBUTORS ATTENDING MIPCOM 665
22 World Screen 10/14
WS_1014_MIRAMAX_Layout 1 9/16/14 1:18 PM Page 1
WS_1014_LIGHTNING SPREAD_Layout 1 9/19/14 4:33 PM Page 1
WS_1014_LIGHTNING SPREAD_Layout 1 9/19/14 4:34 PM Page 2
WS_1014_WORLD VIEW_WSN_407_WORLD VIEW 9/26/14 8:20 PM Page 2
WORLD VIEW
BY ANNA CARUGATI
The Power of Pairs A common assumption is that singular works of art or innovation or scientific breakthrough are often the result of one person’s efforts—we often envision the lone artist or mathematician or writer toiling away in isolation. Think Pablo Picasso or Albert Einstein or William Shakespeare. A new book, Powers of Two: Finding the Essence of Innovation in Pairs, by Joshua Wolf Shenk, posits that it is in fact not from lone thinkers but from duos, either working together or in competition with each other, that the greatest breakthroughs come about. Einstein came up with his theory of relativity by using the engineer Michele Besso as his sounding board. Picasso developed Cubism alongside Georges Braque. A number of scholars believe Shakespeare borrowed ideas from Edward De Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford. Shenk builds on his theory of creative couples by touching on findings from branches of social psychology and neuroscience that show that pairs trump single individuals when it comes to creativity: Marie and Pierre Curie together discovered radioactivity; George Balanchine and Suzanne Farrell advanced dance; Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak gave us the personal computer; John Lennon and Paul McCartney published some 180 songs that became the soundtrack of a generation; Matt Stone and Trey Parker, creators of South Park, opened up a new wave of animation. All of these are cited in the book. I could add a slew of other duos. I spent the summer interviewing showrunners for this issue. Jonathan Nolan and Greg Plageman work together on Person of Interest; Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk on American Horror Story; Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields on The Americans. Carlton Cuse partnered with Damon Lindelof on Lost and has worked with Guillermo del Toro on The Strain, Kerry Ehrin on Bates Motel and Ryan Condal on Colony. Shonda Rhimes has relied on Betsy Beers for years on Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice and Scandal. Even in Britain, where entire series are written by one person—and Julian Fellowes is the notable exception to the “pairs do it better” rule, as he has single-handedly written every episode of Downton Abbey—writers are starting to collaborate. Fellowes credits executive producers Gareth Neame and Liz Trubridge for perfecting his scripts. Chris Chibnall says he couldn’t have written Broadchurch without his script executive Sam Hoyle. The two of them also worked with Anya Epstein and Dan Futterman, the duo who served as showrunners for Gracepoint, the U.S. version of Broadchurch. Without question, creating television shows is a collaborative experience. At this year’s Primetime Emmy Awards, we heard actors and writers repeatedly
Without question,
creating television shows is a collaborative experience.
26 World Screen 10/14
thanking crews and editors, without whom no show would ever get to the small screen. We also heard that from the actors we interviewed in this issue, starting with Kevin Spacey and Ted Danson, on to Taylor Schilling and Julia Stiles. To balance out our list of creatives in this issue, we have an equally impressive number of top executives, including CBS’s Leslie Moonves, 21st Century Fox’s James Murdoch, BBC’s Tony Hall, RTL Group’s Anke Schäferkordt, Seven West’s Tim Worner and Bertrand Meheut of CANAL+. Their successes are also the result of creativity and collaboration. They all rely on production, programming, marketing, legal and business teams to run their companies—the better the teams, the greater the accomplishments. Collaboration is obviously the name of the game here at World Screen as well. As World Screen approaches its 30th anniversary, this is the most ambitious issue we have ever tackled. Our contributing writers have provided us with features that hit the pulse of the television industry today: from working with creative minds to the current wave of consolidation; from over-the-top services in Europe to the evergreen quality of wildlife documentaries; from the staying power of legacy formats to the popularity of singing competition shows; from the vibrancy of the U.K. kids’ television market to what children’s commissioners are looking for to trends in girl-skewing shows. In house Kristin Brzoznowski handles World Screen Newsflash and all the other online newsletters, which our online director, Simon Weaver—who also edits our video interviews—makes sure reach you each day. Kristin also does interviews, including the one with Taylor Schilling, and writes features. Joanna Padovano assists Kristin. Elizabeth Bowen-Tombari heads up our Spanish-language publications, with the help of Jessica Rodríguez. Joel Marino assists both the English- and Spanish-language teams. Then there is Mansha Daswani. We joke that she doesn’t have enough heads to accommodate all the hats she wears. She dives into indepth interviews with Robert Kirkman and M. Night Shyamalan. She writes features. She has tremendous business acumen. I don’t feel comfortable with my copy until her eagle eye has proofed it. She manages the layout and production of this 710-page issue. Take a moment to peruse it. Look at the design—isn’t it classy? That’s the work of Victor Cuevas, our production and design director. Cesar Suero and Faustyna Hariasz work with our fearless leader, Ricardo Guise. Yes, I am a believer in the power of pairs, as you know, I am half of one myself—collaboration is everything.
WS_1014_ITV_1_Layout 1 9/18/14 7:23 PM Page 1
WS_1014_GLOBAL PERSP_ALT_WSN_1007_GLOBAL PERSP 9/26/14 8:21 PM Page 2
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE
BY BRUCE L. PAISNER
Now! My friend Jonathan Miller, a former head of AOL and of News Corp.’s digital activities, likes to begin his speeches on understanding the Internet with the following story: “I was in the park on Sunday,” Jon will say, “and I passed a little boy and his mother. I overheard the boy say, ‘I want some ice cream.’ And his mother replied, ‘What do you say?’ I stopped and listened because I thought this would be today’s version of the ‘please’ conversation, and I wanted to hear how it went. The mother said again, ‘What do you say?’ and the boy immediately replied, ‘I want some ice cream—now.’ ” Jon likes to say that that story is all you need to know to understand the Internet. I think he’s right, and I am increasingly detecting a very worrisome trend: Because the Inter net offers instant answers on so many fronts, we increasingly expect instant answers to every thing. The end result of all this, I think, is increased distrust of all institutions and increased cynicism, particularly about government. Google may be able to give us an instant answer to a question we used to debate for hours at dinner parties, but often people and their institutions can’t do that. Here are three recent examples that intrigue me: The disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370: This has been a terrible year for Malaysia Airlines, but at least when Flight 17 crashed in Ukraine in July, everyone knew where it was right away. If you think back to the period of time immediately after Flight 370 disappeared, you will recall that most people’s attitudes—including many cable news commentators’—were, “Where is it? Why can’t they find it?” Lost in that din were the facts that the Indian Ocean is big, and no one has budgets to radar patrol sections of it where hardly anyone goes. Most conversations ended up being variations on: “In an age of computers, I can’t believe they haven’t already found that airplane.” Computers enable airplanes to fly. Obviously, they can’t always find them. And to be frank, part of the problem in our industry is the intersection of Internet speed with cable news coverage. Reporting on everything is instantaneous and breathless, and it’s an old axiom of our business that failure is usually a better story than success. Combine the speed of infor-
Because the Internet
offers instant answers on so many fronts,
we increasingly expect instant answers to everything.
28 World Screen 10/14
mation with the need to say something about it right away, and each situation is ripe for distortion. The U.S. space program: A further problem with the Internet may be that the instant gratification it provides works against long-term projects. In the early 1960s, President Kennedy could vow to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade, and the country applauded it as a great program and did it in 1969. Compare that to the endless squabbling today over doing anything with manned space flights, even though this country is far richer—and the need for mankind to expand its horizons at least as urgent—as it was a half-century ago. President Obama wants to go to an asteroid, and the Republicans want to go back to the moon, and though they all see that as a way station to a manned trip to Mars, according to a recent National Research Council report, there will be neither enough money nor enough national will for a human landing on Mars in the foreseeable future. Obviously, this is tied up with political and financial issues, but I think it also reflects the difficulty in embarking on any project—even one of monumental and obvious importance—that will not provide quick results and gratification. In an age when people expect instantaneous answers and a new iPhone model every year, a decade can seem like a very long time indeed. HealthCare.gov: My favorite example of all this is the hysteria surrounding the launch of the website HealthCare.gov. Ruling out all those people whose only motivation was a new club with which to bash the program and the President, I found that there were still many people who had supported and voted for the President, and been supporters of ObamaCare, who first could not believe this could ever have happened and second, thought the whole program was doomed. All of this was only last fall, about a year ago. Since spring, ObamaCare has been enrolling subscribers at faster-than-projected rates, and nobody talks about the website any more. There used to be a time when a complicated, new national program would be given some space to get the kinks out, but not, I fear, in the age of the Internet. I’m sure we all find in our lives increasing pressure to get things done, answered, resolved—now— and I think we need to retrain ourselves to resist those pressures more often. Bruce L. Paisner is the president and CEO of the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
WS_1014_ITV_2_Layout 1 9/18/14 7:13 PM Page 1
WS_1014_VIEWPOINT_WSN_1007_GLOBAL PERSP 9/29/14 8:50 AM Page 2
VIEWPOINT
BY JÉRÔME DELHAYE
MIPCOM’s 30th Anniversary The year is 1985 and the international television industry gathers together in Cannes for the first edition of MIPCOM. Cagney and Lacey wins an outstanding drama series Emmy, the BBC launches EastEnders and Seven Network unveils Neighbours. In France, President François Mitterrand announces that two new private TV networks, La Cinq and TV6, will be created, while in the United States a new channel calling itself Discovery hits the airwaves. Sales of video recorders are booming across Europe and North America, and new cable channels and terrestrial broadcasters are springing up on a regular basis—this is one of the major factors behind the creation of MIPCOM. Fast forward to this year’s 30th edition of MIPCOM: the names may have changed, but the fundamentals of the TV and global entertainment industry remain pretty much the same—the appetite for entertainment is as healthy as ever. Strong content continues to draw global audiences, and producers of great programming are increasingly being seen as valuable additions to media groups—witness Discovery and Liberty Global’s purchase of all3media, and talk of a joint venture that could unite the Shine Group, Endemol and American Idol owner CORE Media Group. The growth of viewing possibilities, once driven by cable expansion, is now powered by online outlets. And new (or not-so-new) technology such as VOD or catch-up TV provides viewer-watching flexibility, of which video was the (slightly clunky) precursor. And if anyone doubts the dynamism of the television and entertainment industry, the months between this April’s MIPTV and MIPCOM have been ones of frenetic activity. Rupert Murdoch made summer headlines with 21st Century Fox’s on-then-off $80-billion bid to acquire Time Warner. While Wall Street and the entertainment industry wait to see whether Murdoch will take another run at Time Warner, it was generally agreed that this was simply the latest deal proposal among a growing list of entertainment consolidation moves. That list includes AT&T’s $49 billion offer to acquire DIRECTV, which would unite the telecom giant and the successful satellite TV provider; Comcast’s $45.2 billion attempt to buy Time Warner Cable; BSkyB’s acquisition of Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia to create panEuropean TV and broadband provider Sky Europe;
With over 100 countries
represented, MIPCOM seeks to promote business on an
international scale.
30 World Screen 10/14
Disney’s $1 billion purchase of YouTube multichannel network Maker Studios; and A+E Networks acquiring a stake in digital media company VICE Media. With interest in 21st Century Fox running as high as ever, MIPCOM will welcome keynote speaker James Murdoch, the company’s co-COO. He will be speaking publicly to the international television industry for the first time since the Time Warner bid by Fox. And James Murdoch is just one of the major entertainment executives whose company has been in the news lately and who will be in Cannes at the 30th MIPCOM. In September, online entertainment platform Netflix began expanding its operations into Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Belgium and Luxembourg. In October, Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s chief content officer, will address delegates as part of the MIPCOM Media Mastermind Keynote series of conferences. Add Sony Pictures Television’s president, Steve Mosko; Maker Studios’ president, Ynon Kreiz; CBS Television Studios’ president, David Stapf, and CBS Global Distribution Group’s president and CEO, Armando Nuñez; Sohu.com’s chairman and CEO, Charles Zhang; and LEGO Group’s VP of global licensing and entertainment, Jill Wilfert, and MIPCOM 2014 has a unique keynote roster of leading entertainment executives to mark its 30th edition. One of the significant changes to have taken place within the TV industry, reflected at MIPCOM, is that popular programming with international “legs” is no longer produced by a handful of mainly Englishspeaking territories. True, the U.S. continues to produce global hits such as Mad Men, Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad and House of Cards, and the U.K. can be relied upon to deliver the likes of Downton Abbey or Sherlock, but the growing Spanish-speaking audience, particularly in the U.S., has led to increasing interest in the Latin American programming industry. With over 100 countries represented, MIPCOM seeks to promote business on an international scale, hence the choice of Mexico (the sixth-largest exporter of programming in the world) as the 2014 Country of Honour. Throughout MIPCOM, delegates will learn about the Mexican broadcasting market, hear from the key players in that territory and discover the newest Mexican scripted programs. Rewind again to 1985. MIPCOM fundamentally was a marketplace for trading programs. In 2014, MIPCOM has become a 360-degree experience and business event for over 13,500 delegates who attend. Above all, MIPCOM at 30 will celebrate the past, and look forward to the future of an amazing industry. Jérôme Delhaye is the director of Reed MIDEM’s entertainment division.
WS_1014_ITV_3_Layout 1 9/18/14 7:15 PM Page 1
WS_1014_MARKET WATCH_WSN_1007_GLOBAL PERSP 9/26/14 8:22 PM Page 2
MARKET WATCH
BY ROD PERTH
Adapt and Reinvent Conventional wisdom argues that virtually everything we knew about television is changing and disruption is never-ending. As a result, the industry is finding itself in one of two situations: adapting and reinventing, or in danger of disappearing. Perhaps the latter is a bit extreme, but regardless, now is a time for risk-taking, not risk-avoidance. Disruption is happening across all industries, but in ours, one thing remains constant: viewers will always crave great creative, strong characters and storytelling. Ironically, the erosion of barriers by technological disruption actually rewards the creative process, and the pool of fresh, young creative talent will continue to grow. Since its founding, NATPE has been true to its mission of creating a major event that would showcase content first to television buyers in the U.S. and now to buyers across all platforms, from virtually every corner of the world. Our Miami event is the big-tent market and conference for international content creators and producers, Hollywood studios, international distributors and buyers, digital publishers and platforms and, increasingly, advertisers and brands. NATPE’s promise is to serve as a connecting hub to all of these overlapping sectors of the business, because we believe they are interdependent. If you are a storyteller and know how to produce and get your project funded and launched, you have a bright future, yes? Not so fast…there are huge, unexpected hurdles ahead. Technology has reprogrammed consumer behavior, and new viewing dynamics have become a massive challenge to the traditional value chain of television and marketing. The growth of on-demand viewing across platforms is forcing a complete reimagination of revenue streams, particularly advertising, which is the foundation of the business. Whether on the front end of the value chain or the back end, television advertising revenue has reliably supported the economics of production, and although ad revenue has continued to grow, we may be at a tipping point. Some advertising futurists are questioning the viability of the 30-second unit as the primary advertising vehicle to move product at a time when clients are demanding accountability from targeted audiences. “How do I measure success when my messages aren’t seen?” is a valid question for any marketer. FX Networks’ John Landgraf recently estimated that “as much as 40 percent of FX’s ad revenue is being lost due to delayed viewing.” For all channels and networks, this is a cautionary reality that demands reinvention. According to a new Ogilvy Branded Entertainment Assessment Model analysis, “Eager consumers are
Viewers will always
crave great creative, strong characters
and storytelling.
32 World Screen 10/14
adopting new entertainment devices, thus platforms, as fast as they can be invented. Consumer behavior, enabled by technology, dictates the prevailing media consumption model. These changes in behaviors have forced us to reevaluate the means of producing revenue via media and entertainment. With the consumer in control, the new model must be aligned with the needs of consumers, and their behaviors across the entertainment landscape.” The high valuations of most media businesses prove that investors believe new sources of revenue will evolve that have the potential to offset traditional revenue streams. Recently, CBS Corporation’s Leslie Moonves said, “The back end of a show’s revenue is now as important, if not more important, than advertising on the front end, making ownership of the company’s content increasingly important.” Unlike the recording industry, which has all but disappeared because they believed litigation could protect them from the onslaught of technology, television has embraced this disruption. Moonves, who champions over-the-air broadcasting like no other, now embraces the reality that streaming on digital platforms (that actually compete with CBS) opens new back-end monetization possibilities, which ensures that high quality content will thrive. It’s worth noting that recently, over two separate lunch meetings, a highly regarded production executive at a studio and, later, a senior executive within an advertising agency, said to me, “We’re just trying to figure it out, and we’re making it up as we go.” That admission is not surprising, because every successful business has had to “make it up” along the way by taking risks with new solutions, new partnerships and adaptable business models. The recent past has proven that monetization models will change and technology will continue to disrupt. All the while, technology will continue to unleash a steady stream of new creators that bring diversity and fresh voices that reflect our changing culture and environment. After all, the true north for our business—no matter the device or screen—is always about storytelling, great characters and great shows, all of which are coming from a larger and more diverse array of creators than at any other time in history. This is an exciting time. This is a challenging time. And we look forward to seeing you January 20 to 22, 2015, at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami, where more than 5,000 senior-level thought leaders and executives from all corners of our business will come together to continue these important discussions, within the energetic hum of the busy marketplace surrounding them. By the way—Miami in January is a great alternative to ice and cold! Rod Perth is the president and CEO of NATPE.
WS_1014_ITV_4_Layout 1 9/18/14 7:17 PM Page 1
WS_1014_ARTISTSVIEW_SPD_Layout 1 9/18/14 10:43 AM Page 1
WS_1014_ARTISTSVIEW_SPD_Layout 1 9/18/14 10:44 AM Page 2
WS_1014_UPFRONT_Layout 1 9/26/14 7:58 PM Page 1
UPFRONTS
ABC Commercial Prisoner Zero / Ready, Steady, Wiggle! / Great White Matrix The animated series Prisoner Zero follows its heroes on an intergalactic journey as they battle evil. “Science fiction is always in demand, and with crisp, vectorized lines and dynamic colors, Prisoner Zero is visually stunning programming,” says Sharon Ramsay-Luck, the head of sales and business development at ABC Commercial. Also in the kids’ sector is Ready, Steady, Wiggle! “With a new lineup, including the first-ever female Wiggle, The Wiggles are more in demand than ever,” says Ramsay-Luck. For a more mature audience, ABC Commercial is offering Great White Matrix. “This program is unique, as it’s hosted by a charismatic shark-attack survivor and an Emmy Award-winning underwater photographer,” Ramsay-Luck says.
“Great White Matrix uses cutting-edge, time-slice camera technology in a way that’s never been done before, showing unprecedented details of the way a shark behaves and bites when it attacks.” Great White Matrix
—Sharon Ramsay-Luck
AFL Productions Gags Network / The Curse of the Diamonds / Let’s Be Friends Again The Gags Network is home to such shows as Naked & Funny, 2Rude4UTube, Crazy TV Pranks, Painfully Funny and other AFL Productions shows, which together make up the world’s largest library of shorts: gags, pranks, bloopers and other quick comedic clips. “Gags Network is the one-stop shop for television buyers to license comedy content or for Internet viewers looking to stream or download hilarious short-form gags, pranks and the world’s funniest clips,” says Yuri Volodarsky, the company’s head of development and distribution. “AFL is constantly reviewing and acquiring new international content in order to give our partners the best international programming anywhere.” The AFL catalogue also includes that dramatic miniseries The Curse of the Diamonds and the format Let’s Be Friends Again.
“The miniseries The Curse of the Diamonds is a timeless drama coinciding with the 70th anniversary of the Yalta Conference.” The Curse of the Diamonds
—Yuri Volodarsky
all3media international Underground Britain / Gardeners’ World 2015 / Ancient Mega Cities The six-part series Underground Britain, a highlight from all3media international, takes the audience through secret labyrinths found below the ground in the U.K. “The show presents the quintessentially British landscape from a whole new perspective: the nation’s most impressive natural and manmade underground landmarks,”says Maartje Horchner, the head of acquisitions at all3media international. The company is also showcasing the latest installment in the long-running Gardeners’ World franchise. “With a high volume of over 90 episodes, the Gardeners’ World brand continues to grow,” says Horchner. “The series has become a recurring annual item in channels’ programming schedules around the globe.” Also of note is the two-part Ancient Mega Cities.
“Underground Britain shows the beauty of the British Isles from a very unique perspective.” —Maartje Horchner Underground Britain 36 World Screen 10/14
LIONSGATE1_EUR_1006_ELLENDER 9/17/14 9:55 AM Page 2
LIONSGATE1_EUR_1006_ELLENDER 9/17/14 9:55 AM Page 3
WS_1014_UPFRONT_Layout 1 9/26/14 7:58 PM Page 2
AMC Networks International Sundance Channel / AMC AMC Networks International has expanded the reach of the Sundance Channel across Latin America, with first-ever launches in six territories. Other big news for the company is the rebranding of the MGM channel as AMC, which is rolling out across Europe, Latin America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. “AMC is known as a purveyor of quality dramatic television, and we’re looking forward to creating a broad pipeline for our original content on the network globally,” says Bruce Tuchman, the president of AMC Global and Sundance Channel Global. In the way of programming highlights, Sundance Channel is premiering the second season of Rectify. Halt and Catch Fire is debuting exclusively on AMC globally. AMC Studios’ The Divide will also debut on AMC internationally in the first window in the months ahead.
“We continue to experience strong demand for our combination of locally relevant and globally renowned entertainment.” Halt and Catch Fire on AMC
—Bruce Tuchman
American Cinema International Love Finds You in Charm / Wish You Well / Resilient Love In the TV movie Love Finds You in Charm, an Amish girl must decide whether to stay in the community she was raised in or leave it all behind to explore the wide world. It is one of several TV movies that American Cinema International (ACI) will be discussing with buyers at MIPCOM, along with Wish You Well. This family drama follows a girl and her younger brother, who leave New York following a family tragedy to live with their great-grandmother on a farm in Virginia. Another TVmovie highlight is Resilient Love, also a family drama. “We’re also preselling The Ridley Chronicles, a new ten-hour, actionadventure TV series featuring a female lead,” says Chevonne O’Shaughnessy, the president of ACI. “It’s a follow-up to our highly rated and extremely successful Jack Hunter series.”
“These are family-friendly films featuring great casts; that’s a combination that works globally.” Wish You Well
—Chevonne O’Shaughnessy
Applicaster CrossMates Applicaster is devoted to helping deliver cross-screen TV experiences. Its latest solution to deepen viewer engagement is CrossMates, which creates social ties between viewers and TV characters. “So far, CrossMates has been successfully working at Televisa, Univision and Mediaset España, demonstrating growth for promoted brands, app downloads and social activity around shows,” says Jonathan Laor, the CEO of Applicaster. “With two more broadcasters implementing the product in the near future, CrossMates is a huge success for us and for our customers.” Laor adds, “Applicaster has championed the appdriven TV transformation for some of the world’s leading broadcasters. We are eager to bring this powerful [platform] to more broadcasters out there.”
“Our work is focused on delivering exciting experiences that drive engagement and interactivity in an app-driven TV world.” —Jonathan Laor CrossMates 10/14 World Screen 37
WS_1014_UPFRONT_Layout 1 9/26/14 7:58 PM Page 3
Artist View Entertainment Nowhere Safe / A Dark Reflection / The Last Rescue The movie Nowhere Safe, which is being offered to buyers by Artist View Entertainment, deals with the issue of cyberbullying and the damage it can do in today’s society. Artist View’s A Dark Reflection is based on true events. It follows the story of a female reporter who uncovers some dark secrets surrounding the airline industry. The company is also presenting to international buyers The Last Rescue, which is a WWII film that follows the journey of a young man who must overcome his fears to save himself and the other POWs he is captured with. “It is our goal to present our new fall lineup to the wonderful clients we have worked with in the past, and we hope to forge new relationships, especially in the ever-changing digital and new-media business,” says Scott Jones, the president of Artist View.
“All three of these films have stories that are relatable throughout the world.” Nowhere Safe
—Scott Jones
ATV The Noble of Today / Fugitive / Peace Street Following on the success of the first season of Fugitive in Turkey, anticipation is high for season two of the drama series, which is sold by ATV. Ziyad Varol, the company’s head of sales, attributes the show’s popularity to its “strong cast and thrilling action scenes,” in addition to the fact that the lead actor, Gürkan Uygun, is well known from the hit show Valley of the Wolves. ATV will also be presenting for buyers The Noble of Today and Peace Street, both of which are particularly appealing for female audiences, according to Varol. There are 67 episodes of Peace Street available, while The Noble of Today recently launched in its second season. “ATV’s drama series are very high quality and this is an inevitable consequence of the fierce competition of the local Turkish market,” says Varol.
“Beautiful settings, strong casting and great story lines attract audiences.” Peace Street
—Ziyad Varol
Azteca Girls Only / Un escenario para el amor / I’m Your Double Girls Only, an Azteca telenovela, tells the story of Valentina Bravo and her three daughters, all wealthy and privileged women whose sheltered world falls apart with the death of their patriarch. Left with an exorbitant debt, they open and manage a strip club for women. “The four intrepid women soon learn about and discover love, finding themselves and becoming independent,” says Marcel Vinay, the CEO of Comarex, which distributes titles for Azteca. Un escenario para el amor is another novela Vinay believes will appeal to MIPCOM buyers, along with the reality show and entertainment format I’m Your Double. “[I’m Your Double will see] 12 male and 12 female celebrities battle it out to imitate wellknown singers and become their lookalikes,” Vinay comments.
“Girls Only is a story where adversity puts courage, honesty and love to the test.” Girls Only 38 World Screen 10/14
—Marcel Vinay
WS_1014_NATGEO_FOX1_Layout 1 9/17/14 5:53 PM Page 1
WS_1014_UPFRONT_Layout 1 9/26/14 7:58 PM Page 4
Band Content Distribution Head on a Platter / P-24 / The Amazing Professor Ambrosius’ Mansion From animated children’s titles to feature films and reality TV shows, Band Content Distribution comes to MIPCOM with a diverse portfolio. Among the highlights is Head on a Platter, a movie starring Alice Braga, Eduardo Moscovis and Cássio Gabus Mendes. On the reality front, the distributor offers P-24, a series that shows the routine of Brazilian police officers facing difficulties and dangerous situations in their daily search for justice. Kids’ content is also represented, with The Amazing Professor Ambrosius’ Mansion, a cartoon that mixes education with comedy. “We are bringing Brazilian productions with great diversity and style,” says Elisa Ayub, Band’s director of international content. “That’s what makes us a television company ready to deal with and attend to different kinds of requests.”
“Our focus is to attract new partnerships with all the available platforms, as well as to strengthen even more our relationships with existing customers.” Head on a Platter
—Elisa Ayub
Banijay International Temptation Island / The Sorrentinos / BFF Banijay Group’s iconic reality format Temptation Island was recently relaunched on Italy’s Canale 5. The strong ratings led to a renewal for season two in 2015. “It is a truly iconic format and a real heavyweight in the reality space, so with this new round of great ratings it is commanding a lot of attention,” says Sebastian Burkhardt, the head of sales at Banijay International. New to the Banijay International portfolio is The Sorrentinos, part of the company’s expansion into selling finished programs. The reality series features Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino of Jersey Shore fame and his family. Another highlight of the Banijay catalogue is the format BFF, created by Nordisk Film, TV 2 Zulu and the world-renowned beer brand Carlsberg.
“We will be focusing on our recently announced expansion into finished-programming sales, which has built on our position as a leading force in the global formats market.” —Sebastian Burkhardt The Sorrentinos
Beyond Distribution Wild But True / Dark Temptations / Life Flight The new series Wild But True, produced for Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific, features Robert Irwin, the son of the late “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin. Beyond Distribution is introducing the title at MIPCOM, where it will also be talking to buyers about Dark Temptations. Adding to its large slate of crime programming, Dark Temptations gives audiences a glimpse into the weird worlds of people whose lives are dictated by peculiar predilections. The company is also presenting Life Flight, a dramatic series that follows the men and women who operate a 24-hour air ambulance and rescue helicopter service. “This will tug at the heartstrings,” says Munia Kanna-Konsek, Beyond’s head of sales. Kanna-Konsek also highlights Bogan Hunters, Kinne and Boy to Man from the company’s catalogue.
“Wild But True will target school-aged children between 6 and 12 and explores the idea of biomimicry, which takes inspiration from nature to solve human problems.” Wild But True 40 World Screen 10/14
—Munia Kanna-Konsek
WS_1014_NATGEO_FOX2_Layout 1 9/17/14 5:59 PM Page 1
WS_1014_UPFRONT_Layout 1 9/26/14 7:58 PM Page 5
Blue Ant International Backroad Bounty / Dino Hunt / Nomads of the Serengeti Since launching this past spring, Blue Ant International has more than doubled the size of its catalogue, which now houses 1,400plus hours of programming. Among the top titles are Backroad Bounty, in which hosts Marty and Bam Bam visit garage sales, private collections and old barns in search of valuable hidden gems, and Nomads of the Serengeti, featuring the veteran safari guide Jean du Plessis as he takes viewers on a trip through the Serengeti with migrating wildebeests. In Dino Hunt, a team of paleontologists unravels prehistoric mysteries and uncovers new dinosaur discoveries. “Blue Ant International continues to place importance on premium and evergreen programming,” says Solange Attwood, the senior VP of international at Blue Ant Media.
“Entertaining hosts and proven factualentertainment formats, along with incredible nature and wildlife content, will appeal to international buyers.” —Solange Attwood
Backroad Bounty
BoPaul Media Worldwide Bikini Destinations / Cash Bar / The MEN7 Show One of the world’s most widely circulated men’s lifestyle television series, Bikini Destinations, is back in production thanks to a new joint venture between the show’s creator, Bennett Productions, and the distributor of the original series, BoPaul Media Worldwide. “We are proud to say that we have relicensed the Bennett Productions library, including the new season five of the universally popular Bikini Destinations series, the new series Cash Bar, and other men’s lifestyles standards such as The MEN7 Show, The Wild Side and Ski Tour,” says Paul Rich, the CEO of BoPaul Media Worldwide. He adds, “We are seeking to acquire more classic films, as well as men’s lifestyles programs, at this MIPCOM. We will be meeting with a number of copyright owners and producers who we have targeted for this.”
“All of these titles have strong tracks records of previous sales on every continent.” —Paul Rich
Bikini Destinations
Canada Media Fund Experimental Stream / Convergent Stream The Canada Media Fund (CMF) fosters, develops, finances and promotes the production of Canadian content and applications for all media platforms. “We deliver financial support to the Canadian television and digital media industries through two streams of funding,” says Valerie Creighton, the president and CEO of the CMF. “The Experimental Stream encourages the creation of cutting-edge, interactive, digital media content and software applications. The Convergent Stream supports the creation of innovative, convergent television and digital media content for consumption by Canadians anytime, anywhere.” One year ago, the CMF launched, along with four other Canadian partners, a framework for international digital media co-productions to facilitate the co-production of digital media projects.
“The CMF continues to promote Canadian expertise and talent to international audiences.” —Valerie Creighton
42 World Screen 10/14
WS_1014_NATGEO_FOX3_Layout 1 9/17/14 6:06 PM Page 1
WS_1014_UPFRONT_Layout 1 9/29/14 8:52 AM Page 6
Canal Futura Going Back / Money in the Pocket / Sports and Science Canal Futura is looking to establish contacts with stations across the Americas and beyond. “The European market interests us, as well as Portuguese-language countries, with which we have a very strong connection,” says Lúcia Araújo, the director of Canal Futura.The Brazilian outfit heads to MIPCOM with a range of educational titles. Among them is the documentary Going Back, which focuses on the social reintegration of former detainees. The game show Money in the Pocket aims to teach young people about incomes and expenses, while Sports and Science uses athletics as a way to approach math and physics. “Canal Futura programs seek to contribute to the day-to-day life of ordinary people, offering entertainment and information that’s relevant and useful,” Araújo notes.
“We want to solidify our brand as a quality content distributor and we are sure MIPCOM is the perfect market for that.” Money in the Pocket
—Lúcia Araújo
Caracol Television Fugitives / Shot of Grace / Men Cry Too Being in the wrong place at the wrong time will change one man’s life forever in Fugitives, a drama from Caracol Television. The series, about a man accused of murdering his best friend’s wife, recently premiered in Colombia with great success. “Fugitives mixes action with a strong love story that makes the production suitable for both masculine and feminine audiences,” says Berta Orozco, a sales executive at the company. Caracol is also showcasing another drama, Shot of Grace, produced in association with Televisa. The series follows a man who must become the double of a wanted criminal. On the lighter side, Caracol offers Men Cry Too, a romantic comedy that sees a man lose everything in a twist of fate. “It’s an entertaining journey full of love, laughs and heartbreak,” Orozco adds.
“Our MIPCOM lineup will provide us the opportunity to achieve new deals with new clients and, of course, keep the previous ones very satisfied.” Shot of Grace
—Berta Orozco
CBS Studios International NCIS: New Orleans / CSI: Cyber / Madam Secretary At MIPCOM, CBS Studios International (CBSSI) is bringing out NCIS: New Orleans and CSI: Cyber. “NCIS: New Orleans and CSI: Cyber are extensions of the two biggest TV franchises in the world, so our broadcast partners will already have a passionate, built-in audience for these shows, giving them an important leg up on their competition,” says Barry Chamberlain, the president of sales at CBSSI. Chamberlain also highlights the new CBS series Madam Secretary and Scorpion and The CW newcomer Jane the Virgin. “Téa Leoni is a global star toplining Madam Secretary, Scorpion is a fun and modern take on highstakes problem solving, and Jane the Virgin is a fresh, funny and heartwarming series that we think will resonate with viewers everywhere,” he says.
“We plan to continue to do what we do best: offer our international partners and licensees high-quality and entertaining American content from the U.S.’s most successful studio and network.” Madam Secretary 44 World Screen 10/14
—Barry Chamberlain
WS_1014_NATGEO_FOX4_Layout 1 9/17/14 6:12 PM Page 1
WS_1014_UPFRONT_Layout 1 9/29/14 8:54 AM Page 7
Cisneros Media Distribution Criminal MasterMind / Fallen Over Love / Secret Love Since changing its name and revamping its image, Cisneros Media Distribution’s catalogue has come to include an array of formats, from nonverbal comedy skits and prank shows to reality series and extreme sports, along with scripted series, documentaries and films. “We are no longer just a distributor for our affiliated production companies,” says Cesar Diaz, Cisneros Media Distribution’s VP. “We are so much more.” Among its new teleseries is Criminal MasterMind, a thriller based on the best-selling book Blood on the Couch. The company is also featuring telenovelas from its affiliated production companies, such as Fallen Over Love and Secret Love. “All of the content produced by our affiliated production companies…is specifically created with a broad appeal for its international export,” Diaz says.
“Cisneros Media Distribution is not only one of the leading distributors of worldclass telenovelas, we also market gripping and exciting teleseries.” Secret Love
—Cesar Diaz
CJ E&M Corporation The Three Musketeers / Plus Nine Boys / The Secret Hotel Combining Korean history with fiction is The Three Musketeers, a fantasy drama based on the book penned by Alexandre Dumas. The three-season production reunites scriptwriter Song Jae-jung and director Kim Byung-soo from the popular series Nine: 9 Times Time Travel. “Since the western aspect has been added to the drama, various international audiences will be able to easily adapt to the story,” says Alex Oe, the director of acquisitions and sales at CJ E&M Corporation. The Three Musketeers is one of the titles that the company is bringing to market, along with Plus Nine Boys, a romantic comedy following four men on the cusp of a new decade in their lives, and The Secret Hotel, a comedy about a woman who is planning a wedding ceremony for her ex-husband.
“We are focusing on high demand for scripted formats during MIPCOM and catching up with many partners on our previously sold programs.” Plus Nine Boys
—Alex Oe
Daro Film Distribution Mercenary: Absolution Daro Film Distribution is most excited about presenting the recently completed TV movie Mercenary: Absolution, which stars Steven Seagal, to buyers. Pierre-André Rochat, the company’s president, believes that having Seagal in the lead role is going to attract a lot of attention for the production. “He is more than just an actor; he is a global brand with a dedicated worldwide following who has continued to produce high-quality action content for the last 25 years,” says Rochat. As for other Daro highlights, there are new thrillers and two fresh Christmas titles. “The female thrillers we bring to the table continue to set the industry standard for this genre,” says Rochat. “A combination of exceptional writing and skilled production ensures that their appeal amongst the daytime TV demographic will only continue to rise exponentially.”
“After 33 years in the business, our goals remain unchanged: to continue to coproduce and deliver high-quality programming to our international client base.” Mercenary: Absolution 46 World Screen 10/14
—Pierre-André Rochat
WS_1014_GAUMONT_HANNIBAL_Layout 1 9/17/14 11:43 AM Page 1
WS_1014_UPFRONT_Layout 1 9/26/14 7:59 PM Page 8
dick clark productions International American Music Awards / Fail Army / Hollywood Film Awards One of the world’s largest producers and proprietors of televised live events, dick clark productions now has an international distribution division. “We look forward to concluding transactions for our fourth-quarter U.S. network events, new shows like the Hollywood Film Awards and the People Magazine Awards, as well as the iconic American Music Awards and Golden Globe Awards,” says Bob Kennedy, the senior VP of dick clark productions International. “We are a new division in an established production company, so we are still getting the word out to new clients and old friends alike as we add co-productions like Fail Army and third-party acquisitions such as OK! TV and VH1’s Crazy Sexy Cool: The TLC Story to our portfolio.”
“Fail Army showcases visual comedy that transcends language and gets to the heart of what is truly funny: people making outrageous mistakes with the ability to laugh at themselves.” Fail Army
—Bob Kennedy
Distribution360 Tackle My Reno / Planet Echo / YOUniverse Topping the list of highlights for Distribution360 is the homerenovation series Tackle My Reno. The show features football player Sebastian Clovis as he helps overwhelmed DIY-ers tackle their renovation projects. The lifestyle series recently launched on HGTV in Canada. “Reno shows are doing extremely well internationally, and the combination of the host’s sportsmanship attitude and unique brand of humor is appealing and relatable to both men and women,” says Kirsten Hurd, the company’s director of international sales and acquisitions. Targeting the younger set are Planet Echo and YOUniverse. Planet Echo is a co-viewing series that inspires kids and their families to nurture the planet, while YOUniverse features mixed-media shorts for preschoolers.
“We continue to build on our exceptional kids’ and youth catalogue, but are aggressively expanding our factual portfolio by connecting with thirdparty producers.” Tackle My Reno
—Kirsten Hurd
Dori Media Group Power Couple / The Surfers / Little Mom Dori Media Group’s catalogue consists of content that sells widely around the world, including in Latin America, where the company has had much success, according to Revital Basel, Dori’s VP of sales. “Our ideas, concepts, story lines and even the looks of the casts in our series can be suitable all over the world,” Basel says. The reality show Power Couple is a key title for the company. The series sees eight couples move into a villa, where they must face challenges that will test how well they know each other. A drama alternative is The Surfers, about a group of teenagers forced to cope with the pains of youth. Finally, Little Mom is a comedy that explores the lives of women in their 30s, an age in which the libido causes more grief than satisfaction.
“The content we are bringing to this market is innovative and fresh, especially in the reality genre.” —Revital Basel Power Couple 48 World Screen 10/14
WS_1014_GAUMONT_HEMLOCK_Layout 1 9/17/14 11:47 AM Page 1
WS_1014_UPFRONT_Layout 1 9/29/14 8:56 AM Page 9
Electus International Food Fighters / Dating Naked / Bellator MMA The series Dating Naked and Food Fighters both already had successful premieres in the U.S., and Electus International is offering the titles to buyers at MIPCOM. “Food Fighters launched on NBC to the second-highest new series ratings of the summer,” says John Pollak, the president of Electus International. “Dating Naked has exceeded all expectations in both ratings and through social media, bringing new and loyal viewers to VH1.” The company is also presenting Bellator MMA, the mixed martial arts promotion that has been airing on Spike TV in the U.S. “Bellator MMA is a fast-growing sports franchise that features many of the best and most exciting mixed martial arts fighters in the world,” says Pollak. He adds that finding new titles for the catalogue is a priority for MIPCOM.
“Each of these titles is a franchise series and should provide the foundation that buyers are looking to build schedules around.” Food Fighters
—John Pollak
Entertainment One Television International Halt and Catch Fire / Matador / The Book of Negroes The drama Halt and Catch Fire depicts the rise of the PC era during the 1980s. “It isn’t a techy, geeky show about the evolution of the technology space, but rather a serialized drama about quirky characters that chose to disrupt the technology industry,” says Stuart Baxter, the president of Entertainment One Television International. “The homage to the period it represents is fabulous.” The company is also presenting Matador, from executive producers Robert Rodriguez and Roberto Orci. The show follows a DEA agent who is tapped to investigate the LA Riot soccer team by going undercover as one of its players. MIPCOM also sees the launch of The Book of Negroes, which boasts an all-star cast that includes Cuba Gooding Jr., Louis Gossett Jr. and Aunjanue Ellis.
“The Book of Negroes is absolutely stunning, with a filmic tone and quality to it.” The Book of Negroes
—Stuart Baxter
Escapade Media The Lost Aviator / Jay’s Jungle / Status: Vacant Escapade Media will be at MIPCOM discussing sales for the feature documentary The Lost Aviator, which is about a cold case from 1932 involving the infamous British aviator Bill Lancaster, who was on trial for murder in Miami. The company also has a new series in development, Status: Vacant. The show takes viewers on a journey through abandoned towns and locations across the world to uncover the mysteries behind them, unveiling a mix of travel, culture and history. “There has been enormous interest in this project already, and we are very excited to update broadcasters with the recent developments,” says Natalie Lawley, Escapade’s managing director. At MIP Junior, Escapade’s efforts will be focused on Jay’s Jungle, a preschool series.
“Escapade has already concluded a number of very successful deals, which we will be aiming to build on at MIPCOM and MIP Junior.” —Natalie Lawley Jay’s Jungle 50 World Screen 10/14
WS_1014_DICK_CLARK_Layout 1 9/17/14 3:35 PM Page 1
WS_1014_UPFRONT_Layout 1 9/26/14 7:59 PM Page 10
FILM.UA Distribution The Sniffer / Eskimo Girl / Dr. Baby Dust The Ukrainian TV market has been rapidly developing for the past several years, which bodes well for FILM.UA Distribution. “We can now boast the same high production values and the same level of creativity as our European and American counterparts,” says Igor Storchak, the company’s CEO. FILM.UA Distribution’s catalogue includes the crime series The Sniffer, about a private investigator with an extraordinary sense of smell. The animated series Eskimo Girl aims to help foster kids’ logical-thinking skills. “The universal language of gestures, mimics and sounds used throughout the episodes makes the series easily adaptable,” says Storchak. For the medical drama Dr. Baby Dust, FILM.UA Distribution is offering two finished seasons as well as the format.
“Now more than ever we are ready to tell the world that, despite the political situation in Ukraine, our TV market is alive and kicking.” The Sniffer
—Igor Storchak
FOX International Channels Content Sales Wayward Pines / The ’90s: The Decade That Connected Us / 24Kitchen MIPCOM marks the launch of the new FOX International Channels (FIC) Content Sales unit. “As a one-stop hub for content buyers, our catalogue features a wide range of properties from FIC’s core channel brands, including FOX and National Geographic Channels,” says Germaine Deagan Sweet, the senior VP of factual and commercial operations for FIC Content Sales. “Many of our clients know us from the factual side of our National Geographic Channels business, which is expanding to embrace key entertainment dramas and formats.” Highlights for the market include the thriller Wayward Pines. The FIC catalogue also features National Geographic Channel’s The ’90s: The Decade That Connected Us. A new addition to the lifestyle genre is 24Kitchen.
“With 500 new hours coming to the market, our goal is to ensure that our clients know we have content from both the scripted and unscripted brands within the FIC family.” The ’90s: The Decade That Connected Us
—Germaine Deagan Sweet
FremantleMedia International The Returned / Cuckoo / Party Down South The dead coming back to life is the premise of The Returned, a drama that FremantleMedia International (FMI) is launching at MIPCOM. The show, based on France’s Les Revenants, features a script penned by Carlton Cuse (Bates Motel) and Raelle Tucker (True Blood ). Also on offer from the company is the comedy Cuckoo, the new season of which welcomes Twilight’s Taylor Lautner. “In recent years, we’ve seen a particular rise in demand for British comedy internationally,” says Bob McCourt, FMI’s acting CEO. “The combination of U.K. and U.S. talent plays a large part in attracting international audiences, although it’s also helpful that the script is laugh-out-loud funny.” The company is also highlighting Party Down South and Jerks with Cameras, two new reality series from SallyAnn Salsano’s 495 Productions.
“We are always on the lookout for new opportunities and partnerships with the world’s top creatives and best-in-class talent across all platforms.” —Bob McCourt Cuckoo 52 World Screen 10/14
WS_INSERT_1014_INSERT_TANDEM_ALT2_EUR_1006_ELLENDER 9/12/14 1:02 PM Page 2
WS_INSERT_1014_INSERT_TANDEM_ALT2_EUR_1006_ELLENDER 9/12/14 1:03 PM Page 3
TANDEM at 15 For the last 15 years, Tandem has firmly established itself as a key provider of high-quality drama to the global market, always focusing on casts and stories that resonate with international audiences. Run by three seasoned production executives—its founders Rola Bauer, President, and Tim Halkin, COO, together with Jonas Bauer, Executive VP—Tandem has been a pioneer in its approach to co-productions for event miniseries like The Pillars of the Earth and World Without End. Today, with the support of its majority shareholder, STUDIOCANAL, Tandem is driving expansion into the one-hour drama series space. Rola Bauer discusses Tandem’s evolution over the last 15 years. supply the international market with highend long-forms that broadcasters could create an event around. As several others did, we chased after Ken Follett for years to option his bestselling masterpiece The Pillars of the Earth. Follett had pushed back on all theatrical offers, finding the format too limited for the richness of his book and held out for a solid commitment of a longer limited series, which we offered. We then succeeded in optioning the book rights for Pillars. We continued this adventure with our coproducing partner, Scott Free, hoping to pioneer a new way of producing television on a global basis without depending on having the first key broadcaster out of the U.S. Along with my partners Tim Halkin and Jonas Bauer, we decided to take this pioneering and entrepreneurial decision when the NASDAQ had crashed and the German Neuer Markt had literally folded and we needed a $40-million production budget to create the kind of eight-hour Jonas Bauer, Rola Bauer and Tim Halkin event that not only the book deserved, but that would have a cinematic quality to it. With French, German, Spanish and Canadian partWS: What have been some of Tandem’s milestones ners on board, we still went into production with an since its formation in 1999? $8 million gap and the hope that our years of combined BAUER: Everyone talks about protecting the story, and experience would enable us to create a program that we that is why the most satisfying achievement is when you could later sell into the U.S. market and not only cover can successfully bring creative talent, and ultimately the our deficit, but also make a profit. Two years of developproductions, into the global arena. And for us, it always ment and production and sleepless nights later, that risk starts with the writing—telling the best possible stories we took did actually pay off: Starz supported the prowith interesting and well-developed characters. gram and enabled it to become a three-time Golden After Tandem had it first major success with a homeGlobe-nominated and an Emmy Award-winning show. grown limited series, Ring of the Nibelungs, commisIn addition, the show was hugely successful for the sioned by Channel 4 in the U.K., Sat.1 in Germany and European and Canadian partners. Syfy in the U.S., we realized that we had satisfied a need That paved the way to produce the sequel World in the market that the U.S. was no longer providing. That Without End with a $46-million production budget. encouraged us to build on this success and continue to
10/14 World Screen 3
WS_INSERT_1014_INSERT_TANDEM_ALT2_EUR_1006_ELLENDER 9/12/14 1:04 PM Page 4
Tandem is coming to MIPCOM with a slate that includes the second season of Crossing Lines; the new crime series Sex, Lies and Handwriting, co-produced with Lionsgate; and the drama series Spotless, produced for CANAL+ Création Originale.
Almost three years ago, Tandem was approached by two studios, one in the U.S. and one in Europe, interested in making a strategic acquisition into Tandem. We spoke intensely with both, but were ultimately convinced to enter into a relationship with a major European studio. That is when STUDIOCANAL became Tandem’s majority shareholder. This happened at a time when the international market was in need of procedural series as the hugely successful U.S. versions were coming to an end and that market was not showing signs of gearing up for the next generation of this genre. With STUDIOCANAL, we were now able to enter the narrative of one-hour drama very quickly. We wanted to create a show that focused on the very real and dangerous situation in Europe of criminals being able to escape justice simply by crossing over borders. Ed Bernero immediately saw the similarity to the historical situation in the U.S. before the inception of the FBI. Europe still has no proactive law enforcement agency that can effectively handle cross-border crimes and bring these criminals to justice. Crossing Lines, our first one-hour series, has a familiarity to audiences worldwide who have enjoyed U.S. procedural series and is set in recognizable locations. For the U.S., the narrative is very familiar, however the locations are exotic. We worked hard to attract a cast like William Fichtner, Marc Lavoine and Donald Sutherland. In our second season, we were able to secure recurring guest stars Carrie-Anne Moss and Ray Stevenson. This past summer, we began production on our second one-hour drama series since joining the STUDIOCANAL family: Spotless, for the prestigious CANAL+ Création Originale [banner]. This is a unique and dark drama, peppered with black humor, shooting on-location in London and starring Marc-André Grondin, Denis Ménochet, Miranda Raison and Brendan Coyle. The co-creators, BAFTA Award-winner Ed McCardie and Academy Award-winner Corinne Marrinan, have dreamed up a story line and characters which are so special and unique. Our third one-hour drama, Sex, Lies and Handwriting, based on Michelle Dresbold’s book, is a coproduction with Lionsgate. We are currently in develop-
4 World Screen 10/14
ment at ABC in the U.S., TF1 in France, Sat.1 in Germany and Bell Media in Canada, with a targeted start of principal photography in early 2015. This is a totally new take on the crime genre that follows the exploits of Katie Pratt, an accomplished artist and forensic handwriting expert—with her own newspaper column on the subject. Katie also happens to possess all the genius of Sherlock Holmes and is drawn into the world of crime-solving because of her extraordinary skills. The problem is that Katie is very much a “fish out of water” on a crime scene—she is awkward and out of her comfort zone. Complicating matters further is the fact that these very same skills which prove so helpful in fighting crime are an absolute disaster for her love life. Tandem has always and continues to represent thirdparty distribution. One of the major highlights of this year is our new relationship with producer, writer and showrunner Frank Spotnitz. We have a first-look distribution deal with him and his company, Big Light Productions, and in addition have three projects we are co-producing with him. Frank represents the perfect example of the highly respected top-tier talent with whom we wish to work. In addition to his writing talent, he is a highly esteemed creative executive producer. Among the third-party distribution projects that we’ll be presenting at MIPCOM is Pirate’s Passage, an animated movie co-produced, co-written and starring the voice talent of Donald Sutherland. The look and style of the production, to be unveiled for the first time at the show, was inspired by the Oscar-winning Japanese animation legend Hayao Miyazaki. Pirate’s Passage, based on an award-winning adventure novel, is about a boy coming of age, learning self-reliance and grit in overcoming his adversities. The book, written by William Gilkerson, resonated with Donald in a very personal manner—he is passionate about the story. WS: What gives Tandem an edge over its competitors in the drama co-production business? BAUER: We’ve been producing with this business model since the beginning of Tandem and have established a strong track record with it. Our long-term relationships, experience in producing international co-pros, and our
WS_INSERT_1014_INSERT_TANDEM_ALT2_EUR_1006_ELLENDER 9/12/14 1:04 PM Page 5
Incredibly proud to have been part of your first 15 years
WORLD WITHOUT END THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH THE COMPANY Congratulations from Ridley, David and your friends at Scott Free
WS_INSERT_1014_INSERT_TANDEM_ALT2_EUR_1006_ELLENDER 9/12/14 1:04 PM Page 6
Big-budget event miniseries are a specialty at Tandem, led by The Pillars of the Earth, World Without End and Labyrinth.
history of high-end productions with cinematic quality have established confidence and trust among our partners and clients. WS: Tell me about the synergies you can now pursue with STUDIOCANAL. BAUER: There are so many synergies, such as remake rights from the vast STUDIOCANAL library, producing originals for CANAL+ and co-productions with our “cousins” in the TV production unit, RED Production
Company and SAM, all of which we are presently doing. In addition, we are already in co-production with RED in the development of a format idea for the U.S. and German market. With STUDIOCANAL we’ve set a benchmark to increase the program hours that we produce and sell per year. This will include increasing our output in all of Tandem’s departments: originals, co-productions, third-party distribution and remakes from STUDIOCANAL and STUDIOCANAL companies.
1999 Rola Bauer and Tim Halkin launch Tandem and soon enter co- 2008 The book rights to Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth are optioned, pro deals for Relic Hunter and Frank Herbert’s DUNE.
and production begins on Lost City Raiders for Syfy and IMPACT for ABC.
2000 Tandem enters a multiyear TV distribution deal with Lionsgate. 2009 Production begins on The Pillars of the Earth and Tandem signs up as a partner on the Patricia Cornwell adaptations. 2001 Tandem expands its co-pro slate and takes on additional third-party fare in When Dinosaurs Roamed America. DUNE wins two Emmy Awards. 2010 The Pillars of the Earth begins its worldwide rollout while 2002 Tandem begins development on Ring of the Nibelungs and Tandem options the rights to the sequel World Without End. begins working with James Cameron on the production of Vision and 2011 STUDIOCANAL takes a majority stake in Tandem. Pillars wins an the distribution of Expedition Bismarck.
2003 Production begins on Ring of the Nibelungs as well as the Syfy TV movie P.I.: Post Impact.
Emmy, 4 Canadian Screen Awards and is nominated for three Golden Globes. The company begins developing its fourth miniseries, Labyrinth, based on Kate Mosse's best-seller. Production begins on World Without End.
2012 Tandem greenlights its first one-hour crime procedural, 2004 Jonas Bauer joins the Tandem team. Crossing Lines, developed in partnership with Ed Bernero. 2005 Tandem receives several Emmy nominations for its Discovery 2013 Crossing Lines has its world premiere at the Monte-Carlo doc Dragons: A Fantasy Made Real, while Ring of Nibelungs picks up the DIVA Award for most successful TV movie. A co-pro pact is inked for the CBS miniseries Covert One: The Hades Factor.
2006 Tandem strikes a co-financing and distribution deal with Mandalay Television for the Nora Roberts franchise, encompassing four TV movies for Lifetime. 2007 Jonas Bauer becomes a partner in Tandem. A distribution deal is made with Starz Media and a co-pro pact inked for Syfy’s Painkiller Jane.
Television Festival, followed by premieres in the U.S. on NBC, Italy, France, Germany and more than 180 countries worldwide and is renewed for season two. World Without End wins an Emmy Award.
2014 Tandem receives a greenlight for Spotless, to be produced for CANAL+ Création Originale. Rola Bauer and STUDIOCANAL CEO Olivier Courson present a MIPTV Keynote. Spotless begins production in July. A first-look distribution deal is signed with producer, writer and showrunner Frank Spotnitz.
6 World Screen 10/14
WS_INSERT_1014_INSERT_TANDEM_ALT2_EUR_1006_ELLENDER 9/12/14 1:04 PM Page 7
WS_1014_UPFRONT_Layout 1 9/26/14 7:59 PM Page 11
Gaumont International Television Hannibal / Hemlock Grove There are new seasons of Gaumont International Television’s (GIT) Hannibal and Hemlock Grove. “To be able to secure season-three renewals for both of our initial series is a tremendous honor for GIT,” says Erik Pack, the company’s head of international distribution and co-production. “These shows have resonated the world over since the beginning. Both of these series feature iconic characters, tremendous acting, unexpected story lines and amazing above- and below-the-line talent. Additionally, our fan base for both of these shows is outstanding. Our fans are without a doubt the best.” In addition, GIT has two new French drama series to offer: Interventions and Hotel de la Plage. “We look forward to offering these titles to our buyers for the first time at this market,” says Pack.
“We are delighted to be offering season three of our leading drama series Hannibal and Hemlock Grove.” Hannibal
—Erik Pack
GMA Worldwide The Other Mrs. Real / My Destiny / Dading Each of the top three drama highlights from the GMA Worldwide catalogue has a different set of themes that VP Roxanne Barcelona believes will appeal to international audiences. The Other Mrs. Real, for example, depicts the consequences of a husband’s infidelity. It also deals with issues of controversial multiple marriages, motives of leading a double life and coping with betrayal. My Destiny looks at the sacrifices endured and risks taken for the sake of keeping a family together. Dading presents the modern topics of gay and lesbian acceptance in the community and gender equality. “Dading is a touching drama that exemplifies the value of good parenting and the ability of each person to be a good influence on a child, no matter what his or her status and orientation may be,” says Barcelona.
“We’re looking to extend our reach into uncharted territories and markets.” The Other Mrs. Real
—Roxanne Barcelona
GRB Entertainment Twisted Tales of My 9 to 5 / Chug / Judge Faith The three-part Twisted Tales of My 9 to 5 recounts sordid stories of overbearing bosses, inter-employee feuds and other workplace horrors. “Frustrations at work is a universal theme, and the international audience will love to see how the people in this series dealt with their situations,” says Mike Lolato, the senior VP of international distribution at GRB Entertainment. The company is also highlighting Chug, which follows traveling “drinkaloguer” Zane Lamprey as he samples local customs, foods and alcohol. “Chug has automatic international appeal because the host literally travels the world and highlights different cultures and looks at the alcohol drinks of choice in each country,” says Lolato. For the 150x30-minute Judge Faith, there’s the international theme of justice at the heart of the program.
“We continue to bring unique programs to our international buyers that will be ratings hits for their audiences.” —Mike Lolato Chug 10/14 World Screen 61
WS_1014_UPFRONT_Layout 1 9/26/14 7:59 PM Page 12
IM Global Television Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines / End of Days / Air Force One Earlier this year, the independent feature-film financing, production and sales company IM Global made a move into the business of TV production and distribution. In doing so, it tapped former Syfy exec Mark Stern to lead the new venture, IM Global Television, as president and to serve as a partner. “By combining our strengths and expertise, we’ve created a company with a deep well of experience in TV development and production, strong international relationships, an innovative business approach and a solid financial foundation,” says Stern. IM Global Television’s sales focus at this MIPCOM will be the library of feature films that its represents. The catalogue contains more than 250 titles, including Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, End of Days and Air Force One.
“The titles in our library represent over $5 billion in worldwide boxoffice [sales].” —Mark Stern End of Days
Incendo The Good Sister / Forget and Forgive / Trigger Point In the TV movie Forget and Forgive, a female homicide detective awakes with amnesia after a brutal attack. This leads her on a race to uncover her true identity and also figure out who the assailant was who wants her dead. Forget and Forgive is one of several female-led thrillers that Incendo has to offer. The company is also presenting The Good Sister, about a woman struggling to deal with her philandering husband, until her sister shows up and things take a deadly turn. Trigger Point tells the story of a college girl who joins a campus activist group, which may wind up having deadly consequences. “Each story is developed to resonate with a global audience,” says Gavin Reardon, the head of international sales and co-productions at Incendo.
“All of our films are fast-paced, well-produced female-led thrillers and are all crafted with the international market in mind.” Forget and Forgive
—Gavin Reardon
ITV-Inter Medya Black Money Love / Stolen Life / In Between The drama series Black Money Love, sold by ITV-Inter Medya, epitomizes what’s being called the “new generation of Turkish drama,” according to Ahmet Ziyalar, the company’s managing director. The fast-paced story’s first season was a ratings hit in Turkey, and its newly released second season is on its way to continuing that success. “We are quite sure that the title will draw lots of attention from the buyers at the market,” Ziyalar says. Also on offer are the first seasons of In Between, about a young girl from the suburbs torn between two young men, and the drama Stolen Life. “These titles have interesting stories, high production values and great acting,” Ziyalar notes. “According to our past experiences, we can easily tell that all three titles have great appeal for the international market.”
“Our main target is to increase the number of territories our company is doing business with, and to establish new business relationships with broadcasters from LatAm and CIS countries.” In Between 62 World Screen 10/14
—Ahmet Ziyalar
WS_1014__Layout 1 9/9/14 3:41 PM Page 1
WS_1014_UPFRONT_Layout 1 9/26/14 7:59 PM Page 13
ITV Studios Global Entertainment Aquarius / Thunderbirds Are Go / The Secret Life of Students/Teens Set in the 1960s, Aquarius stars David Duchovny as a Los Angeles police sergeant tracking a small-time criminal and budding cult leader who turns out to be Charles Manson. The series, which is set to air on NBC in the U.S., is having its world premiere screening at MIPCOM. “The writing and vision for the show are first class, and we have no doubt that this, plus the captivating quality of David Duchovny, will appeal to a global audience,” says Dan Gopal, the executive VP for EMEA distribution and global digital partners at ITV Studios Global Entertainment (ITVS GE). Another market highlight for ITVS GE is the world premiere TV screening for Thunderbirds Are Go at MIP Junior. In the way of format launches, ITVS GE is debuting The Secret Life of Students/Teens.
“Our priority is to maximize the international audience for the programming our production partners entrust us with.” Aquarius
—Dan Gopal
Kanal D The Outsiders / For My Son / Sorrow The Kanal D drama The Outsiders is set in the 1980s. It tells the story of four friends who are looking to escape from the Gültepe district of Izmir to build proper lives for themselves. In Kanal D’s drama For My Son, a man who is suspended from the police force for a crime he didn’t commit winds up joining the Mafia. The story in Sorrow depicts the choices a woman makes and how these affect her life. Ezgi Ural, a sales executive at Kanal D, says that each of these titles has the ability to travel far outside the borders of Turkey and resonate with global audiences. “We have realized that cultural differences do not affect people’s choice of what they want to see on TV,” says Ural. She believes that the emotional stories in Kanal D’s productions are ones that anyone can relate to.
“There are many elements that give our titles not only local but also international appeal, such as the stories about the struggles of life, disappointments, hopes, love and survival.” The Outsiders
—Ezgi Ural
Lightning Entertainment Now Add Honey / Ask Me Anything / Indigenous Among the new film launches from Lightning Entertainment is the romantic comedy Now Add Honey, which stars Portia de Rossi (Arrested Development) and Lucy Fry (Vampire Academy ). The story follows a suburban family whose normal life implodes when their pop-star cousin comes to stay. Britt Robertson of Under the Dome leads the cast of Ask Me Anything, a movie that Ken DuBow, Lightning’s executive VP and general manager, calls “a thought-provoking mystery.” DuBow also highlights the horror thriller Indigenous for the market. “MIPCOM is the launchpad for the new broadcast year, so it is one of the most important dates on our yearly schedule,” says DuBow. “We look forward to seeing our clients as well as making new connections.”
“Lightning has a long history of listening to buyers’ needs and bringing those films to market.” Now Add Honey 64 World Screen 10/14
—Ken DuBow
WS_1014_STARZ_Layout 1 9/17/14 10:27 AM Page 1
WS_1014_UPFRONT_Layout 1 9/26/14 7:59 PM Page 14
MarVista Entertainment 10.0 Earthquake / The Brittany Murphy Story / When Sparks Fly In MarVista Entertainment’s action disaster film 10.0 Earthquake, Los Angeles is about to be hit by a devastating earthquake as a result of deep fracking. Fernando Szew, the company’s CEO, says the movie “keeps you on the edge of your seat.” MarVista is also offering the real-life thriller The Brittany Murphy Story and the dramatic romantic comedy When Sparks Fly. “We have grown into one of the largest distributors of original movies worldwide and our pipeline continues to increase,” says Szew. “Our sales team listens when buyers tell us what they want, and if we can’t find it in the marketplace, then we create it ourselves. It’s that dedication to serving our customers that has resulted in MarVista bringing its most ambitious slate ever of original movies and independently produced films to MIPCOM.”
“Every year for over ten years now, MarVista Entertainment has upped its offerings for the international programming market, and this year is no exception.” When Sparks Fly
—Fernando Szew
MediaCorp Luxe Asia / Across Borders with Dr Farish / My Land is Burning Luxurious Asian lifestyles take center stage in Luxe Asia, which MediaCorp is presenting to international buyers at this year’s market in Cannes. Another title from the company’s MIPCOM slate is Across Borders with Dr Farish, which sees the titular renowned academic telling the stories of those who reside in border towns. Then there is My Land is Burning, focused on the 1.2 million people living in the middle of one the largest coal mining areas in India. “Every one of these stories highlights the trends, sentiments and economic climate cutting across Asia as a whole,” says Tang Yun Leung, the VP of content distribution at MediaCorp. “[These stories] will definitely provide international viewers with strong insight into what is happening in Asia currently.”
“We will focus our efforts on increasing the exposure of MediaCorp content, exploring new distribution channels as well as co-production opportunities.” —Tang Yun Leung Luxe Asia
MediaLogiq Systems ITVR Equipped with cutting-edge engineering and a thorough understanding of the entertainment distribution business, MediaLogiq Systems offers cross-market license monitoring and rightsmanagement systems. MediaLogiq’s product offerings enable users to track media around the world, facilitating standardized, multi-country product analysis; optimize the value of IP through rights management and distribution; and allow for customizable services to protect company rights and profits. The company’s flagship product, International TeleVision Research System (ITVR), is a multi-country TV research platform that standardizes telecast information and loads TAM (Television Audience Measurement) data from sources worldwide, enabling end users to analyze, compare, track and trend programming across territories.
66 World Screen 10/14
WS_1014__Layout 1 9/9/14 4:25 PM Page 1
WS_1014_UPFRONT_Layout 1 9/29/14 8:59 AM Page 15
Miramax From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series / Sense8 / Miramax, Revolution Studios & Samuel Goldwyn libraries Following a successful debut, there’s a second season of From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series coming in 2015. “It’s an exciting show, with an international cast and a unique infusion of Mesoamerican mythology,” says Joe Patrick, the executive VP of worldwide television at Miramax. The company also has the new Sense8 series, plus a wealth of titles to offer from the Miramax library, among them Pulp Fiction and Good Will Hunting, along with international movies such as Chocolat and Shaolin Soccer. “With the Revolution Studios and Samuel Goldwyn titles, we have an incredibly robust variety of stories and characters that resonate with audiences around the world,” says Patrick. “We’re looking forward to introducing some of our recently announced projects and giving buyers a taste of what’s to come.”
“Great stories appeal to everyone, and we have so many to offer.” From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series
—Joe Patrick
Multicom Entertainment Group The Lost World / The Secret Life of John Paul II Multicom Entertainment Group is reintroducing the series The Lost World to the marketplace. There are 66 hours available, featuring stories based on the 1912 novel of the same name by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The company, which is led by Irv Holender as chairman, also has more than 700 hours of TV dramas from “the golden age of television,” including Peter Gunn, Mr. Lucky and The Invisible Man. Another highlight of the Multicom slate is The Secret Life of John Paul II, a 98-minute drama that tells the true story of the friendship between the late Pope John Paul II and his private ski instructor. Multicom is also home to the Kushner-Locke library of films and series, which has more than 1,000 titles spanning comedy, drama, horror, action and adventure.
“We’re looking forward to bringing proven series as well as classic programming to all forms of TV, VOD and SVOD channels.” The Secret Life of John Paul II
—Irv Holender
NBCUniversal International Television Distribution State of Affairs / Odyssey / Allegiance Katherine Heigl makes her return to TV in State of Affairs, which NBCUniversal International Television Distribution is offering. Heigl stars in the series alongside the award-winning actress Alfre Woodard. Odyssey, an action drama that features an international conspiracy, stars Anna Friel and Peter Facinelli. Hope Davis stars in Allegiance, which is based on the Israeli format The Gordin Cell. “State of Affairs, Odyssey and Allegiance are political/military thriller-dramas that each possess top-notch casts, strong writing, compelling characters, intriguing story lines and high production values—all of which are universally embraced characteristics when it comes to entertainment,” says Belinda Menendez, the president of NBCUniversal International Television Distribution and Universal Networks International.
“The studio’s commitment to developing quality programming is apparent with these dramas, attracting stellar talent both in front of and behind the camera.” State of Affairs 68 World Screen 10/14
—Belinda Menendez
WS_1014_NHNZ_LIFEFORCE_Layout 1 9/19/14 4:23 PM Page 1
WS_1014_UPFRONT_Layout 1 9/26/14 7:59 PM Page 16
NHNZ Life Force / Big Pacific / L.A. Frock Stars NHNZ is bringing out a second season of Life Force, which is a blue-chip evolutionary wildlife program. “This series raises the bar in terms of weird and wonderful creatures and animal behavior,” says Kyle Murdoch, the managing director of NHNZ. The company’s next key offering is the four-part blue-chip series Big Pacific. “NHNZ is teaming up with PBS to make a film about the planet’s largest ocean; it’s a journey into an ocean you think we all know about, but actually it’s one of the world’s last great frontiers, and the stories we are filming will redefine what we think we know about some of the planet’s most iconic megafauna,” says Murdoch. NHNZ is also co-producing a second season of L.A. Frock Stars, which follows Doris Raymond as she finds rare vintage gems for her boutique and star clientele.
“Truly great natural-history titles attract a global audience and can be relatively timeless.” —Kyle Murdoch Life Force
Nippon Television Network Corporation Parasyte: The Maxim / The One(s) I Loved / Would You Pay?! The animated series Parasyte: The Maxim is based on a scifi comic book that has sold 11 million copies. It tells the story of an ordinary high-school student, who is suddenly attacked by a parasite that flew down to Earth. Nippon Television Network Corporation is highlighting the title alongside its two new format launches: The One(s) I Loved and Would You Pay?! “The One(s) I Loved is a reality format with the universal theme of love,” says Shigeko Chino, the company’s senior director of international business development. “It is extremely adaptable for all territories and repeatedly garners great ratings in Japan.” Chino adds, “Would You Pay?! is another reality format that would work well around the world and is great for the entire family.”
“We are looking to expand our sales outside of Asia, specifically into Europe, Latin America and the U.S.” Parasyte: The Maxim
—Shigeko Chino
ole 45,000 songs / 60,000 hours of TV & film music It has been ten years since ole began operating in the rightsmanagement business. Initially, ole focused primarily on music publishing rights management, “but we’ve since expanded to include many other rights, including A/V music publishing and master rights, online rights, A/V secondary rights, production music and any other rights that intuitively jump off of music or A/V assets,” says Robert Ott, the chairman and CEO of ole. The company now manages a catalogue of more than 45,000 songs, plus 60,000 hours of television and film music. “ole focused on film and TV from the beginning, and it’s still a major growth area for us,” says Ott. “The expansion of cable, the channel universe and now over the top and online have been remarkable, and we are involved in all of these expanding areas of the industry.”
“Our mission has changed little from day one: profitably acquire quality intellectual property and increase its value while delivering it to customers in the most effective way.”
—Robert Ott
70 World Screen 10/14
WS_1014_NHNZ_Layout 1 9/18/14 10:31 AM Page 1
WS_1014_UPFRONT_Layout 1 9/26/14 7:59 PM Page 17
ORF-Enterprise Wild Venice / Africa’s Wild West: The Horses of the Namib Desert / Forest of Fantasies The documentary Wild Venice features Ultra HD 4K shots that reveal the wildlife and natural beauty of Venice. ORF-Enterprise is showcasing the title along with Africa’s Wild West: The Horses of the Namib Desert. This program follows a young stallion as it joins a group of adolescent horses that live in southern Africa. ORF-Enterprise is also presenting the documentary Forest of Fantasies, which follows a doe and her fawn throughout the year. Marion Camus-Oberdorfer, the head of ORF-Enterprise— Content Sales International, says that the company’s focus for MIPCOM is to reach out to its existing partners and new international clients with the message that “our high-quality, awardwinning programs perfectly meet the current TV trends, especially in terms of using Ultra HD 4K photography.”
“The new documentaries from our wellknown ORF Universum brand will captivate the audience by creating an extraordinary visual experience with Ultra HD 4K shots and remarkable storytelling.” Africa’s Wild West: The Horses of the Namib Desert
—Marion Camus-Oberdorfer
Peace Point Rights Frontier Vets / Food Truck Face Off / Colin and Justin’s Cabin Pressure Peace Point Rights’ Frontier Vets series features eight vet students in their final year of schooling as they take on the challenge of running an animal clinic in a remote community in South Africa. Another highlight of the catalogue is Food Truck Face Off, which sees four teams compete in each episode to win their very own food truck. “Food Truck Face Off is a competition/ elimination series featuring big characters chasing their own food-business dreams,” says Les Tomlin, president and executive producer at Peace Point Entertainment. There’s a second season of Colin and Justin’s Cabin Pressure as well, featuring the design duo as they revamp another cabin in the woods. “The returning series Colin and Justin’s Cabin Pressure presents a home-reno series in a gorgeous country setting,” Tomlin notes.
“We’re continuing to deliver the highest quality programming and service to our existing customer base worldwide, while we expand on the channels that we sell our 1,000hour catalogue to.” Colin and Justin’s Cabin Pressure
—Les Tomlin
PFC - O Canal do Futebol Brasileirão Série A and B / Copa do Brasil / State Championships Globosat’s PFC - O Canal do Futebol is the first Brazilian channel targeted at the international market that is dedicated to soccer. All of its content is aired exclusively in Portuguese, according to Bianca Maksud, the network’s marketing manager. The signal currently reaches 15 countries on four continents, providing the largest coverage of Brazilian championships and tournaments, such as Brasileirão Série A and B, Copa do Brasil and the State Championships, along with soccer-themed shows like Redação SporTV. “We are always looking for opportunities and other ways to give a better experience to our subscribers,” Maksud says. “Right now, we are making our best efforts to offer VOD content and quality HD.” The channel is also adjusting its electronic program guide to reduce time-zone-related programming issues.
“In the long run, we intend to expand our services in Canada and Europe, where we will reach practically all Brazilians living there.” —Bianca Maksud Redação SporTV 72 World Screen 10/14
WS_1014_ACI_RIDLEY_Layout 1 9/18/14 6:08 PM Page 1
WS_1014_UPFRONT_Layout 1 9/26/14 7:59 PM Page 18
Power Birdmen Racing / The Code Breaker / Mercenary: Absolution Following on the success of Power’s The Birdman Chronicles, the company is launching the new series Birdmen Racing. The program spotlights the sport of wingsuit flying. “The high-octane nature of the show means it will appeal to all male-skewing channels and audiences alike,” says Susan Waddell, the CEO of Power. The company continues to build on its catalogue of wildlife programming, with six new and returning series in this genre. This includes The Code Breaker. “This visually stunning series lets global audiences get closer to animals than ever before,” says Waddell. The latest addition to Power’s scripted slate is Mercenary: Absolution. “Full of suspense, drama and action, this celebrity-filled film is the action/thriller genre at its finest,” Waddell says.
“Our motto is ‘Powerful Programming.’” —Susan Waddell The Code Breaker
Priority PR www.prioritypr.net The Los Angeles-based public relations firm Priority PR has more than two decades of experience serving clients. “In our 20-plus years in this business, we have seen PR substantially increase the market value of companies all over the world,” says Jeff Pryor, the president of Priority PR. “With technology connecting continents instantly, your message has to hit all the right points. Good PR can do that.” Pryor stresses the importance of taking a localized approach in the marketplace. “Local and specialized PR campaigns are a significant trend in today’s media world, and Priority PR has achieved far greater success by creating and executing customized PR campaigns for channel/programming launches that tie into the nuances of each region, as opposed to a blanket approach, which is less effective these days.”
“Simply put, increased awareness equals increased revenue.” —Jeff Pryor
Rive Gauche Television Fix It & Finish It / APB with Troy Dunn / The Super New from Rive Gauche Television is Fix It & Finish It. “We’ve been hearing from our clients repeatedly that they are looking for home- and self-improvement programs,” says Jon Kramer, the company’s CEO. “We’re incredibly eager to introduce Fix It & Finish It, featuring Antonio Sabato Jr., to the market for this specific reason, as it proves to be a feel-good homeimprovement series with a reveal at the end that is priceless.” Rive Gauche also has APB with Troy Dunn and The Super. “APB with Troy Dunn is not only heartwarming, it also fills the need for hard-hitting investigation programming,” says Kramer. “The Super is driven by a strong character. Dave Paladino shows us that once he opens the door to a property, he reveals some of the most challenging tenants any viewer has seen.”
“Each of these shows is unique in that they offer different perspectives and delve into different lifestyles.” —Jon Kramer Fix It & Finish It 74 World Screen 10/14
WS_1014_ACI_4TITLES_Layout 1 9/18/14 6:17 PM Page 1
WS_1014_UPFRONT_Layout 1 9/26/14 7:59 PM Page 19
Scripps Networks International Food Network / Fine Living / Travel Channel Food Network is distributed to more than 100 million U.S. households and is available in more than 100 territories across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Asia Pacific. It is part of the Scripps Networks International bouquet, alongside Fine Living, which features a mix of modern living, style and design entertainment. “In the first quarter of this year, we expanded our international footprint with the DTT launch of Fine Living in Italy,” says Jim Samples, the president of international at Scripps Networks Interactive. Travel Channel, which became part of the Scripps portfolio in 2012, has recently launched in Poland, Sweden, Romania, Moldova, Croatia and the Philippines. Now, Scripps is taking its HGTV brand outside of North America for the first time, with a launch across the Asia Pacific.
“One of our key programming priorities is to create some locally relevant original content across our portfolio of international networks.” —Jim Samples Siba’s Table on Food Network
SDI Media Dubbing / Subtitling / Access services SDI Media’s services help clients localize their products, whether it’s for feature films, TV series, interactive games or digital media. The company provides dubbing, subtitling, access services and other media solutions in more than 80 languages. “As broadcasters continue to expand into new territories or launch additional channels in existing markets, SDI Media enables content owners to provide localized content for viewers worldwide,” says Roy Dvorkin, the senior VP of global business development at SDI Media. The company has also entered the access services market. “With international regulations across multiple territories mandating closed captioning, the need for hard-of-hearing subtitles and audio description services continues to grow exponentially in the U.S. and Europe,” says Dvorkin.
“Regardless of the platform, at the end of the day, content needs to be localized.” SDI Media’s facilities
—Roy Dvorkin
Shaftesbury/Smokebomb Murdoch Mysteries / The Moblees / Carmilla The detective drama Murdoch Mysteries has achieved sales in 110 territories around the world, and Shaftesbury/Smokebomb is looking for more deals at MIPCOM. “Murdoch Mysteries offers a winning blend of universal themes, compelling mysteries, unique slices of turn-of-the-century history, ingenious inventions and unforgettable characters that audiences around the world have fallen in love with,” says Christina Jennings, the chairman and CEO of Shaftesbury/Smokebomb. “We’re also excited to be launching a new kids’ property in partnership with CBC in Canada, The Moblees, which is a fun and thoroughly engaging musical adventure series that gets preschoolers up and moving.” From the digital studio Smokebomb comes Carmilla, which Jennings calls a “bingeable comedy for Millennials.”
“This market, we’re proud to be celebrating 100 episodes of our acclaimed detective series Murdoch Mysteries.” —Christina Jennings Murdoch Mysteries 76 World Screen 10/14
WS_1014__Layout 1 9/15/14 12:42 PM Page 1
WS_1014_UPFRONT_Layout 1 9/26/14 7:59 PM Page 20
Starz Worldwide Distribution Survivor’s Remorse / The Holiday Tree / Secret Past There’s a new half-hour comedy in the Starz Worldwide Distribution catalogue, Survivor’s Remorse. The series is executive produced by basketball star LeBron James, among others. It follows a young athlete who is suddenly thrust into the limelight after signing a multimillion-dollar contract. “We continue to have unique series in our catalogue that broadcasters can market specifically to a target audience they want to expand, but that can also be broad enough to work for the key demographics,” says Gene George, the executive VP of Starz Worldwide Distribution. The company also has a new holiday film, The Holiday Tree, and two new thrillers, Eyewitness and Secret Past. George highlights the point that TV movies can work for both daytime and prime-time slots.
“At MIPCOM, we arrive with another new series and fresh TV movies.” —Gene George The Holiday Tree
StoryBox Entertainment Recipe for Love / The Christmas Secret / Love By Design Jane Seymour stars alongside David Oakes and Giulia Nahmany in the movie Love By Design, which is among the programs being offered up by StoryBox Entertainment. StoryBox is also offering the movie Recipe for Love. The story is about a young cook who is given the impossible task of ghostwriting a cookbook for a popular TV chef with a bad-boy reputation. For buyers searching to fill their holiday schedules, StoryBox has The Christmas Secret. The movie follows as a young single mother moves to a new town, where a series of unexpected events lead to a magical Christmas for her family. “These are original stories with universally relatable themes, great production values and amazing casts, made by top-notch filmmakers,” says Francisco J. González, the company’s head of international.
“We want to keep providing the international market with high-quality, dependable programming.” —Francisco J. González Recipe for Love
Sullivan Entertainment Mozart’s Magic Flute Diaries / The Piano Man’s Daughter / What Could Have Been Starring Rutger Hauer and Warren Christie, Mozart’s Magic Flute Diaries is a contemporary version of Mozart’s famous opera The Magic Flute. Sullivan Entertainment is highlighting the offering alongside The Piano Man’s Daughter, which is the story of a piano player turned ballroom dancer who has a streak of madness in his genes. What Could Have Been is about an aspiring novelist, Catherine, who suffers through divorce, debt and complacency after losing her daughter in a car crash. Catherine is about to hit rock bottom when she starts to see her daughter’s presence in several people she meets. “I think the focus on the human element in these beautifully produced films, through a clearly told and compelling narrative, gives these programs a broad appeal,” says Kevin Sullivan, the company’s CEO.
“We want to showcase our scripted series, miniseries and feature films with multigenerational and multicultural appeal.” —Kevin Sullivan Mozart’s Magic Flute Diaries 78 World Screen 10/14
WS_1014__Layout 1 9/24/14 11:36 AM Page 1
WS_1014_UPFRONT_Layout 1 9/26/14 7:59 PM Page 21
Tandem Spotless / Crossing Lines / Sex, Lies and Handwriting Production is under way on Spotless, a new one-hour drama series from Tandem. “The series is dark and funny, with an unusual, imaginative script,” says Randall Broman, Tandem’s VP of sales. The company is offering seasons one and two of Crossing Lines, which deals with the issue of cross-border crimes. Tandem also has the procedural crime series Sex, Lies and Handwriting. The drama follows an accomplished artist and forensic handwriting expert who has her own newspaper column on the subject. “Our budgets are in [line] with the successful U.S. one-hour series that have ruled the international prime-time slots for years,” notes Broman. “We also work with top-level writers and showrunners who have proven themselves as having editorial lines that transcend borders.”
“These are very original, unique series with global appeal.” —Randall Broman Spotless
Tricon Films & Television Garfunkel and Oates / Human Resources / The Divide Tricon Films & Television is launching the new comedy series Garfunkel and Oates from IFC, spotlighting Riki Lindhome and Kate Micucci as they try to make it big in Hollywood. The company is also debuting a new unscripted comedy, Human Resources, from Pivot. “Human Resources follows the inner workings of TerraCycle, which is a recycling company based in over 25 countries, and raises global issues such as waste management,” says Lia Dolente, Tricon’s director of international sales and communications. Another company highlight is the crimebased drama The Divide, “which appeals to a wide audience on both premium and specialty channels on a global basis,” says Dolente. “The series continues to sell worldwide, after a successful premiere [in the U.S.] on WE tv.”
“We want to promote our content partners, such as IFC and Pivot, worldwide and create strong awareness for each brand.” Garfunkel and Oates
—Lia Dolente
Twofour Rights Stammer School / Taking New York / Alex Polizzi’s Secret Italy Last October, Twofour Group merged together with Boom Pictures, providing Twofour Rights with a diverse range of new content to offer. The company is now presenting Stammer School, which follows a group of young adults working to overcome their speech disorders. “Sensitively shot and completely inspiring, we can’t wait to share this with viewers internationally,” says Anthony Appell, the head of sales at Twofour Rights. There are also the highlights Taking New York and Alex Polizzi’s Secret Italy. “Taking New York is a fresh new reality show with plenty of international appeal,” says Appell. “Alex Polizzi is best known for her hit business shows, but Alex Polizzi’s Secret Italy reveals a more personal side of Alex, offering plenty to a new audience of travel, food, fashion and lifestyle enthusiasts.”
“Since the merger of Twofour Group and Boom Pictures a year ago, we’ve taken on board a range of unique content from across the group.” Alex Polizzi’s Secret Italy 80 World Screen 10/14
—Anthony Appell
WS_1014_SHAFTESBURY_Layout 1 9/17/14 11:17 AM Page 1
WS_1014_UPFRONT_Layout 1 9/26/14 7:59 PM Page 22
Vibrant TV Network Comedies / Dramas / Family programming The U.S. channel Vibrant TV Network offers an array of Englishlanguage programming sourced from the international market. “Americans are hungry for fresh content, and foreign properties are imbued with unique and compelling [stories] ripe for Americans’ increasingly diverse appetites,” says Dan Zifkin, the CEO of Vibrant TV Network. “We have some wonderful comedies that will play well in the U.S. We have some dynamic and compelling dramas, with penetrating characters that will be riveting to the U.S. audience. We have some series that touch the souls of kids and adults alike in a manner that will reverberate through each episode.” Zifkin is looking for some new acquisitions at MIPCOM in the genres of drama, comedy, sports, family, reality and movies.
“We are positioning the channel in the U.S. market as a general-audience network offering neverbefore-seen international programming in English.” —Dan Zifkin
ZDF Enterprises H2O Mermaid Adventures / The Team / Apocalypse Neanderthal ZDF Enterprises’ (ZDFE) children’s division, ZDFE.junior, is highlighting the girl-skewed H2O Mermaid Adventures. From the ZDFE.drama sector comes The Team, about a crew that fights crime across borders. ZDFE.factual is showcasing Apocalypse Neanderthal, which explores the mysteries of a species that became extinct. And finally, the ZDFE.entertainment slate is spotlighting the format Quiz Champion, in which laymen are pitted against specialists in a duel of knowledge. According to Alexander Coridass, ZDFE’s president and CEO, the titles from each sales category prove the company’s dedication to providing clients with premium content. “Client care might be the right term for it, since we place great value on quality programs and quality service for all of our clients,” Coridass says.
“We don’t only want to be there when new trends come along, we want to help initiate them.” —Alexander Coridass Apocalypse Neanderthal
Zodiak Rights Slow Train Through Africa / The Operatives / The Supervet The series Slow Train Through Africa features a cross-continent journey on Africa’s railways. “Traveling by rail, we’ll see Africa in a magical new light, one that reveals its vibrant people, history, beauty and scale,” says Emily Elisha, the head of factual at Zodiak Rights. “We anticipate this will be an epic travel series with the more local human elements and stories at its heart.” Eco warriors are on a mission in the series The Operatives, which follows Pete Bethune and his elite team of former military commandos as they travel the world, bringing poachers and environmental criminals to justice. “This is a high-octane series with a real purpose,” says Elisha. The Supervet is set in a cutting-edge veterinary hospital in Britain. The first season aired on Channel 4 in the U.K. earlier this year to much success.
“We have a fantastically diverse mix of content on the factual slate this market that we are really excited to launch to our buyers.” Slow Train Through Africa 82 World Screen 10/14
—Emily Elisha
WS_1014__Layout 1 8/27/14 5:47 PM Page 1
WS_1014_BANDIMAGEM SPD_Layout 1 9/17/14 11:09 AM Page 1
WS_1014_BANDIMAGEM SPD_Layout 1 9/17/14 11:10 AM Page 2
WS_1014_SPACEY_alt2_WSN_0406_RECORD 9/26/14 8:24 PM Page 3
KevinSpacey By Anna Carugati
Kevin Spacey fell in love with acting at a very young age. At 13 he got the thrill of his life when Jack Lemmon told him he had talent and encouraged him to pursue his dream. Years later, Spacey starred with Lemmon on Broadway and in films. Among his many performances on stage and the big screen, Spacey has played the duplicitous Richard III, a wicked office manager in Glengarry Glen Ross, a sociopath in Se7en, a detective in L.A. Confidential and a damaged teacher in Pay It Forward. He won an Academy Award for best supporting actor in The Usual Suspects, and one for best actor in American Beauty. Spacey has worked behind the camera as an executive producer on the films The Social Network and Captain Phillips, and for ten years he was artistic director of The Old Vic theater in London. Most recently, he’s executive producer of and the lead male actor in Netflix’s House of Cards, where he portrays conniving, power-hungry Frank Underwood. Spacey has also set up a foundation, where, taking the advice of his mentor Jack Lemmon, he is helping nurture new talent. WS: How did you first get involved in House of Cards? SPACEY: I produced a film called The Social Network. It was during the shooting of that film that David Fincher and I—we had worked together previously as actor and director in Se7en—started throwing around the idea of wanting to work together again. This conversation went on for maybe a month or so, just poking around with the idea. Then he came to me and said that he had heard that the rights were available for a British television series that he had never seen called House of Cards. I said, Well, I have seen it, and I thought it was really terrific and actor Ian Richardson was brilliant. So he went away to watch it, and I went away and watched it again; we came back together and decided that it would in fact translate very well to a U.S. series. From there we began to develop the idea and Beau Willimon was brought on. He wrote the first two scripts and then we went out and pitched it to all of the networks that one would pitch something like this to, and ultimately we also pitched it to Netflix. What attracted me to it first and foremost were David Fincher and Beau
86 00 World Screen 10/14
WS_1014_REDARROW_Layout 1 9/16/14 12:08 PM Page 1
WS_1014_SPACEY_alt2_WSN_0406_RECORD 9/26/14 8:24 PM Page 4
Spacey and Robin Wright have earned rave reviews for their portrayal of a D.C. power couple in Netflix’s House of Cards, which returns for season three in 2015.
Willimon. I was incredibly excited and pleased that we brought on a playwright to be the head writer and showrunner. I had really liked his previous work and certainly knew him from The Ides of March, which was based on a play called Farragut North that George Clooney turned into a film. It just started to develop, and lo and behold before we knew it we made a deal with Netflix and we were off to the races. WS: Was part of your attraction to House of Cards due to the fact that Frank Underwood, Francis Urquhart in the original British series, had so much in common with Richard III, a character you know so well? SPACEY: Actually the role of Francis was based on Richard III in the original books by Michael Dobbs [author of the House of Cards trilogy]. That’s why the direct address [Frank speaking directly to the camera] happens. While many people think Ferris Bueller was the first direct address, it was actually William Shakespeare and in Richard III he created direct address. It’s different from a monologue. In Shakespeare, a monologue entails a character expressing his thoughts and sharing them with the whole theater. In direct address, you’re looking into the eyes of the audience and engaging them individually. To some degree, Frank and Richard III have certain shadows of each other, but obviously Frank is a very different kind of character and is in a very modern setting. But both of these works are about the nature of power, and the nature of what people will do to retain it and get it. But in our case, when we looked at the original series, we really wanted to improve the role of the wife. We wanted to make the wife almost an equal. Once we knew that we had Robin Wright, we were able to have an actress who could embody the challenges that we wanted to throw at that character. While the original series was a launching point for us, and Richard III was certainly the foundation, we really tried to make it our own. WS: You’ve been involved in political campaigns in the past. How did you prepare for the role of Frank? SPACEY: The truth of the matter is that I have been involved in politics for most of my life. That was very helpful in terms of getting a general sense of how things
88 World Screen 10/14
work, particularly campaigns, and watching the really, really good politicians who are not only good at campaigning but at fundraising. Frankly, that helped me a great deal even before this series when I had to raise money for The Old Vic theater because we had no public subsidies. I learned a lot over the years about gladhanding and being able to convince someone to write a check, to express an idea and get someone on board. I spent some time with politicians—Steny Hoyer, the Democratic Minority Whip in the House, and Kevin McCarthy, who was the Majority Whip and is now the leader of the House. When I asked if I could meet with [McCarthy] and he agreed to it, that was for me to understand more the logistics and the specifics of what it takes to try to corral 18 congressmen to vote the way that you want them to vote. So I followed them both around, but in no way was this about me trying to develop my character based on anybody. I didn’t base Frank on anybody because I felt Beau Willimon’s writing and David Fincher’s extraordinary direction, and the way in which he guided me in those first two episodes, set the tone for the development of the character. But the truth is, I’m still learning about this man. I don’t show up at work every day and think, I know Frank; I know what he’d do here or what he’d do there. The way in which Beau and our team of writers develop what we reveal, what we hold back, how the onion keeps getting peeled—I learn things all the time about him. Part of the joy of coming to work every day is not what I know, but what I don’t know and continue to discover. WS: You are an executive producer of the show. Do you know about story arcs ahead of time? SPACEY: I’ve been involved from the very beginning. When we first started the process we began to talk about the entire arc, certainly the first two years because we were given a two-season order by Netflix, so that was 26 episodes. And yes, in terms of where we are now in the third season, discussions between Beau and myself and David Fincher and some of the other creatives on the show began last July and I am well aware before I get a script where things are going. I will often see early drafts of things, and a lot of times I’ll come up with a really bad idea that will lead Beau to a really good idea! And he’ll have a bad idea that will lead me to a good one. There’s been a tremendous openness and lack of ego; we just want the show to be as good as it can be. We’ve had such a strong working relationship that it’s been a complete pleasure to be involved. Beau is without question the guru and the voice of the series. If I were ever to have dreamed about what a relationship would be, doing a television series with a showrunner, head writer and a director— and all our directors who have come in and have embraced David Fincher’s vision and style [while bringing their own dynamics]—this has been, creatively, an extraordinary experience. WS: What kind of acting relationship do you have with Robin Wright? SPACEY: When you are working with an actor—and this is certainly true in the case of Robin—who is going toe to toe with you, you are a better actor. It’s like playing
WS_1014_DARO_FILMS_Layout 1 9/18/14 8:20 PM Page 1
WS_1014_SPACEY_alt2_WSN_0406_RECORD 9/29/14 9:04 AM Page 5
the audience likes being in control and the Netflix model has proved that they like making these decisions for themselves. I would say that I think appointment viewing is more behind us than ahead of us.
NOW: In the Wings on a World Stage goes behind the scenes of the stage production of Richard III that reunited Spacey with American Beauty director Sam Mendes.
tennis with a great player—your game gets better because the other person will have a way into something that you didn’t think of. Or they will have a way they say a line, or a way they approach a scene, which makes you rethink. I can tell you that knowing Robin as long as I’ve known Robin, which is 20 years, the relationship that we have developed and the way we work together is exactly the best that you could hope for. But we also spend an enormous amount of our time giggling and laughing and making each other crack up because we really are having a wonderful time. We don’t take ourselves seriously, but we take the work seriously. WS: Do you have more freedom writing and producing for Netflix than you would if you were producing for a commercial network? SPACEY: There is definitely [creative] freedom because we weren’t asked to do a pilot. We didn’t want to do a pilot because a pilot is quite often just an audition in which you have to establish all the characters in 45 minutes. You have to come up with arbitrary cliffhangers, you have to mechanically do things. What we were given was a very long runway and an ability to allow characters to develop over time and give them space. That’s the kind of freedom we had. For me this has never felt like I am doing a television series. I don’t think of it episodically. I think of it as if we’re telling you a very long story. It’s a little bit like making a very long film. When friends tell me, Oh, I loved episode so and so, I literally have no idea what episode they are talking about! I don’t think of them as episodes; we think of them as chapters. I suppose with respect to the way we work, the platform really doesn’t have anything to do with our creative process. Yes, we are fortunate that we don’t have commercial breaks, but then again, our audience can decide when they want to break. It works the same way as a novel: you decide when you want to put it down on your bedside, and you decide when you want to pick it up. It’s very much the same thing that is happening with how people are consuming and how people have consumed since the Gutenberg press. We didn’t invent this way of viewing; it’s been going on since the time of box sets [of DVDs]. The difference has been that
90 World Screen 10/14
WS: What shifts have you seen in the film business that prompted so much talent to move to television? SPACEY: Let me preface what I am about to say and put it into context, because you happen to be speaking to a producer who has managed to get a major studio like Sony to produce The Social Network or to do Captain Phillips. I’m very fortunate that I have been able to get two of the most important and successful character-driven dramas made out of a studio in the last ten years. But I will take you back to an experience that I had in 1990 when a rather prophetic series of statements were made by one of the most remarkable filmmakers of all time, Sir David Lean. Jack Lemmon invited me to come sit at his table at the AFI tribute to Sir David Lean. When it came time for him to accept the award at the end of the evening, he dedicated his entire acceptance speech to the heads of the studios, or as he said that night, “I want to speak to you money men out there. I am very worried about where the film business is today. I don’t mind that you want to make parts 1, 2, 3 and 4, but if you look at the list of the recipients of the AFI Award, all of them were trailblazers, all of them were emerging filmmakers. And if this business continues to support emerging filmmakers, the film business is going to go up and up and up. And if you don’t, we’re going to lose it all to television.” He said that in 1990. And that night nobody paid attention. It was only nine years later that The Sopranos debuted on HBO and changed the landscape forever. Now part of what has happened in the 15 years since The Sopranos debuted is that some remarkably brave and courageous programming came first out of HBO and then out of other networks. And the movie business has shifted away from character-driven drama to more tentpole, comic-book heroes. If you are an artist, or a filmmaker, or a storyteller, where are you going to go? You are going where the ground is very fertile, and that is television. So it makes complete sense to me that the best writers, directors, actors and producers have moved on to television because it’s very hard to get films made, certainly out of the studios. It doesn’t mean that the independent film world isn’t functioning. But it’s very hard to raise money. It’s very hard to get a good release. It’s very hard for these films to make the money back, and that’s why I have been so fortunate as a producer to be able, while this sea change has been happening, to get a number of character-driven dramas on the big screen and have them do very, very well. Look, is it a trend? My answer is, when character-driven dramas start making money, the studios will start making them again.
WS_1014_SMITHSONIAN_Layout 1 9/17/14 12:18 PM Page 1
WS_1014_DANSON_REAL_408_NIGHT 9/26/14 8:26 PM Page 2
92 World Screen 10/14
WS_1014_DANSON_REAL_408_NIGHT 9/26/14 8:27 PM Page 4
Ted
Danson Audiences around the world loved Ted Danson as Sam Malone, the skirt-chasing ex-baseball star who owned the bar on Cheers. The hit sitcom aired for 11 years and Danson went on to star in feature films and several TV shows. In 2011, he joined the cast of the long-running hit CSI: Crime Scene Investigation as D.B. Russell, the new supervisor of the nighttime shift of the Las Vegas CSI team. In a career that has spanned four decades, Danson has also found time to become a leading spokesman for Oceana, an organization dedicated to ocean conservation. Danson talks to World Screen about the acting skills required of a procedural drama and how exceptional writing is the key to any great drama or comedy. WS: What appealed to you about CSI and the character of D.B. Russell? DANSON: Like most things in my life, I kind of stumbled upon it blissfully unaware of how great it would turn out for me. I really didn’t know that much about CSI. My friend Billy Petersen was in it and I had seen maybe the first episode because he was in it. So it was one of those crazy phone calls that came to me in the middle of a movie theater, right before the film was going to start. I was in Martha’s Vineyard with my wife, and I saw that it was my manager calling and I answered the phone and whispered, “Hello, I’m in a movie, so I have to whisper.” He said, “Do you want to do CSI?” I said yes and then hung up! [Laughs] That was literally the amount of forethought. It turned out to be this amazing, very hard but amazing, journey to explore this character D.B. Russell and what he does in life. I am thrilled that I took it, but I don’t think I was really aware of what I was getting into! WS: You stepped into a successful franchise that for several years has been the most-watched show in the world—any pressure there? DANSON: I highly recommend it; it almost feels like cheating! It’s an amazing cast. So many of the actors have been there from the very beginning: Jorja Fox, George Eads, Paul Guilfoyle and Eric Szmanda. A lot of the writers, most of the crew, so many people had been there from day one and were still there 11 years later when I joined. I owe so much to them for having created this amazing series, with an audience that has remained very loyal all these years. The writing has remained so good. It was a luxury to step into this part and find my way.
WS: How do the forensics and the science, which are a big part of the show, impact the acting process? Is there any special prep before scenes? DANSON: I went to a real autopsy in Vegas before I started the show—it was the most adrenaline-pumped hour of my life! So I will do certain things to get a hint of what a CSI’s life is like. We also have two former CSIs who write for the show, and one retired CSI who is on the set every minute. So, you are constantly being schooled as you go. You begin to pick up things but there is someone at all times teaching you about blood spatter and directional blood spatter and what to look for. You are basically getting a CSI 101 course every day you show up at work. Your job as an actor, and it’s the most difficult work I’ve ever done, is to bring the humanity and the believability to a [successful television] formula. The job of the writer is to present in 45 minutes this very complicated forensic mystery, so as an actor you have to keep the audience instructed about what’s going on every second. Sometimes it feels like we are talking directly to the audience with our dialogue, so our job is to make sure it doesn’t come across that way, even though we are informing the audience every step of the way about what’s going on. [The dialogue] has almost a soap-opera quality to it—we repeat things a lot, which we wouldn’t do in real life—so it becomes a real challenge to make it believable, and that’s our job. WS: The subject matter on CSI is dark and intense. What is the atmosphere on the set? Is there any goofing around at all during takes, or does the subject matter demand that you stay serious all the time? DANSON: I feel that part of my job is to be a host to the crew and to make sure that everybody is going to work in a happy
10/14 World Screen 93
By Anna Carugati
WS_1014_DANSON_REAL_408_NIGHT 9/26/14 8:27 PM Page 5
WS: Cheers was a multi-camera show? DANSON: Yes, we were really doing theater. We rehearsed it and then brought in an audience. We’d shoot it in front of the audience but we were [basically] doing theater.
Ted Danson joined the cast of CBS’s CSI, one of the world’s biggest drama hits, in 2011.
atmosphere. If that means being silly, I am and I will be, but my real job is to make sure I don’t take a long time getting my lines out so everybody can get home on time. So it’s a combination of being lighthearted with demanding work. Believe it or not, it’s the hardest work I’ve ever done. It’s not full of hijinks because everybody is doing a huge amount of work. We have two film crews going at the same time because a lot of the science is being shot on a different stage while we are doing dialogue. If an actor is looking down a microscope, the other end of the microscope is being filmed on another set with another crew. There’s a lot of work to fit into nine days to give it that Jerry Bruckheimer [executive producer of CSI] look. WS: CSI is a lot more complex and lengthy than Cheers was. DANSON: Cheers was five days of coming to work and being silly with your friends and making each other laugh. I should have done things the other way around! In my 60s I should be making things a little easier for myself! WS: You have done both comedy and drama. Is one more challenging than the other? DANSON: [Drama uses] a different muscle. The hard part of it is making scientific, procedural, plot-driven—not characterdriven but plot-driven—material human. That is an amazing technique and it’s something I’m really glad I am learning how to do. The drama usually comes from the director and the editor. They make things exciting and dramatic with the music and the way they edit. [As an actor in a drama, what] you’re doing is showing up and trying to be real in the moment. In comedy, however, you have a lot more control of the end result in that the actor has to be funny in the moment. If the actor is not doing something mildly amusing in the moment, then you can’t cut it or edit it to make it a comedy, whereas you can create a drama just by the way you direct and edit.
94 World Screen 10/14
WS: You played Sam Malone for 11 years. For many actors in long-running series, once the show is off the air it’s difficult for an audience to accept them as anybody other than the character that they played for so long. Yet you have worked almost continually. How have you chosen your roles? DANSON: Wow, I have been very blessed. I say this not with false humility; there are so many wonderful people out there, and I’ve had a lot of luck and I have been very blessed for the work that I have gotten to do over the years. I haven’t played the wacky, crazy character in comedy. I have usually been the character that allows the audience to see everybody else. Sam Malone’s job was to love all the crazies around him. I was more of an everyman who led the audience around to see the incredibly funny people around him. That [type of role] tends to typecast you less. The other thing that I learned after Becker is to look for incredibly creative people; don’t look to play the lead; don’t look at anything except the material. Just pick projects that have amazingly creative people around and ask them very nicely if you can be a part of them, no matter the size of the part. Then you are likely—not guaranteed, but more likely— to be part of something that is authentic and new. Even if you have been around for a while, if you are part of something that is authentic and new and funny, then people accept you in the new part. They don’t accept you if the project isn’t any good. WS: As an actor and as a person, what did you take away from the 11-year experience on Cheers? DANSON: Writing, casting, people actively loving each other on stage. Writing really fun material works. It was the kind of funny that was human-frailty funny. It wasn’t topical, it didn’t depend on meanness or stupidity; it was such bright, smart writing and that tends to be timeless. It had a great group of actors; every one of them has gone off and done amazing things. WS: A lot of the comedy nowadays tends to be kind of mean-spirited, but you have avoided that. DANSON: I was lucky. Damages I thought was almost funny; it was so wonderfully dark and everybody was so wonderfully devious and bad that it was almost a comedy—a very, very dark comedy. And then Bored to Death was never about being mean, it was just about being this strange character and being put in the strangest situations! But there wasn’t a mean bone in the creator Jonathan Ames’s body. He is one of those unique people who is like a total innocent that hasn’t walked away from any perversion the world has ever presented to him! WS: And what about working with Larry David on Curb Your Enthusiasm? DANSON: I have to credit Larry because I felt like I had stayed at the comedy party too long. I wasn’t amusing myself anymore and I was burned out and didn’t quite know what to do. He would call and say, “What are you doing this afternoon? Come on down.” Curb Your Enthusiasm had that effortless improvisation that was so much fun to do. It was a unique format that got me excited again. Anyway, Larry really did me a great [deed] as a friend involving me in that.
WS_1014_ELECTUS_Layout 1 9/16/14 12:46 PM Page 1
WS_1014_SCHILLING_REAL_408_NIGHT 9/26/14 8:28 PM Page 2
96 World Screen 10/14
WS_1014_SCHILLING_REAL_408_NIGHT 9/26/14 8:29 PM Page 4
Taylor
Schilling A favorite among binge-viewers, Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black stars Taylor Schilling as its main jailbird, Piper Chapman. In it, she plays a Waspy blonde who is forced to trade in her comfortable New York lifestyle for an orange prison jumpsuit to serve time in a women’s penitentiary. The show was inspired by the 2010 memoir of Piper Kerman and was brought to the small screen by Weeds creator Jenji Kohan. Schilling has been nominated for a Golden Globe and an Emmy in the role (a part she says that she instantly knew she wanted). Schilling tells World Screen about her character’s transformation and the dynamics of the ensemble female cast.
WS: When you first read this character and the show’s premise, how did you feel knowing that it was based on a true story? SCHILLING: I was really compelled [by the fact] that it was based on a true story. I always find that for me, personally, in films, books, TV or plays, there’s a real hook when it’s based on a true story. It makes it fresher to have the idea of: That could be me. There’s that “What if?” factor. It’s like seeing behind the curtains into someone’s life, and that’s really exciting to me. As for the story, it was just so intriguing. I found it really powerful. WS: Did you know instantly that you wanted this role? SCHILLING: I did! It’s crazy; I really had this sense of, This is what I want. This is what I want beyond [anything]. There are some times that you read things, and it’s like, Oh, this makes sense. Then there are times when it’s exhilarating, but in a calm and knowing way. When I read [the character of] Piper, I said, That’s it! I get her. It was easy from there. WS: How do you put yourself into the mind-set of what Piper must be going through as an inmate? SCHILLING: Piper has had to shed all her old ideas about what it means to be in the world. Even unconsciously she’s had to do that, just to survive. I don’t even know if she knows that she’s doing that. Who she is at a fundamental level has to come out to play in a way that never would have happened had she not been incarcerated. She’s discovering freedom in that. There’s a great sense of wanting to know the truth, and she’s surviving and she’s going to any length [to survive]. In
that, she is learning who she really is and is starting to trust that. As she transforms as a human being, that then changes every interaction she has with anyone. This process is reintroducing her to the world in a completely new way. There’s research to do and different kinds of explorations [for a character like this]. First and foremost, though, is the writing. It’s so, so good; it really provides a clear trajectory. WS: How much have you been working with Piper Kerman, the author of the memoir that inspired the series? What sort of direction has she given you? SCHILLING: She was very involved in the first season, and she still is. She’s a great friend, and I really enjoy my time with her. To her credit, she’s such an incredible resource, so amazing! At the same time, she’s just a fan of the show. She loves to see what choices I make; she’s excited about it. She doesn’t have any judgment; she has a completely open mind. She’s very cognizant of the fact that I am playing a fictional character at the end of the day, but she’s very much there any time I have questions or concerns. It’s really special to have her around in that capacity. WS: How has your character evolved over the course of the series? SCHILLING: [She started out being] quite sure of her place in the world and of what was right, or at least of her idea of what was right. Her values were based on the world she was living in, which was about maintaining the status quo, fitting in and being like other people. Her journey through incarceration has been about
10/14 World Screen 97
By Kristin Brzoznowski
WS_1014_SCHILLING_REAL_408_NIGHT 9/26/14 8:30 PM Page 5
Orange Is the New Black, produced by Lionsgate, has been Netflix’s biggest original programming success thus far.
letting go of what others think and discovering who she is when she’s not bound by convention. She’s finding in that a new strength and a new vitality. It’s no longer about caring what other people think as much as it is about living her life. She’s taking more action now than she ever has before.
SCHILLING: Her clarity, her humor, her humanity. Just by virtue of writing these scripts where these characters, who so often go unheard and unseen, are given a voice, it has created a really safe and exciting place to work together.
WS: It’s a largely female cast. How important is the dynamic between all of the women both on set and off set? SCHILLING: It’s incredibly important! We support each other so fully and so genuinely, and enjoy each other so fully and so genuinely. It really does feel like a family. It sounds a bit cliché when you hear people say that, but it really is. I don’t think the work that any of us do would be possible without feeling quite so safe and cared for by our cast members, who are our friends and co-workers.
WS: What’s your take on the Netflix model of releasing all episodes at once and the resulting binge-viewing phenomenon? SCHILLING: It’s incredible. That’s how I like to watch things. It makes me feel better to know that I can get as much as I want. It makes me feel like I won’t be left high and dry. It’s almost frightening to watch something only once a week now, I feel like I need more!
WS: The show definitely has some darker moments and complex characters. How do you feel about it being classified as a comedy? SCHILLING: I don’t think it’s a comedy, but I also don’t think it’s a drama. I do think it’s very funny. The balance of humor and humanity that Jenji Kohan so brilliantly creates through letting people into this world so vibrantly defies categorization. WS: What sort of creative environment have you found working with Jenji?
98 World Screen 10/14
WS: After having worked on the show and embodied this character, has it shaped your view of the prison system? SCHILLING: Hugely! It’s opened my eyes to the work that the WPA [Women’s Prison Association] does. It has opened my eyes to the systemic nature of the problems of our prison system right now. We’re treating criminals, but [dealing with the problems in the American prison system] starts at a much more fundamental level of education and the great disparity between the rich and the poor in our country. It’s hard to tell these stories and not become politically activated in a personal way.
WS_1014_APPLICASTER_NEW_Layout 1 9/23/14 6:13 PM Page 1
WS_1014_CONTENTTRENDSETTERS_Layout 1 9/26/14 8:32 PM Page 1
CONTENT TRENDSETTER
AWA R D S For the fourth consecutive year, World Screen is teaming up with Reed MIDEM at MIPCOM to present the Content Trendsetter Awards to four programming executives to honor their contributions to the television industry. This year’s winners, ITV’s Sasha Breslau, Globo’s Paulo Mendes, Nine Entertainment’s Les Sampson and SundanceTV’s Christian Vesper, reflect today’s varied and ever-evolving media landscape. ITV is the U.K.’s leading commercial network. Besides its flagship ITV network, it has a bouquet of digital channels and a catchup service. Globo, Brazil’s market-leading network, is the envy of broadcasters all over the world. It is able to consistently garner 20-, 30-, even 40-percent audience shares. Nine is one of three commercial networks in Australia. Rather than see viewers migrate to competing on-demand services, it is launching its own SVOD platform. SundanceTV in the U.S. is riding cable television’s wave of critically acclaimed highly serialized shows that capture viewers’ attention and feed the bingeviewing craze. The challenge to all linear channels today, whether broadcast, cable or satellite, is to extend their offerings in order to reach viewers wherever they may be and on whatever screen they prefer. As a consequence, network schedules and on-demand menus must be rich in variety. It is the main responsibility of the four Content Trendsetter Award-winners to source must-
watch programming that will draw viewers and brand their networks or services. They will be presented with their awards at the end of the Acquisition Superpanel: What Do Buyers Want? session, which will take place on Wednesday, October 15, in the Grand Auditorium in the Palais des Festivals from 12:15 p.m. to 1 p.m. The discussion, moderated by World Screen’s group editorial director, Anna Carugati, will cover topics that range from spotting shows that work with local audiences to negotiating the complex maze of rights required to provide shows on multiple platforms. “We are thrilled to be working with our friends at Reed MIDEM for the fourth consecutive year to honor these leading programmers with the World Screen Content Trendsetter Awards,” says Ricardo Guise, the president and publisher of World Screen. “In their respective territories of the U.S., U.K., Australia and Brazil—among the most vibrant and dynamic TV markets in the world—these executives have developed keen eyes for spotting top-notch, on-brand imports to satisfy their demanding audiences. At the Acquisition Superpanel at MIPCOM, we’ll hear them share insights into their approaches to finding the best the global market has to offer. The must-attend session will surely provide plenty of useful information for anyone in the business of producing, buying or selling content in the new golden age of television. We are delighted to be honoring their achievements at MIPCOM.”
100 World Screen 10/14
WS_1014_SUNDANCETV_Layout 1 9/23/14 1:50 PM Page 1
WS_1014_CONTENTTRENDSETTERS_Layout 1 9/26/14 8:32 PM Page 2
C O N T E N T T R E N D S E T T E R AWA R D S SASHA BRESLAU
CHRISTIAN VESPER
Head of Acquired Series, ITV, U.K.
Senior VP of Scripted Programming and Current, SundanceTV, U.S.A.
In this golden age of television there is no shortage of quality series, and they are coming from so many countries, not just the U.S. and the U.K. There is Scandinavian noir drama, transatlantic co-produced event TV movies and miniseries, German cop shows and so much more. It is Sasha Breslau’s task to search through the seemingly endless options and match shows to ITV’s portfolio of channels. What won’t find a home on the main network ITV could very well be placed on ITV2, ITV3 or ITV4, which are the U.K.’s most successful digital channels, or the recently launched lifestyle channel ITVBe. Breslau joined ITV in 2008. She previously worked at Channel 4, in both new media and acquisitions. Among the shows she has recently acquired are The Americans for ITV, Mom and the Real Housewives franchise for ITV2 and Storage Wars for ITV4.
SundanceTV, a sister channel to AMC and owned by AMC Networks, is dedicated to making television that is as distinctive as the best independent films. It launched in 1996, and through the years it has remained faithful to founder Robert Redford’s mission to celebrate creativity. Today, Christian Vesper is responsible for sourcing and developing original scripted projects that fit the channel’s goals to present non-formulaic and daring stories—whether those stories originate in the U.S. or elsewhere. He served as executive producer for the miniseries Top of the Lake, co-produced with the BBC, and was involved in the development of the series Rectify and The Red Road. He also took part in the acquisition and development of the Golden Globe-winning miniseries Carlos, and acquired the documentary The Staircase and series such as Slings and Arrows.
PAULO MENDES
LES SAMPSON
Director of Acquisitions, TV Globo, Brazil
Director of Acquisitions, StreamCo, Nine Entertainment, Australia
The eyes of the world were on Brazil this summer as it hosted the FIFA World Cup, and a huge global audience witnessed Globo’s production prowess as it provided coverage of all the matches. But Globo’s expertise extends far beyond sports. As the market-leading network in Brazil, it offers a schedule chock-full of entertainment shows, telenovelas, series, news and current affairs, in addition to the country’s beloved football. Paulo Mendes must complement this strong slate of domestic fare with the best programming from around the world. He heads the acquisition team and buys films and TV series from independent producers and from the Hollywood studios. Some recent buys include Homeland, Revenge, 24: Live Another Day and Under the Dome, although Mendes points out that he buys from France, the U.K. and Russia as well.
Australia’s television market is vibrant and diverse, and among its many outlets are three highly competitive commercial networks, a public broadcaster and a successful pay-TV platform. Les Sampson is a television executive with extensive experience in free TV and pay TV in Australia and in the U.K. He began his career at Nine Network as a management cadet, and then worked his way up to programming executive. He later became controller of the Sky channels at BSkyB in the U.K. He moved back to Australia and worked at the pay-TV company Foxtel as general manager of its owned and operated channels and general manager of acquisitions, sales and content. In 2008, he returned to Nine Network as director of acquisitions, and earlier this year was put in charge of content acquisition for Nine’s soon-to-launch SVOD service.
102 World Screen 10/14
WS_1014_RIVEGAUCHE_Layout 1 9/18/14 3:56 PM Page 1
WS_1014_CONTENTTRENDSETTERS_Layout 1 9/26/14 8:32 PM Page 3
C O N T E N T T R E N D S E T T E R AWA R D S
PREVIOUS HONOREES 2011 Mike Cosentino, the senior VP of programming at CTV Networks in Canada. Jeff Ford, today the director of content at TV3 in Ireland. Sarah Wright, the controller of acquisitions at British pay-TV platform Sky. Carlos Sandoval, who today is the CEO of VEO at Televisa in Mexico.
2012 Beverley McGarvey, today the chief programming officer at Network Ten in Australia. John Ranelagh, then-head of acquisitions at TV 2 in Norway. Malcolm Dunlop, formerly executive VP of TV programming and operations at Rogers Media in Canada. Gill Hay, then-head of acquisitions at Channel 4 in the U.K.
2013 Piv Bernth, the head of drama at DR in Denmark. Ross Crowley, the director of programming and channels at Foxtel in Australia. Pedro Lascurain, the head of acquisitions at the Mexican broadcaster Azteca. Carmi Zlotnik, the managing director of Starz in the U.S.
WS_1014__Layout 1 9/10/14 2:43 PM Page 1
WS_1014_TUCHMAN_WSN_1207_IN THE NEWS 9/26/14 8:31 PM Page 1
GLOBAL NETS
AMC NETWORKS’
BRUCE TUCHMAN open the offering of movies up to other studios as well. So we’re taking an existing, well-distributed network, but we’re going to refresh it, revitalize it, fortify it with what is our company’s flagship brand: AMC.
WS: What are some of the benefits you’ve derived from being a newer player in the global channels business? TUCHMAN: Sometimes there’s a burden of legacy infrastructure and ways of doing business. When you look at Sundance, for instance, we’re able to take top-of-the-line technologies, transmission paths, etc., and deploy them from day one. The critical success point for AMC Networks has been this idea of opportunism, flexibility, and the fact that we are a product of, and responsible to, the pay-TV ecosystem. We’re on the front line, knowing what’s going on and trying to get ahead of the curve to continue to bring out channels that platforms really want and will pay a premium for. WS: Is an accompanying HD feed and catch-up service essential when introducing a new service to operators? TUCHMAN: It’s what operators want. The programmer industry is divided between those that embrace and those that resist. The consumer wants us to embrace it. We see where the markets are going. We really want our operators to be able to offer their customers the ability to watch a great show like Rectify at their convenience.
By Mansha Daswani
Having built a portfolio of successful channels in the U.S., AMC Networks has spent the last few years bringing its distinctive programming ethos to the global market. Its acquisition of Chellomedia gave it scale and ownership of several Latin American and European channels. Sundance Channel has found slots on operators across Europe, Latin America, Asia and the Middle East. Now the company is working on making AMC a global proposition. Bruce Tuchman, the president of AMC Global and Sundance Channel Global, provides World Screen with his view on the opportunities still to be found in pay-TV markets worldwide. WS: Tell me about the thinking behind the strategy to make AMC a global brand. TUCHMAN: When we acquired Chellomedia, one of its assets was a more or less fully distributed global brand in MGM. We had the opportunity to say, What do we do next? Our idea was, Let’s give all the loyal customers of this MGM channel something more. We’ll continue to offer MGM movies, [plus] original programming from arguably the most prestigious source of original fiction narrative programming in the last few years. And we’ll
106 World Screen 10/14
WS: Do you envision doing any local programming for the AMC and Sundance brands globally? TUCHMAN: We’ve been acquiring a lot of local product for Sundance. As we move into the rebrand of MGM to AMC, we’ll look at that as well. Sundance has been acquiring product from all parts of the world. We have Mr Selfridge in the first window exclusively in Latin America. We went to HBO Latin America and found a great show, Prófugos, and brought it to Spain. In Latin America we have Borgen from Scandinavia, and in the Benelux region the Australian series Rake. The operators and consumers are going to value us for what’s in the AMC Networks pipeline, but we will also curate [content]. WS: What are the major opportunities you see for AMC Networks globally? TUCHMAN: What I’ve seen over the years is a profound distortion in international markets compared to the U.S. When these international markets developed, the [Hollywood] studios had the critical mass of content, a lot of negotiating power, and they wound up occupying a lot of bandwidth—as a result the offering [on international pay-TV channels] is either so skewed to the big U.S. studios, or it is very local. Our premise is, beyond the latest releases from the studios and local variety shows or telenovelas or game shows or news, there’s a world of product that has been created. Discerning consumers want to see something more sophisticated, more interesting. That’s opened a wide opportunity for us in these markets, because it’s an underexploited niche.
WS_1014__Layout 1 9/10/14 2:38 PM Page 1
SPREAD TEMPLATE_Layout 1 8/22/14 2:56 PM Page 1
SPREAD TEMPLATE_Layout 1 8/22/14 2:57 PM Page 2
WS_1014_COVERSTORY_WS OTT 3 9/26/14 8:42 PM Page 2
Warner Bros.’ Constantine for NBC.
110 World Screen 10/14
WS_1014_COVERSTORY_WS OTT 3 9/29/14 10:25 AM Page 4
MAGIC
of
DRAMA
In television’s new golden age, studio and network execs are learning new ways of finding, and keeping, top writing talent. By Elizabeth Guider
W A N T E D :
Writer for TV drama project; must have original voice, a compelling story to tell and willingness to take advice. Oh, yes, must be able to communicate the vision to a room full of other scribes, interface effectively with nervous nellies at the network, and manage an oft-unruly production team. Job could last anywhere from three weeks to seven years. Base salary: not as much as you’d think— unless you’ve done this for 20 years, or currently have three hits on the air.
Granted, no network has actually put out such an advert, but the above description reflects what media companies, in numbers greater than ever, are clamoring for. And it would probably resonate with any number of young Hollywood hopefuls, many of whom aspire to be the next Vince Gilligan or Greg Berlanti. “Drama has never been better,” says Leslie Moonves, president and CEO of CBS Corporation, which lays claim to a mix of long-running procedurals like NCIS on CBS as well as edgier cable fare such as Ray Donovan on Showtime. “There are many more channels programming drama. You have the premiumcable services—Showtime, HBO and Starz—and then basic-cable networks like FX doing terrific programming; the list goes on and on. In addition, each of the broadcast networks also has a number of dramas that they can point to where the quality is terrific. You can talk about The Good Wife on CBS, or
The Blacklist on NBC, or Scandal on ABC. Every network has them.” On how the drama business has evolved, Moonves notes, “Cable has become a different animal than it used to be in that they are doing a lot more original drama.” The list of cable networks that have ramped up their drama offerings in the last few years includes TNT, which was recently repositioned with the catchphrase “Drama that thrills.” TNT is nurturing several new series, and in a couple of instances has engaged veteran writer-producers to oversee less experienced ones: Howard Gordon supervises David Wilcox on Legends; Steven Bochco backs Eric Lodal on Murder in the First. Such apprenticeships are in the DNA of Hollywood, one insider says. What’s changed is that there are so many more outlets for drama and a finite number of players able to pitch, write and herd the production cats at the same time.
BACK TO SCHOOL To respond to that growing demand, the Writers Guild of America, West quietly set up a Showrunner Training Program (SRTP) nine years ago. Since then, graduates have gone on to create, co-create or exec produce almost 80 shows. Among them are Matt Nix (Burn Notice), Veena Sud (The Killing) and Scott Gimple (The Walking Dead). The workshops were the brainchild of showrunner Jeff Melvoin (whose credits range from Picket Fences to Army Wives), who saw that “apprenticeships were not enough, and that so many new
shows were getting greenlights but not finding sufficient talents to run them,” explains Carole Kirschner, who is the program director for the eight training sessions a year. “Our focus at the SRTP is to help our members go from being writers to managers,” she adds.
DRAMA EXPLOSION In what has become in the last several years a fertile field to which top—and aspiring—talent in front of and behind the camera are flocking, the stakes have never been higher. With single episodes of hourly series costing $3 million to $4 million to make (and some pilots easily $5 million), failure is costly, not to mention demoralizing, while long-term success, though elusive, can be enormously lucrative and energizing. A number of executives at both broadcast and cable outlets are vying as never before for the top writer-producers to shepherd dramas as varied in tone, approach, genre and even length as The Blacklist and Scandal, Badlands and Fargo, Covert Affairs and Rizzoli & Isles, Turn and Tyrant. “The ambition of drama series has never been greater and the expectations from viewers have never been higher,” believes Paul Buccieri, the chairman of ITV Studios US Group. Like its rival, BBC Worldwide, ITV Studios has goosed its efforts to participate in this resurgence of scripted drama Stateside, readying Aquarius for NBC, Texas Rising for HISTORY and The Good Witch for Hallmark Channel.
10/14 World Screen 111
If there were 30 or 40 such scripted series on U.S. airwaves 20 years ago, there are now easily 200, states Jeff Sagansky, whose 30-year perspective as a top network (CBS) and studio (Sony) executive gives him a special vantage point from which to observe shifts in the industry. Even the most unlikely of players—think the Science Channel undertaking The Challenger Disaster (William Hurt toplining) or superstation WGN America’s period piece about the nuclear scientists at Los Alamos, Manhattan—have entered the fray. Not to mention the high-profile forays into original content being made by Netflix and Amazon. The results: with experienced, seasoned showrunners hard to come by or otherwise booked up, there’s been a shift toward more intense vetting of projects in the initial phases, in the hopes that wrinkles can be ironed out before they ever disrupt proceedings on set. Interestingly, that’s how it’s been done in Britain for decades. “[We have] rigorous conversations at the outset,” says Ben Stephenson, the BBC’s controller of drama commissioning. “Our job is to help the writer get at the heart of the story so that he or she can create the best version thereof. The worst thing is for writers to try to second-guess us when what we really want is [for them to be] passionately committed to their ideas, whatever the genre or style. As long as we’re on the same page at the outset, I don’t believe in a lot of notes.” At the U.S. broadcast networks, oversight can on occasion still be
WS_1014_COVERSTORY_WS OTT 3 9/26/14 8:44 PM Page 5
WGN America is the latest U.S. cable network to start betting on high-concept original dramas, ordering Manhattan, about scientists building the first atomic bomb, from Lionsgate. onerous, but even there the suits tend to stand back if they feel as though things are in the right hands. “When they have a gifted quarterback in place, they want to let him run,” suggests Warren Littlefield, who spent most of the 1990s as president of entertainment at NBC and now, as an indie producer at his eponymous company, is overseeing Fargo for FX. “It’s only when the vision isn’t clear, the showrunner is off his game or casting goes awry that network execs get deeply involved.” In his opinion, what’s changed is how competitive the landscape has become to secure the services of top talent. “Yes, broadcasters [as opposed to cable channels] have a larger population of folks who supervise development and production, and they are putting up all or most of the money, but when they have a great showrunner, they don’t want to drive them away, to the competition.” Sagansky, who as an investor in media is currently president of Silver Eagle Acquisition Corp. and chairman of Hemisphere Media Capital, argues that the quality of the storytelling in American serialized drama is “amazing.” So too, he adds, are the variety of ways in which shows are now being financed, speaking from his own experience as executive producer on Sex, Lies and Handwriting (with Lionsgate and Tandem) and on a Canadian-originated western called Strange Empire.
In short, there are now more financial models for getting scripted shows made, more work available for both seasoned and fledgling writer-producers, and more styles and approaches to the production process than ever before. Whether at the mainstream Big Four broadcasters or the increasingly self-confident basic-cable outlets, the first challenge is to attract original voices, give them the freedom and resources to execute their visions, and not micromanage. However, for executives at corporations whose money and stock price are tied to these content plays, knowing when and how
to step into a production when the story arc falters, the actors don’t gel, the third season sags or the exhausted showrunner simply collapses is crucial. None of this is as simple as it sounds, nor is the formula for intervention foolproof. The failure rate of new series on U.S. networks is still conservatively 80 percent.
NURTURING TALENT At broadcasters NBC and ABC—the former coming off its first ratingswinning season in 18 to 49 in a decade, and the latter bent on fixing recent prime-time stumbles— the emphasis has shifted in the
last several years. Tension between art and commerce? Not so much anymore. Memos from once-pesky Standards and Practices people or calls from irate advertisers about steamy shower scenes in NYPD Blue or pedophile priests in Law & Order now seem like quaint quibbles. There are still a few no-no’s in terms of content, but much more can be said, suggested or shown nowadays, as even a cursory glance at ABC’s Modern Family, NBC’s Hannibal or CBS’s 2 Broke Girls proves. Their main focus, broadcast types assert, is fashioning an arresting concept into an
On the heels of his work on Southland, Jonathan Lisco signed on as showrunner of Halt and Catch Fire, the 1980s-set drama for AMC, represented by Entertainment One Television International, that was recently renewed for a second season. 112 World Screen 10/14
WS_1014_GBR_ENT_1_Layout 1 9/18/14 10:15 AM Page 1
WS_1014_COVERSTORY_WS OTT 3 9/26/14 8:44 PM Page 6
Actor turned producer and director Peter Horton is at the helm of NBC’s new Traffic-like drama Odyssey, starring Anna Friel as a U.S. army sergeant caught up in an international conspiracy. ongoing story with broad appeal, without it becoming pasteurized in the process. “What do we want? Big bold ideas, ones that break through the clutter,” says Patrick Moran, executive VP of ABC Studios, who adds that his new job is to “raise the bar” and be “more adventurous.” Moran is already making notable strides to expand production efforts beyond the main task of supplying the Alphabet network with long-running series. “Talent recruitment is a big part of what we do—matching voices with ideas and then finding the best home for them.” Under his auspices, the unit has placed Red Band Society at FOX in this attempt to diversify its customer base.
STAYING RELATABLE Over at NBC, Jennifer Salke, the president of entertainment, says her team works along two tracks. First and foremost, they must identify and nurture pitches that are broad enough “to invite everyone into the tent.” The trick in that
regard, she explains, is to come up with plots and characters in which “broad” does not equate with “generic,” “bland” or “dumbeddown” but with “relatability” across various demos. What makes that attempt ever trickier is how much more fragmented consumers’ tastes have become in everything from music and movies to food and fashion. “Just being OK is not enough; an idea has to resonate widely,” she contends. At the same time, both Salke and Moran explain, cable’s inroads on the drama front have spurred broadcasters to go after “the best filmmakers,” in the former’s words, and “fresh voices” in the latter’s. To do that, the Big Four are competing directly with cable by commissioning shorter-run series, thereby attracting a new set of talents to entertain the idea of working in television. (So far, CBS is leading in the limited-series sweepstakes, launching Under the Dome last summer and Extant, starring Halle Berry, this year.)
It’s hardly a secret that film talent prefers shorter commitments: for instance, Glenn Close insisted on such in Sarah, Plain and Tall as a TV movie (rather than a series) 20-odd years ago. Berry, too, opted for a shorter run in this summer’s mini Extant. HBO landed Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson for season one of its anthology series True Detective. One thing that hasn’t changed in the drama series world is the occasional clash over creative differences between producers and showrunners. To wit, in midAugust, high-profile showrunner Ed Bernero (Criminal Minds) exited State of Affairs, purportedly over differences in approach with producer Joe Carnahan. A few such departures take place every season, but with so many dramas now shooting, the scramble to replace top-notch talents like Bernero is increasingly intense. For writer-producers and showrunners, it couldn’t be a better time to be in the biz. ITV Studios’ Buccieri says there’s a “blending” of
114 World Screen 10/14
different creative models on both sides of the Atlantic. In some cases a piece is authored by a single writer, in others by a team; in still others there’s a non-writing producer who oversees the production and works in conjunction with the writer. If in the U.K. the tilt is toward larger orders of episodes and in some instances deficit financing, in the U.S. limited series are in vogue, and some projects are being ordered straight to series on the basis of a script and/or packaged star alone. “There’s no one way to do it. That’s the beauty of it,” Buccieri, who is also chairman of ITV Studios Global Entertainment, says. “Now more than ever, outlets are clamoring for many of the same talents, so to compete we have to aggressively enhance our roster of writer-producers,” ABC Studios’ Moran points out. In July, for example, ABC locked down an exclusive first-look arrangement with John Ridley, of 12 Years a Slave fame, following the greenlight for his American Crime pilot.
WS_1014_GRB_ENT_2_Layout 1 9/18/14 10:19 AM Page 1
WS_1014_COVERSTORY_WS OTT 3 9/26/14 8:44 PM Page 7
As for finding showrunners to commandeer all these projects, NBC’s Salke says it’s typical for more attention to be paid to those projects overseen by the less seasoned. Sometimes, too, there are pleasant surprises. For example, George Nolfi, the film writerdirector who brought the format of the espionage series Allegiance to NBC, had no intention (or experience) of “running” a smallscreen series. However, once he waded in, he took to the job like a duck to water, “exceeding all expectations,” Salke says. Other top writers—including Carol Mendelsohn (coming off the CSI juggernaut at CBS), who recently inked with Sony Pictures Television, and Howard Gordon (overseeing Tyrant for cabler FX, among other projects), who is based at Twentieth Century Fox— are also finding their services in great demand. And where the talent goes, the money follows.
THE BIG BUCKS “I’d say there’s a dozen guys (and gals if one rightly includes ABCbased Shonda Rhimes) who are making top-dollar doing what they do,” says Bert Salke, president of Fox 21, which functions as a cable-production arm at 21st Century Fox. “In nine years we’ve gone from one show to nine on the air,” Salke says. “And because we’re part of the corporation, we can take advantage of the [clout] Fox has in attracting and nurturing key writerproducers like Ryan Murphy [Glee, American Horror Story], Kurt Sutter [Sons of Anarchy] and the like.” Salke emphasizes that Fox 21 is first and foremost “a writers’ studio”—“they’re above even the stars” is how he puts it. One of his recent deals involves an arrangement with publishing giant Condé Nast whereby Twentieth Century Fox Television and Fox 21 have dibs on a number of its top magazine articles, with the idea of enticing some established writer-producers to take them on as TV material. Like Moran at ABC, he also contends that it makes sense to pitch projects to various outlets and not just in-house sister divisions. Recent
ABC Studios’ crop of returning hits includes Once Upon a Time, which was created by Adam Horowitz and Ed Kitsis, who worked together on another ABC show, Lost. track record? “We have a 35- to 50percent sales pitch-to-production ratio right now,” Salke estimates. What does the world want right now? “Big stories, big stars, big locations, big everything. In short, you have to stand out,” he says. Fox 21’s Salke also epitomizes another trend in the business, in that he is an executive who hails from the writer-producer ranks himself. It used to be that network execs, once their (usually short) tenure at the top of the entertainment division ended, were put out to pasture with a production shingle around their necks. Now, with
so many outlets jumping into the original content game, these companies are hiring producers to come run their operations. “As a showrunner myself, I’ve been in the trenches,” the Fox 21 head says. “I’m the guy who’s been on their side, so we tend to have a pretty close relationship with creators. They almost all want our notes.” It is, in fact, notes that can be a nettlesome issue. WGA’s Kirschner maintains that pertinent executives at networks and studios shower producers with notes. Per several sources, The Simpsons is the only show in town to which no one has
116 World Screen 10/14
dared deliver a production note for at least a decade. “In our program at the WGA, we try to teach our members to have a positive relationship with executives and not be defensive,” Kirschner stresses. “Showrunners need to be partners with broadcasters, not the problem.” Sagansky, who is certain that note-giving is “much more prolific” now than 30 years ago, says, “Back then you were lucky if producers came in to the office and gave you a two- or three-liner before going off and doing their thing.” (He was referring to auteurs like Steven Bochco, Bruce Paltrow and David
WS_1014_GRB_ENT_3_Layout 1 9/18/14 10:21 AM Page 1
WS_1014_COVERSTORY_WS OTT 3 9/26/14 8:45 PM Page 8
Frequent J.J. Abrams collaborators Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman are part of the team behind FOX’s Sleepy Hollow, which was one of the biggest hits of the 2013–2014 season. E. Kelley, not to mention Stephen J. Cannell and Aaron Spelling.) Nowadays, he says, the back-and-forth involves a three-page springboard, then a 15-page outline, then extensive notes from various sources. “That formalized process,” he contends, “is one of the reasons network shows became less distinctive over time.” It’s also one of the reasons basic cable seized the opening, ditching its reliance on reruns and placing its bets on its own original fare.
RULE BREAKERS FX, for example, has branded itself as “fearless” with edgy offerings like The Bridge, Tyrant, Fargo and The Strain. “We make a point of giving our producers one set of notes,” says Eric Schrier, FX’s president of origi-
nal programming. “Our team watches rough cuts together and we distill one single point of view. We’re not telling creators what to do; we’re guiding them like a coach.” From Schrier’s perspective, the super-talented showrunners can “read our thoughts” and enjoy the dialogue. Or, looked at another way, being deluged with notes occurs in proportion to the richness of one’s track record and the number of hits a producer has on the air. (By all accounts, Dick Wolf and Shonda Rhimes are not flooded with pieces of paper from nitpickers.) ABC Studios’ Moran, for one, says he’s much less anxious about the Alphabet’s new Thursday night lineup—with three of Rhimes’s series back-to back—than he is
about newcomers on other nights. For her part, NBC’s Salke says she comes away from visits to Wolf’s operation feeling “extremely confident,” having seen the lengths to which his staff go in mapping out on storyboards every plotline and character arcs for an entire season of each show. Michael Rosenberg, the executive VP for U.S. scripted TV at Entertainment One (eOne), concurs with Sagansky that notes can be stultifying. “The networks tend to be all over you,” he says, though he attributes the tendency to their nervousness about the risks involved in working with folks without a long list of credits. The eOne exec further observes that a lot of the attention has shifted toward the front-end prep for
118 World Screen 10/14
projects, especially at the cable networks. “Cablers [don’t invest in a lot of series each season], so they’re bent on getting everything right from the get-go,” he says. Once they’re convinced the project will take off, Rosenberg suggests, they largely back off and leave it to the showrunners to do their thing. (As an indie outfit with access to Canadian subsidies, eOne prides itself on being able to bring in shows cost-effectively.) Other sources noted how producers working for cable, in being charged with at most 13 episodes a year, aspire to craft each episode as a mini-movie. They also mentioned how rare it is for the cable channel in question to cancel such series once they’re up and running. For all the buzz that series like Mad Men, The Bridge and Breaking Bad have generated, their importance arguably lies more in their ability to brand the channels on which they air than in the money they rake in. “A number of scripted cable shows don’t actually make big bucks,” a longtime media analyst, who declined to be identified, contends. “But they do create cachet, which in turn allows the cable network to demand more in carriage fees from MSOs.” (Several cable execs demur, insisting that their top scripted shows aren’t just trendy but do indeed make money for them, especially if they own the rights and foreign license fees are factored in.) And, certainly, the top-tier broadcast network dramas, if perceived as less trendy, still continue to rack up significant paydays for their studio owners. “It’s like the car industry—the Escalade versus the Prius,” another analyst suggests. “The majority of the profits at General Motors still derive from SUVs, which, ever since the recession, have been sneered at by the cognoscenti in favor of hybrids. But lots of folks are still driving these big vans (just the way they’re still watching longrunning network shows like NCIS, Law & Order: SVU and Grey’s Anatomy). Hybrids, of course, are gaining traction, and it’s that diversity of output that’s healthy, just like in the TV biz.”
WS_1014_GRB_ENT_4_Layout 1 9/18/14 10:24 AM Page 1
WS_1014_RHIMES_WSN_1006_ZUIKER 9/26/14 8:23 PM Page 1
Shonda Rhimes Scandal show and we’re still in that world in which we are talking about the show constantly. We break stories sitting in a room talking about it in a very specific way. Grey’s Anatomy has been on the air for ten seasons and we are into the 11th. That show is more about me coming into the room every few days and saying, Here’s what I think is happening next, and then really digging into rewriting a script, giving notes on a script or working on a cut.
In each episode, Scandal doles out “OMG” moments at a rapid-fire pace, keeping its passionate fans tuning in live, tweeting, and clamoring for more outrageous adventures of Washington, D.C., fixer Olivia Pope and her Gladiators. But, Olivia Pope is hiding a scandal of her own—she is the mistress of the President of the United States. Showrunner Shonda Rhimes also created Grey’s Anatomy, now in its 11th year as one of ABC’s biggest hits, and is executive producing a new show from her production company ShondaLand, the legal drama How to Get Away with Murder. WS: You have three shows on the air this season. What involvement do you have in each, and is your process for breaking stories the same for all three? RHIMES: I’m very involved in Grey’s and very involved in Scandal because those were shows that I created. I’m executive producer on How to Get Away with Murder, so my involvement there is very different. I always joke and say that with Grey’s and Scandal I am the mother, and with How to Get Away with Murder I’m the grandma! I hold the baby, smile at it and then hand it back! Mostly on How to Get Away with Murder I’m there to help as needed. Pete Nowalk, who created the show, is very smart, very talented and very capable. He will come to me and ask for my advice. He will come to me and say, “What do you think about this cut?” or “How do I deal with this situation?” But he is really the storyteller on that show and it’s really his voice and his vision, which is exciting for me. On Scandal, I am sitting in the writers’ room every single day. It’s season four of the
WS: There are so many shocking, jawdropping moments in Scandal. Do you encourage risk-taking in the writers’ room? RHIMES: We have a lot of fun on that show coming up with those moments. There is magic to the way that room works, to the phenomenon of the energy of all the writers in there together. We’re all excited about politics. We’re all excited about conspiracies. We’re all excited about red wine! But we also all like telling stories in a fast-paced way. We all have the same level of impatience. We all have encyclopedic knowl-
They discovered that they all love the experience of live tweeting and the conversation that went with it. They embraced what that meant, and that was great for us. WS: Consequently, people want to watch the show live because they want to tweet, too. RHIMES: The audience went along with it, which was fantastic. To have people discover the show because their friends were talking about it on Twitter really changed the game in terms of how television was talked about and viewed. It changed what water-cooler conversation was, and it also [put forth] the idea that you want to be watching the show live now because you want to be having a conversation on Twitter, you don’t want to miss what is happening there. WS: Grey’s Anatomy has started its 11th season. What have been some of the challenges of keeping it fresh year after year? RHIMES: The challenges of keeping it fresh came way back in seasons four and five.
ABC has handed its Thursday night schedule to Shonda Rhimes, placing How to Get Away with Murder right after Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal. edge of television shows and say to one another, “That bores me, I’ve seen that before,” or “We’re moving too slowly and things have to go faster.” So, it’s a really collaborative, exciting effort. WS: Scandal is one of the shows with the largest presence on Twitter. At what point and how did you and the actors start tweeting? RHIMES: That was an amazing phenomenon in terms of the power of Twitter and the power of the voice of an audience, which I think is fantastic. Kerry Washington, who plays Olivia Pope, came to me early on and said, I think all of us should be on Twitter. I was on Twitter and she was on Twitter, and we both loved it. She thought the entire cast should be on Twitter, but Kerry is very smart; she thought [the suggestion should come from me]. So I went to everybody and said we should all get on Twitter, and the entire cast—they are very game, and they are very excited and enthusiastic—got on Twitter.
120 World Screen 10/14
And I learned a lesson very early on because I learned how to write television by writing Grey’s Anatomy—that was my first job in TV. I learned that keeping it fresh really meant that every season you were required to reinvent your show from scratch. And that meant being willing to do things that might be considered unpopular or controversial. So, from a very early time, I felt like at the end of every season we would leave all of our story on the screen and I would walk away thinking, I have no idea what will happen next season. And then the next season I would look at it as if it were an entirely new television show with the same characters, and I would just have to figure out what was going to happen next. That was really helpful for me because that’s the only reason why I am still able to write the show. I don’t spend my time thinking, How do I tell the same stories over and over again? I am constantly thinking, What is the next version of this? How do we reinvent this completely into something new?
WS_1014_NIPPONTV_Layout 1 9/18/14 11:12 AM Page 1
WS_1014_CSQA_MURPHY_WSN_1006_ZUIKER 9/26/14 8:23 PM Page 1
Ryan Murphy American Horror Story but the things in my career that have really popped are usually things that shouldn’t work or genres that have gone out of favor or genres that have never worked. It’s sort of a weird career that I’ve had, but I love that I’m able to follow my passion.
Just tell Ryan Murphy that something can’t be done and he’ll find a way to do it. He has built a successful career going against convention, tackling genres he was told had never been done or the audience wouldn’t accept. But they did, and his shows have not only garnered high ratings, but a slew of awards as well. WS: Glee is so hopeful and about communities coming together, while American Horror Story is dark and twisted and evil. I’m almost scared to ask where that comes from! MURPHY: That’s funny! When I was a kid I was obsessed with Dark Shadows and horror movies, largely because of my grandmother, who was a real horror aficionado. She would drag me to stuff and make me watch it. I always just loved it. [When I was thinking about American Horror Story] there was something in the culture that had gone away, which was the anthological miniseries idea. I also loved those when I was a kid. So I thought, how could I make all of this work? The idea was to keep the title and the idea that we were going to be examining real-life American horror stories, some years more fun than others. Every year we would reboot it and have a completely new story and completely new grouping of characters but with the same large group of actors. At the time, when I pitched it, it seemed like such a radical idea that it took me a long time to get everybody on board with it. But then it came on the air and it clicked because it felt different, and that’s the key to success in television. I’ve had great success and then I’ve not had success,
WS: With American Horror Story you’ve brought back the anthology series. Do the actors like playing completely different characters from one year to the next? MURPHY: They love it. People like Jessica Lange, Sarah Paulson or Kathy Bates were really not interested at this point in their careers in signing on to the same role for seven years. Actually, for the actors American Horror Story feels like a movie, a long movie that we shoot for five months and then you’re done and say goodbye to that character, never to see it again, and go off to the next thing. I know Jessica [Lange] in particular really loves it because every year is a challenge. The cast likes some seasons better just because they like the story better, or the look of it better, but
would try and fight them the best I could. I didn’t win all those battles. Right around when Nip/Tuck started, that’s when things started to change, and that’s when the term “showrunner” came in. That began in the early 2000s, the rise of auteur television, and that was about a vision, and that vision is everything. It’s respected and admired and listened to more than it ever was before. Now, I don’t really get notes from executives. I get this amazing thing—I get brilliant ideas from them. They say, Look, this is your show, and you’re going to do what you want to do, and we have empowered you and believe in you, but what if we tried this or what if we tried that? And that is what showrunners are lucky enough to do now. It feels more creative, and it’s about a singular voice. The landscape of how notes are given has changed. And now [network executives] want you to push the envelope; now they want you to be more daring. Back then, forget it, it was not in the water, at least not in my experience.
On the heels of his Emmy win for The Normal Heart, Ryan Murphy is wrapping up Glee and making a new season of American Horror Story. they pretty much trust me with what I want to do, which is a great reward and gratifying for me. WS: Since your first series, Popular, how have you seen the role of the showrunner evolve? MURPHY: Well, the business is so different. When I got Popular on the air in 1999, the landscape had started to change. Things had started to move. There were certainly Steven Bochco and David E. Kelley, and David Chase was in the middle of his great success on The Sopranos. But there was no real cable like there is today, so broadcastnetwork executives had a lot more power to dictate rules and say, You have to do this note or we’re not airing your show, or, You’re fired. I remember the network executives on Popular saying some of the most appalling things about women, about gay people, about sexuality, just because they were afraid. They were afraid of protests. They were afraid of losing advertisers, and I
122 World Screen 10/14
There is much more freedom now. Different voices are more celebrated than ever before because with a strong voice comes success and ratings. People are learning that. The 18th watered-down sitcom about a family living in New York, nobody wants to watch that anymore. They used to, but I think people are changing, and we are in the midst of a great revolution. WS: What upcoming projects do you have? MURPHY: I own a lot of books that I’m looking at, but I don’t really know what I want to do next. I have a lot of things on my plate that I am working on and I feel great about. The Normal Heart was such a great experience, I’m finishing Glee, and in the next six months I’m on to the next American Horror Story, so I feel that for the first time ever in my career I can wait to see what I’m interested in. For more from Ryan Murphy, see page 410.
WS_1014__Layout 1 9/12/14 11:51 AM Page 1
WS_1014_CSQA_KIRKMAN_WSN_1006_ZUIKER 9/26/14 8:22 PM Page 1
Robert Kirkman The Walking Dead acters apart and decided to focus on groups of them in individual episodes. The interesting thing about season five is that the group is back together. When we last saw them they were in a train car, all banding together. They have a threat before them and they’re all theoretically going to be working together. Having the ensemble united now allows us to change the dynamic significantly. Now that we know these characters, we can do different things with them and get to explore them in new and exciting ways.
The zombies aren’t the only terrifying things about The Walking Dead; the ratings are too if you happen to be competing with the AMC and FOX International Channels (FIC) original. Heading into its fifth season, this series about a group of survivors coping with a zombie apocalypse is the most-watched basic-cable show in U.S. history and has delivered ratings records for FIC across the globe. The Walking Dead is based on a comicbook series by Robert Kirkman, who serves as an executive producer and writer on the hit drama. WS: What can audiences expect from season five? KIRKMAN: As I like to say, all kinds of awesome stuff! One of the coolest things about this show is that everything continues to evolve from season to season. The characters that you’ve grown to love are continuing to evolve. We’re dealing with a very different Rick Grimes [played by Andrew Lincoln] this season. This is someone who is much more capable, seemingly much more in control of his emotions and of things around him. We’re definitely going to see a group [of survivors] that is really able to handle anything. Things are going to be shifting quite a bit. WS: Last season saw a major change in that the survivors had been separated. How did you meet the challenge of juggling so many more story lines and locations? KIRKMAN: It was definitely a challenge. Our cast has continued to expand, and you want to be able to take the time to dive in deep and really explore these characters. That’s one of the reasons that we broke the char-
WS: You gave us a major cliff-hanger at the end of season four—with six months to wait before the show returns! In this era of so much binge-watching, what are your thoughts on the role of the cliff-hanger? KIRKMAN: It can be torturous for some people to have that gap [between seasons]. I also think that that gap, that anticipation, is very important. It gives weight to the stories that we’re doing. Knowing that these characters are left in a train car and being frus-
chunk, and that’s going to have a payoff, and then a second eight-episode chunk will have its own separate story. Every year it’s like we have two premieres and two finales. We hope that keeps the story moving and progressing. And it gives us these benchmarks that we can always work towards, storytelling-wise. Having that structure really does help us creatively. WS: The series has become known for killing off major characters mid-season. What kind of environment do you look to create on set to prepare the cast for these changes? KIRKMAN: It’s always hard. There are traditions—we have a big death dinner where everyone goes out and celebrates the actor that we’re losing. Those traditions help people a little bit. I think everyone knows that it’s around the corner for [them as well]; to a certain extent, it’s a matter of time. People do sign on to the show now thinking, Am I going to be around for a season? Two seasons? Three seasons? Everyone knows that this is a
An accomplished comic-book writer, Robert Kirkman has become an in-demand TV scribe with the megahit The Walking Dead. trated with not knowing [what happens next] and coming up with your own theories—that adds to the way the stories are perceived. But it’s important in modern times to make sure that you’re not relying on that too much. When people do end up binge-watching this, you need to be able to deliver that kind of experience as well. So trying to tailor these episodes to all the different kinds of [viewing] is something we do take time to do. WS: What are the benefits of AMC’s scheduling strategy that splits each season in half, with two sets of eight episodes separated by a few months? KIRKMAN: The audience to a certain extent can say, “Wait a minute, we’ve got to wait two months between episodes eight and nine? That’s frustrating!” But to us it’s kind of like doing two seasons a year. A lot of shows these days are only doing ten episodes a year. We’re doing 16. So we look at it like, we’ve got this eight-episode
124 World Screen 10/14
show that portrays a very dangerous world where anyone can go at any minute. In order to honor that, we have to lose characters from time to time. It’s certainly an emotional thing for me coming from the comics. Telling these stories in comicbook form, it’s just artist Charlie Adlard and me deciding not to write and draw an imaginary character. The show is different. [The cast members] are very close on set in Georgia. They all get together on weekends and their kids get to know each other. They’ve become a big family, so it is an emotional thing when we lose a character. But we have to do it for the sake of the show. WS: What’s the relationship between the TV show and your comic-book series? How do you decide when to take the show in a different direction from the source material from the comic book? KIRKMAN: Thankfully it’s a group decision, so no one can shoulder the blame! Some of the
INSERT_1014_OLE_ALT3_EUR_1006_ELLENDER 9/12/14 12:04 PM Page 2
10 YEARS O As film and TV companies seek out new revenue streams, ole wants to make sure they don’t forget a crucially important segment: music. Founded ten years ago, ole controls a catalogue of more than 45,000 songs, plus 60,000 hours of television and film music. As the company celebrates its tenth anniversary, chairman and CEO Robert Ott tells World Screen about how film and TV producers have become key clients for ole’s music rights-management business. WS: What was your mission when you co-founded ole ten years ago? OTT: Our mission has changed little from day one: profitably acquire quality intellectual property and increase its value while delivering it to customers in the most effective way. At the outset, we focused heavily on music publishing rights management, but we’ve since expanded to include many other rights, including A/V [audiovisual] music publishing and master rights, online rights, A/V secondary rights, production music and any other rights that intuitively jump off of music or A/V assets. WS: What have been some of the major milestones in the company’s evolution over the last ten years? OTT: When you start from scratch in the way that ole did, your first major milestone is to break even, and then survive the first three years. We surpassed the breakeven mark around month 18 and haven’t looked back, with ten years of successive growth and some 150 percent growth in the last two years. At the outset, ole was quite conservative in making solid investments and striking a limited number of beneficial partnerships. It then became about buying, and building on, existing platforms [to achieve] economies of scale in areas of business that are natural complements to one another. For example, we moved from the global administration of TV and film music publishing rights to acquiring these rights to adding administration and ownership of A/V secondary rights to now representing the online interests of clients. Great customer service and the world’s best creative and executive talent has been at the foundation of all of this.
Robert Ott 2 World Screen 10/14
WS: What makes ole distinctive in the music rights-management sector? OTT: We call ourselves “Majorly Indie”—we have the personal touch and agility of a small inde-
INSERT_1014_OLE_ALT3_EUR_1006_ELLENDER 9/12/14 12:04 PM Page 3
S OF pendent company but the global reach and infrastructure of a major company. It’s personal to us at ole, and our clients and partners can expect that kind of attention. At the same time, we’re a sophisticated, global shop that is as comfortable dealing with complex, international financial transactions as we are talking songs and career development with a songwriter. I also think that our range of activities and services in the film/TV sector is unique, not only in scope but also because of the in-house expertise we have in this space. We look at ourselves as a solution-provider to producers and their financial goals—that goes way beyond the immediate services we offer. If we can help producers achieve financial targets and capital requirements, as well as provide service, that’s the perfect storm. We’ve spent a lot of time and money on developing proprietary IT solutions intent on policing global rights collections and producing transparency and analytics for partners and clients, and I think we’re at the head of the pack in this respect. WS: Tell me about the services you offer those in the film and TV communities. OTT: We purchase, administer or co-own A/V music publishing, music master, secondary and online rights. Our investment and partnership in these rights not only supplies capital but also [provides] worldwide collection services with creative support such as sync promotion, access to our production music library and services, organization of global distribution of in-house production music content, access to our hit song catalogue and management of YouTube, and other online rights. WS: How have you seen this segment of the business grow since the company’s founding? OTT: ole focused on film and TV from the beginning, and it’s still a major growth area for us. The expansion of cable, the channel universe and now over-the-top and online have been remarkable, and we are involved in all of these expanding areas of the industry. It’s likely 80 percent of our business at this time. WS: What are your goals for this part of your business in the next year? OTT: Deals ole has struck in the last year with Sony Pictures, Miramax, Nu Image and others have greatly
“We call ourselves ‘Majorly Indie’—we have the personal touch and agility of an independent company but the global reach and infrastructure of a major company.” extended our knowledge of and stake in the film and TV space. We’re very excited about film and TV and emerging opportunities in over-the-top and online. We have a good deal of dry powder with which to continue acquisitions, and it’s not beyond the pale to consider that we might grow another 150 percent in this area over the next 18 to 24 months. At the same time, we’re investing heavily in beefing up our IT infrastructure and data analytics capability to handle the staggering amount of data entailed in modern global rights management. We intend to fully arm our partners and clients with the ability to collect effectively on a global basis and gain deep understanding of their data. We’re not living in The Matrix yet, but we’re certainly headed in that direction.
10/14 World Screen 3
WS_1014_CSQA_KIRKMAN_WSN_1006_ZUIKER 9/26/14 8:22 PM Page 2
writers are a little bit more immersed in the comics than even I am, which is at times very embarrassing. There’s been more than one occasion where they’ll say, “I really want to adapt that scene where so-and-so says this thing.” I don’t remember specific things people said! That’s always a fun treat. But we sit down and look at the original comicbook stories and then we do our work in the television writers’ room. We look at the different characters we have. We look at how the characters that exist in the show that don’t exist in the comic would affect and change stories we want to adapt from the comics. As we get into the work of doing that, new story lines start to arise, and every now and then one of them leads to a fairly unexpected death. That’s how you get characters like Andrea who die earlier in the show than they do in the comic book. It’s all just a group of writers working to craft the best story. Sometimes that follows the source material, sometimes it doesn’t, which I support 100 percent. If we were adapting the comic book directly, I would be bored. Despite the fact that sometimes I don’t remember all the ins and outs of a story, I do know that I’ve already written it before. So I wouldn’t want to write it a second time. WS: How has this process of becoming a TV producer and writer subsequently affected your comic-book style of writing? KIRKMAN: I can’t help but think I’m becoming a better writer, just because I’m getting older as I’m going through this process and I’m learning different experiences. If anything, the comic book, writing-wise, craftwise, is getting better. But I have a pretty strict road map for the comic-book series that existed before the show. If I’m telling a different kind of story in the show and the audience is responding well to it, I’m very careful that I don’t allow that to change the course of the comic-book series. As much as I can, I keep the comic-book series unaffected by the existence of the show and the video game and the popularity surrounding them. I keep it “pure”—it’s what started all of this in the first place. But that can be difficult at times. WS: What can you tell us about Outcast, which you developed with FIC and has now been picked up by Cinemax? KIRKMAN: It’s awesome! [Laughs] It’s based on a comic-book series that started in June.
The Walking Dead It’s something I’ve been developing with FIC for a number of years (because I work very slowly!). It’s a unique experience. The Walking Dead was an established, longrunning comic-book series—when we started mapping out the show we had a large published road map to go on. Outcast was to a certain extent spurred on by Sharon Tal [Yguado, executive VP of scripted programming and original development at FIC] saying, What’s your next project? And me telling her [about it] before I was actually ready to do that next project. I’ve been developing the television show and the comic-book series kind of at the same time, which has been a pretty fun experience. It’s an exorcism story that focuses on demonic possession. It’s about Kyle Barnes, who lives in a small rural town in West Virginia. His entire life he has been surrounded by demonic possession. When we meet him in the story he’s decided that he’s not going to take it anymore and he’s going to set out to discover why he’s encountering this phenomenon so much. We follow him on that journey. As he finds more and more answers he starts to get a larger, scarier picture of what’s happening. He’ll find out
10/14 World Screen 129
that the world is very much in danger from this phenomenon of demonic possession, and he is uniquely capable of thwarting it, to a certain extent. WS: Is the process of developing a show for a global broadcaster different from making one for a network that is primarily aimed at the U.S. audience? KIRKMAN: Creatively you do projects for yourself. When I’m writing Outcast or I’m writing The Walking Dead, I’m trying to do things I would find the most entertaining. You can’t go, Are audiences in Argentina, Spain, Germany and the U.S. going to respond to this in the same way or a different way? You’d never get anything done if you tried to take all that stuff into consideration. Really it’s just, Hey, do I think this is neat? And then in the back of your head you’re thinking, Man, I hope other people think this is neat. That’s all you can do. Everything else after that is in the capable hands of FIC and their marketing team and the people at AMC and everyone else trying to make people aware of the show that you’ve done. From the outset, you’re really just doing it for yourself.
WS_1014_WOLF_WSN_1006_ZUIKER 9/26/14 8:21 PM Page 1
Dick Wolf Law & Order: SVU topical and compelling. For 25 years, people have been telling me that Law & Order is addicting. Crime is a constantly renewable resource, so there is no shortage of stories to tell. WS: The story lines from Law & Order franchise shows were and are ripped from the headlines. How much research goes into each episode? WOLF: We may rip [from] the headline, but we change the body copy. We have researchers, technical advisors and experts who are obsessed with accuracy. So what you see reflects real police work and legal strategy.
Law & Order, which aired from 1990 to 2010, introduced audiences to a “ripped from the headlines” concept, spun off a number of other series, including Law & Order: SVU, and has become one of the most successful television franchises in the world. Its creator, Dick Wolf, remains fascinated by detectives, firemen, prosecutors and defense attorneys. WS: Where did your interest in crime, police work and the justice system come from? WOLF: I have been fascinated with crime and crime-solving since I discovered Sherlock Holmes as a boy. There is nothing more dramatic than life and death. Police, crime stories and bringing criminals to justice have long been a mainstay of storytelling in novels, films and television. We are fascinated by what we fear, yet being able to see crimes solved and criminals convicted brings us closure. And I think readers and viewers enjoy being engaged in the crime-solving process. It’s a low-risk way to play detective. WS: I understand that Law & Order was turned down by two networks before Brandon Tartikoff, NBC’s then president, picked it up. What did he see in the show? WOLF: Brandon really liked the Law & Order pilot, but he said to me, “What’s the bible for the show?” And I said, “The front page of the New York Post.” WS: To what do you attribute the longevity of the Law & Order franchise? WOLF: The Law & Order brand has endured in a huge part because of the writing. The showrunners and writers have kept the series current and written stories that are
WS: If we think back to Hill Street Blues and then we look at Chicago P.D., how much more sophisticated have production values become today? How much more do audiences expect? WOLF: Cable has really upped the ante when it comes to production values and storytelling. Character development, plot lines, effects and stunts are all fac-
WOLF: Writers and producers have always had clout, because without a script there is no show. Today’s showrunner has a more difficult job because production and the business in general have become more sophisticated. There used to be three broadcast networks. Now there are hundreds of channels. The competition is fierce. And the writing pool is thinner because there are so many more shows. WS: What was the genesis of Chicago Fire and Chicago P.D.? WOLF: Chicago P.D. is obviously an outgrowth of Chicago Fire, which was a concept we sold to Bob Greenblatt [the chairman of entertainment] at NBC. I wanted to showcase first responders in a dramatic format. And Chicago is a city with a very rich history of police and fire stories. During the first season of Chicago Fire, we brought in two detectives (Voight and Dawson) and really liked both characters. We worked closely with the network to develop the companion show, and it has
Since earning his first TV writing credit on Hill Street Blues, Dick Wolf has become the king of crime-drama franchises. tors. But ultimately, the audience wants strong protagonists who are likeable, complicated or both. Hank Voight [a sergeant in Chicago P.D.] is a fascinating character. And he is surrounded by an ensemble of cops who accentuate the many layers of his personality. WS: How have pacing, issues and character development changed since Hill Street Blues? WOLF: Storytelling has not really changed that much. Maybe today’s audiences have shorter attention spans, so we need to keep the writing a little tighter. Standards have also loosened up over the years, in large part due to the proliferation of cable dramas. So we can get away with a little more. WS: How much clout vis-à-vis network executives did writers and producers have in the days of Hill Street Blues and Miami Vice? How much clout does the showrunner have today?
130 World Screen 10/14
benefited both series to be able to migrate characters back and forth. WS: What have been the biggest changes you’ve seen in the television business? WOLF: My parents worked in television, literally when the medium was born. In fact, they met at NBC. As a child I used to sit in the peanut gallery on Howdy Doody. So I have really grown up in the business. We’ve gone from a three-network pie to a very fragmented multichannel environment. The television set used to be the center of family entertainment. Now we can watch whatever we want, whenever we want, on mobile devices, computers, big-screen TVs.... So in some ways that’s good, but it also makes us more culturally isolated. WS: What do you enjoy most about your work? WOLF: The fact that I haven’t felt that I was at “work” one day in the last 35 years.
WS_1014_CJEM_Layout 1 9/16/14 1:21 PM Page 1
WS_1014_CSQA_FELLOWES_WSN_1006_ZUIKER 9/26/14 8:21 PM Page 1
Julian Fellowes Downton Abbey FELLOWES: I like events that don’t just affect one class, but all classes, because they serve as rather a good reminder that in the last analysis we are all in this together. That’s what’s very helpful about a war or an epidemic or a financial crash, because they touch everyone. Nobody is safe; nobody is protected from them. I feel that Downton’s subtext, if you like, is essentially what unites us. What we all have in common is really more important than the things that separate us. Those events can help bring that out.
Who would have guessed that a period drama depicting an aristocratic British family—with its outdated traditions and rules, its compassionate earl, his American heiress wife, his opinionated and steely mother, his grown children and his manor full of servants—would have enthralled today’s audiences and critics on both sides of the Atlantic? Downton Abbey, created and written by Julian Fellowes, has done just that. WS: You have written all the episodes on your own. How have you managed that? FELLOWES: The writers’ room tradition is much more known in America. The soap operas here in the U.K. have writing rooms and so do certain series. But the single writer writing the whole series is much more ordinary here. That’s why we’re limited. We do eight episodes of a series and then a two-hour special, so it adds up to ten hours of television. That’s about as much as one person can do. In America when they go to 22 episodes, they have to have a writers’ room.
WS: We all have problems regardless of our social class. That reminds me of a line of the Dowager Countess: “We all have problems, we work through them, we get them settled, and then there is another set of problems, and another set of problems, until we die!” FELLOWES: Isn’t that true, really? It’s what one’s life is. It’s dealing with stuff and it doesn’t matter if you are the queen of France or working in a factory in Madrid. You just have to get on with it.
FELLOWES: We knew the show would be about change. By starting it in 1912, it began in the shadow of the Great War, and then we had the second series in the war and then we had the 1920s. All three of those eras were very distinct. It was really during the ’20s that the 19th century left and the 20th century arrived. By the time you get to the 1930s, with talkies and airplanes, you are in essence in the modern world. I know they didn’t have computers, but nevertheless their thinking is essentially modern. In 1910 their thinking was essentially Victorian, they were still living in the 19th century by 19th-century values. That bridge was really crossed by a combination of the war and the aftereffects of the war. It was in the ’20s that people realized that things really had changed. At the beginning of the decade, they weren’t quite sure how much had changed. Was it all going to go back to the way it had been? A lot of the servants came back and life in a way went on as it had been before. But gradually, as the decade wore on, it became clearer and
Julian Fellowes is not just the driving force behind Downton Abbey—he’s written and directed films, plays and novels, and used to be an actor.
WS: And even then they struggle to get to 22! FELLOWES: It’s an interesting concept. I don’t feel at all resistant to it. There is a plan for me to write a series for American television when Downton is finally done. We will probably start with 10 or 12 episodes. If it stays on the air and does go to 22, I would have to run a writers’ room, and I find that quite an intriguing prospect.
WS: Regardless of whether you are upstairs or downstairs, it’s one’s character that determines how one deals with problems. FELLOWES: I completely agree. One thing that I always try to do, and it’s a theme of the show, is that we have as much respect for Daisy [a maid] dealing with her issues as we do for Edith [the Earl’s daughter] dealing with hers. We’re all dealt a set of cards in this life. Some hands are rather better than others, admittedly, but in the end we have to play them as best we can. I don’t mean people who are really at the bottom and are having an absolutely ghastly time all the time; I exclude them from this. But from the working class and the middle class and the upper class we have examples of people who have made a success of things and people who have made a great mess of things—you can find them up and down the social ladder.
WS: Historical events are an important backbone of the series. How do you use history to tell your stories?
WS: Aside from examining the difference in classes, are there other themes that you wanted to explore when you started the series?
132 World Screen 10/14
clearer that women didn’t want the same kind of life. Servants didn’t want the same kind of life. The working classes wanted to be organized in their labor, the unions got stronger. Transport changed completely. Telecommunications changed completely. Entertainment changed completely. That was all in quite a few short years. There have been other decades like that—the ’60s is an obvious one—where within 10 or 12 years, the world really seems to change. The ’20s is one of those times and it has always interested me. Everyone has always done things about the ’30s and the Nazis and the Second World War looming up, but the ’20s have been much less covered in drama and it seemed to me to be an opportunity. WS: I’ve read that the concept of the adolescence, teens being treated as teens, emerged in the ’20s. FELLOWES: It’s also when music started being created for the young. [Prior to that, music] was created for people with money
WS_1014_D360_Layout 1 9/17/14 11:35 AM Page 1
WS_1014_CSQA_FELLOWES_WSN_1006_ZUIKER 9/29/14 9:14 AM Page 2
later on in the series, I’m doing notes on the edit of episode one while I am still trying to finish the script of episode six. But the three of us, Gareth, Liz and I, are a very tight team, and I know [working] in America will be about 70,000 people who feel they have the right to get involved in the creative process! There must be a way through it, because I think American television is producing some of the best stuff there is at the moment. Mad Men, The Good Wife and Scandal, these are all fabulous shows that I have been obsessed with. I don’t say that critically, I just know that there must be a different technique for dealing with it, and it’s a technique I have to acquire.
Downton Abbey to spend who went to nightclubs or went out dining, mainly people in their 30s and 40s. That changed in the ’20s—suddenly it was the young that were leading the field. That was a great change. Look at the fashions— it was the first time that the androgynous teenager was celebrated by the fashion houses and women’s bosoms were bound to create that sort of adolescent look, which was the exact opposite of the Edwardians, who were all sort of Gibson Girls with their bosoms and bottoms padded and sticking out here, there and everywhere to create a completely feminine curvy form. That was the opposite of the ’20s. The ’20s created a total reversal. WS: What are the challenges of shooting a period piece, especially when you are off the set and shooting on location? FELLOWES: We pick restaurants like the Criterion and Rules that were already in the open in the ’20s and haven’t really changed. We like to use real places. Of course, [shooting on location] at times can be difficult with noises [from the street] and so on, but the public now are very film aware. It’s been a long time since people started filming on the
streets on New York or London, and almost everyone knows what a film set is. People may stop and watch and they may be curious, but they’re not usually disruptive, because they understand what is happening. WS: Once you have written the scripts, how do you work with the other executive producers on the show? FELLOWES: Downton is a very tight team. Gareth Neame, Liz Trubridge and I make the show. We work very, very closely together. For the major casting, even the minor casting, we weigh in. I finish a script and my wife, Emma, reads it. I do her notes. Then Gareth and Liz read it and they have big notes, and I do one big note session. Then they have little notes, you know, he’s using a glass, wouldn’t it be better if he had a cup? Then I do those. Only then does it go to ITV. And then if they have useful things to say we do them, but basically by the time Emma and the three of us have finished with the scripts, it’s getting very near to what will be shot. Quite honestly, there are many overlaps, because I am doing the third draft of episode two while I am writing episode three or four. And then
134 World Screen 10/14
WS: I’ve heard that the more successful the showrunner, the fewer notes they receive. FELLOWES: The difficulty is not so much the number of notes, though of course it is! The real problem, and it’s true if you are writing a movie or a musical, it doesn’t matter what you’re doing, you want to be sure that everyone involved is trying to make the same show. And sometimes you are gradually made aware that this producer or that producer or this star is actually trying to make a different show. And they continue giving you notes until you turn it into a different show. That’s when shows fall apart. That’s certainly when movies fall apart. WS: There needs to be one singular vision and everyone needs to buy into that. FELLOWES: Everyone has to buy into it— that’s the achievement. So often, you can tell right at the beginning of the process whether you’ve got that or whether you’ve got people pulling in opposite directions. WS: Ouch! Then what do you do? FELLOWES: Run! WS: The Gilded Age is the show you’ll be doing in the U.S.? FELLOWES: The Gilded Age is the show I’m going to do for NBCUniversal, but they have been very kind and they have allowed me not to have a start date. [I will start The Gilded Age] when Downton finishes. I can do Downton and other things—I’m working on a musical of The Wind in the Willows— but I couldn’t do two series at the same time. I’d be found dead with my feet sticking out of a bush!
WS_1014__Layout 1 9/26/14 10:51 AM Page 1
WS_1014_CSQA_GANSA_WSN_1006_ZUIKER 9/29/14 9:16 AM Page 1
Alex Gansa Homeland
Homeland, inspired by the Israeli drama Hatufim, took the concept of prisoners of war returning home and adjusting to freedom and broadened it into an award-winning series about terrorism, patriotism, America’s role in the world, the CIA and a brilliant yet bipolar agent. Showrunner Alex Gansa takes us behind the scenes for a look at the inside workings of the series’ writers’ room. WS: Would you give us an example of how your writers’ room works and how you break stories? GANSA: At the beginning of every season we all take a field trip to Washington, D.C. All the writers, and sometimes Claire Danes or Mandy Patinkin or both will join us, and we sit down with all our consultants—that is, active intelligence officers, retired intelligence officers, current State Department people, former and current ambassadors, NSA people, occasionally some people from the White House— and we just take the temperature of the town. We get a sense of what is being debated in the halls of power. What are the preeminent issues in terms of keeping America safe, in terms of protecting American power overseas? What are the hot spots? What is being discussed? All in an effort to find out what are the issues we should be talking about in Homeland this season. What are the real conversations that are happening? One of the wonderful things about doing this show is that we get to comment on current events. When we did season three last year, what was front and center on everybody’s mind was the relationship between Iran and the United States. Iran had arguably been the major beneficiary of our adventure in Iraq,
and the question was, here are two countries that had not had any kind of formal or informal relations for a couple of decades at least, and were now sniffing around each other. Now there was the possibility of some sort of a dialogue around this issue of nuclear weapons. So we came away from that week in Washington thinking, That is an interesting story to tell. How do we fit our characters— Carrie and Brody and Saul—into that equation? Of course, it bled over from season two; we ended season two with the big attack on the CIA, and it is revealed in season three that actually Iran was behind that attack. Carrie and Saul, in an attempt to deal with their own culpability in that attack, manufacture a plan to engage Iran in a dialogue, and that is done through the character of Javadi. So that is a window into how season three came to be and how we settled on the arena in which to put all our characters. WS: Once you decide on the story arcs, how do you then divide up the writing among the writers?
season’s most important characters, which were at the time Carrie and Saul because Brody was out of the picture and on the run. We knew Brody was going to have a limited run on the season by virtue of what he was being accused of having done. It’s a good monthlong process to break that first story, and that is done with everyone. I get to write the first and last episodes of each season. Then we move forward and start breaking the second and third and fourth episodes. Usually when the first four are broken, you get a sense of a writer’s strengths or which writers are attracted to a particular story, and then a writer gets assigned to a story that has been broken by the entire team. Broken means we know what all the scenes are: here’s scene one, here’s scene two, scene three. Usually there are between 25 and 35 scenes in an episode, and those scenes have been broken by the entire group together, and that writer is tasked with going off and writing an outline based on all those scenes that we have all decided on. Once that outline is written, it is vetted, and once it is vetted, the writer will
Alex Gansa picked up an Emmy for his writing work on Homeland, which is in its fourth season on Showtime. GANSA: What first happens is a couple of months of concerted discussion among all the writing staff. We sit together every day for between six and eight hours—or however long we can tolerate looking at each other! And we start to figure out how our characters fit into this scenario and look at where they begin the season and where they end the season and whether that is a story worth telling. We go through all the characters. Last season we went through Carrie and Brody and Saul and Quinn and tried to figure out where they began the season, where they ended the season, so that we could plot their character progression along that continuum. It takes a long time to get the general feeling of what the season is about and where it’s going. Then it becomes of matter of sitting down and saying, OK, here’s the first episode, and everybody is sitting in the room together and we talk about what the first episode is, what it looks like, where we are trying to set the stage for the season and where, most importantly, we find last
136 World Screen 10/14
write the script. Then it will be vetted by everyone and it will be worked on and refined and ultimately put in front of the cameras. WS: I’ve heard that all the writers have previously been showrunners. GANSA: Every writer on this show has run a television show. And by virtue of the fact that they have, they’re very glad that I am running the show and they are not! Because it is undoubtedly the worst job on the show! I always say that the best job I ever had was on 24 when I was working with Howard [Gordon] and he was running the show and I got to be a writer, which was so liberating, just to write the scripts! Just to sit in the story room and talk stories is a blast—to come up with the characters and figure out what the story is and the jigsaw puzzle of it is a lot of fun. WS: Homeland airs on Showtime and because it is a premium service you have a lot more freedom to say and show things
WS_1014__Layout 1 9/4/14 11:02 AM Page 1
WS_1014_CSQA_GANSA_WSN_1006_ZUIKER 9/26/14 8:20 PM Page 2
and Patti Podesta looks at me and says, “Alex, look at the bass player.” And I look at the bass player and she says, “Wouldn’t that be better than the deaf kids?” And from that conversation, obviously the scene changed. But not only that; Carrie’s love of jazz came out of that location scout. And the production designer, whose last job it is to talk about stories, came up with this idea and we said, That is so much better. There’s an example of the production designer, but believe me, Showtime has had a number of fantastic ideas, and the first and foremost one of them is they pushed us to make Carrie more of an extreme character than she was when we first wrote the script. Although they didn’t suggest specifically the idea that Carrie was bipolar, they said, “Look, we need something more, what else can you add to that character? She’s not just a maverick; she’s not just a pariah in the CIA. Is there something else we can add to that character that makes her more alive and more interesting?” So Howard and I went away and thought about it for a while and we came back with this idea that she had this bipolar illness, which, again, informed the series on such a deep level and it was a direct result of Showtime pushing us to be something more.
Homeland than you would on a broadcast network. But what kind of notes do you get, if any, and how is that relationship? GANSA: The relationship with Showtime is superb. It is a relationship that we value and we view the executives there, namely David Nevins [president of Showtime Networks], Gary Levine [executive VP of original programming] and Randy Runkle [senior VP of programming], as real partners. They read these outlines and scripts extremely carefully and we really use them as a service. They are incredibly bright. They are amazingly passionate about the show and they have very strong opinions and sometimes just outrageously good ideas! Homeland is unlike a lot of shows. We have a very open-door policy. We will take good ideas and encourage good ideas to come from anywhere. I always tell the story about Patti Podesta, who was the production designer on the pilot. We were scouting
locations. There is one scene in the pilot in which Carrie is in a bar and she is picking up some guy and she is listening to a jazz band and watches the fret work of a bass player and realizes, Oh my gosh, Brody was communicating with someone when he was on television by using a tapping code [with his fingers]. The version of that scene when we were scouting the location of that bar was that Carrie was on her way out of the bar and passed a booth where a bunch of deaf college students were signing at each other. There is a very famous university for the deaf in D.C. called Gallaudet, and these students were signing at each other and when she saw them using sign language, that’s what gave her the idea that Brody was using a tapping code to communicate in front of the cameras. So we were all at this bar, scouting this location, and there happened to be a jazz band playing
138 World Screen 10/14
WS: Carrie is brilliant but bipolar, Brody was a hero and also a terrorist. How has the evolution of flawed characters freed you as a writer to explore territories that you hadn’t been able to before? GANSA: When you talk about the golden age of television, if you look at a lot of the protagonists in these shows, these are deeply flawed, complicated antiheroes. And that character became possible on cable television. You weren’t confined by the strictures of what a hero is or should be—up to that point on television there was a tried-and-true formula for that. Cable allowed people to explore what the other side of a hero could be. We certainly did that. You are absolutely right, there is a liberation to that idea. And up to that point—and I don’t know when that could be, but you could probably point to The Sopranos—a protagonist or lead character had to be likeable. Cable made it possible for a character not to be likeable, as long as that character was compelling. I don’t think it should be understated. It’s a different paradigm and it allows for more interesting characters.
WS_1014__Layout 1 9/9/14 9:53 AM Page 1
WS_1014_CSQA_BOKENKAMP_WSN_1006_ZUIKER 9/26/14 8:20 PM Page 1
Jon Bokenkamp The Blacklist idea was, What if an 80-year-old man was captured and started to talk? What kind of stories could he tell? We could go back and find out who shot JFK and where Jimmy Hoffa is buried and all of that. That was the kernel of the idea that eventually became the show.
The Blacklist was the breakout hit of the 20132014 broadcast-TV season. Its success is not only due to its premise (one of the FBI’s most-wanted fugitives, played with relish by James Spader, collaborates with the bureau to track down the world’s most nefarious criminals), it is also because, as creator and executive producer Jon Bokenkamp explains, the series is a hybrid of a serialized cable show and a broadcast procedural. WS: You worked in feature films for so long, what attracted you to television, and how did The Blacklist come about? BOKENKAMP: I just was fascinated by TV and started watching a lot of it. After we had kids, my wife and I started nesting and watching TV rather than going to the movies. I love shows like Breaking Bad and Shameless, a lot of great character-driven television. Over the past ten years, movies have become very corporate. They have to be based on a video game or a spinoff or a franchise and have to check off all the boxes of a four-quadrant movie. It feels like television is where independent film was in the ’90s, and it seemed very exciting to me. It was something different to explore. The Blacklist came out of an idea from John Fox, one of our producers, and myself. He was also a feature guy; he had no experience in television. I had written one TV script before and nothing happened with it. Off of that, John and I were talking and talking about ideas that would be fun and interesting. He wanted to do some kind of show about a mythic crime figure. This was right after [the organized-crime figure] Whitey Bulger was found in Santa Monica. John’s
WS: Bob Greenblatt, chairman of NBC Entertainment, has said that The Blacklist is the perfect hybrid between a serialized cable show and a traditional broadcast procedural. Was that done intentionally or did it happen by chance? BOKENKAMP: It was very intentional. Quite honestly, I don’t watch a lot of network television. A lot of what I have watched most recently have been hyper-serialized cable shows. I am a huge fan of those characters and of the way those stories can feel very cinematic. Yet at the same time I wanted to try to do something that would fit the network model of a new case each week. That is a constant balancing act that we are still exploring and trying to discover the right bal-
the story forward in a breakneck pace but deepen the characters. I liken it to if you are traveling from Los Angeles to New York in a car, there is a very direct way to get there, but if you know you are going to stop in Salt Lake City and Tucson and Cincinnati, it can be a very winding road. There are a million different ways to get there. The other thing that is very different about writing for television is that my partner, John Eisendrath, started out as a reporter, and he is very good at keeping flexible. If a story idea is thrown out or isn’t working, he is very good at saying, Well, let’s just find something else; let’s try another. One of the things that has really been a learning curve for me, but has been very exciting to do, is to work very quickly and be open to change and rewrites—being open to different ways to hit those different signposts that you are trying to arrive at. WS: Do you have to write much more quickly for a TV series? BOKENKAMP: Any of the movies that I’ve made, it was a minimum of six years from
Making his first move to television, Jon Bokenkamp has a global hit on his hands with NBC’s The Blacklist. ance. At times last season I wondered if we got too serialized, but we don’t want to be too stand-alone either, because one of the things that is fun about the show is the interplay between the characters and those stories. So it is an interesting tightrope to walk, but it was very intentional from the beginning. WS: What are some of the differences between writing a movie and writing a TV series? BOKENKAMP: It’s a very different process. In any of the features that I have written, I think of them like a math problem. I love a good twist at the end of a thriller and so I always work from that twist backwards. You feel like there are certain beats that you need to hit at certain moments in a feature. There is very limited real estate in terms of time to tell the story. With a television show to tell a story like this, there are those places where we know we are going. But we are trying to embrace the idea that we can take time to get there and take little side routes into characters and stories that don’t necessarily push
140 World Screen 10/14
writing the scripts to when the movies got made. I was either fired off jobs, or fired and rehired, and any number of writers would come in, but it was a really long development process. With this, I can’t tell you how many times we would write something on Thursday, it would be shot on Friday, it would be cut in on Saturday, we would mix on Sunday and it would air on Monday. That wasn’t the story itself, but sometimes we would do a reshoot, or the network would have an idea that would improve the story, all at the last minute. It feels it’s not done till the moment it airs. WS: Raymond “Red” Reddington is a bad guy, and yet he is a likable guy. How do you achieve that? BOKENKAMP: Red is a guy who loves being Raymond Reddington. He relishes life. He is fascinated and interested and open, so for me there is a big element of wish fulfillment with that character. He says and does things that we may want to do or may think
WS_1014_PEACEPOINT_Layout 1 9/17/14 11:25 AM Page 1
WS_1014_CSQA_BOKENKAMP_WSN_1006_ZUIKER 9/26/14 8:20 PM Page 2
WS: Do you have FBI agents consulting on the show? And are some of the criminals who appear in the show composites of people who actually existed? BOKENKAMP: Yeah, we find stuff in articles all the time that make for the beginnings of great criminals. The Stewmaker is somebody who actually worked in a Mexican drug cartel. The Alchemist is somebody who we found from great articles about DNA tampering and how it’s possible to alter one’s DNA. Stuff that feels like it’s on the fringe of science but is grounded is really interesting. So yes, we do graft elements of true crimes into the show because we want it to be as grounded and also unusual as possible. And yes, we do have an FBI technical adviser who works with us, Brad Garret, who was with the bureau for years. We show him every script and he comes back to us with, The bureau would do this, the bureau wouldn’t do that. There is a certain creative license that is taken, but he tries to keep us as grounded as possible.
The Blacklist about, but he just does them! He isn’t one to sit around and worry about the repercussions. There is a big part of that. Obviously [James] Spader plays a big part in bringing the character to life. It’s a show that could easily be dark without much of a sense of humor, and we try to recognize when stuff is a bit of a reach or a bit preposterous—Red acknowledges that. I think there is a bit of self-awareness to who he is. The biggest thing is the enjoyment that Red and Spader have in living that life. WS: You didn’t have James Spader in mind when you created the character. BOKENKAMP: No, I did not. We almost didn’t shoot the pilot because we couldn’t find a lead, which sounds preposterous to me now! I remember speaking to James for the first time, and he was very articulate and intense and specific about the character and I thought, Wow, this guy is going to be great! But he wasn’t who I was thinking about when
I was writing the pilot. But in terms of what James brings to the role, one of the biggest things is just a wonderfully strange sense of humor. We talk daily during production; it can be a lot of fun. When you get him on a roll with something that is just preposterous or something gets us laughing and discovering who the character is, it’s a real joy. We had a bit with this Julian Assange type of character who had been in house arrest. We thought Red should bring him a gift when he visits. So he brings him a fruit basket with some vitamins and some Richard Pryor albums. Who would bring Richard Pryor albums, actual vinyl records? Red would! It’s those sort of things, when James and I and John get to giggling about it, there is nothing better than that! So one of the things James brings is a wonderful sense of humor, and he is adamant that once we think we know that character, we know nothing about him. We are constantly trying to deepen that character in unexpected ways.
142 World Screen 10/14
WS: There is a lot of violence for a broadcast show. How free are you to pursue your vision for the series? BOKENKAMP: The network and the studio have been incredibly supportive. Again, I have never done this before, so I don’t have a tremendous amount of context, but in talking with my fellow producers and with James and with other people who have done television, we have been incredibly well supported by the network. In terms of the violence, it’s funny that stuff often reads absurd or silly or uncomfortable, and then when I see it I go, Oh my God, it’s a little more bloody than I had thought, or it played a little more real or graphic than I intended. But I am always surprised at how that seems to be OK with audiences, whereas sexuality is not. We had a shot of the Stewmaker, who was walking around naked in the woods, and I think they saw the top inch of his back end and we had to digitally remove it! The butt crack of a naked 70-year-old man somehow doesn’t pass muster, whereas lots of blood does. That fascinates me! We are certainly not trying to be a bloody show, but just by nature of what the character is, we’re constantly asking ourselves, If you were in this situation with Red, what would really go down here? And that oftentimes is a very dark answer that we’re always struggling with.
WS_1014_IM_GLOBAL_Layout 1 9/22/14 10:39 AM Page 1
WS_1014_CSQA_CUSE_WSN_1006_ZUIKER 9/26/14 8:28 PM Page 1
Carlton Cuse The Strain
Based on a trilogy of books by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan, The Strain is about a mysterious virus that is infecting humans and is connected to an ancient and evil strain of vampirism. For showrunner Carlton Cuse, who is used to blending genres, this is more than a vampire saga; it’s a thriller with horror elements. WS: How did you become involved with adapting The Strain? CUSE: I read the book, I liked it and then a couple of years later I was approached by my agent at William Morris Endeavor, who was also Guillermo’s agent, and he said, “Would you be interested in adapting The Strain for television?” I was. There was this cool idea embedded in these books, which was, you could upend the current notion of the vampire genre. We had all these vampire stories that were based on romantic, brooding, glittery dudes with love-life problems! It would be much more interesting to go back to the roots of vampires as scary, dangerous, parasitic creatures. I thought that there was a way to take that idea and carve out a spot in the genre that was not occupied. So I sat down with Guillermo and we connected. We shared a lot of aesthetic sensibilities, and I felt we also had really complementary skill sets. The other thing that attracted me to the project was that I felt like Guillermo was one of the best visualists working in film and entertainment. I was confident that he would be able to create these creatures in a way that was interesting and compelling. I’ve had a lot of experience as a storyteller in television and
I felt I had a good take on how to take the spine of this narrative and really flesh it out and turn it into a full-fledged 13-hour first season of television. My focus was primarily on the storytelling, the scripts and the editing. We shared casting. Guillermo, meanwhile, was very focused on the monsters and the visual look of the show. It was a wonderful collaboration where we each brought the best of ourselves to the table. I very much believe that success in television is a collaborative artistic medium. There is this erroneous assumption that creativity is in its best form a singular pursuit, but there are many cases of that not being the case. Even people you think of as being solitary creative artists were not solitary creative artists. There is so much work involved in creating the world of a TV show and making a story that plays believably over 13 episodes, our collaboration really made this story special. WS: Was there a desire to reach beyond the genre fans and appeal to fans of mysteries?
how to make the show. We were not going to make it like a horror show, where it would have a singular tonal quality. It was going to be a story that mixed and combined elements of different genres. WS: Lost was one of the first shows to have flashbacks and fast-forwards. How were you able to create a show like that? CUSE: My goal was to make a show that I wanted to see. Damon Lindelof and I would sit in my office every morning over takeout breakfast from the Disney commissary, and we would talk a lot about, What is the show that we want to see? If we both thought something was cool it would go in the show. There is a real danger in overthinking things. We also weren’t afraid to fail. If you do anything great artistically you have to not be afraid to fail. We would have been very happy if Lost had been a 12-episode cult classic on DVD that people passed around like The Prisoner, [which] was 17 episodes, or Twin Peaks, which was 30
After delighting and perplexing audiences in Lost, Carlton Cuse opted to terrify and enthrall viewers with the vampire series The Strain. CUSE: Absolutely, while the show was initially marketed on the horror axis, I view the story that we’re telling as an adventure thriller with horror elements. What I do as a writer is cross-genre storytelling. The very first show I created was The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. It was a Western with science-fiction elements. Lost was an adventure story with sciencefiction elements. I see The Strain as an adventure thriller with horror elements. I wasn’t interested in just hard-core horror; it just interests me as a component in a more complex drama. Apart from that and really significantly, there is something that differentiates Guillermo’s work from other works that are labeled horror. A movie like Pan’s Labyrinth is a beautiful lyrical story. It may carry the horror label, but there’s so much more to it than that. Even his straighter genre pieces, like Blade II or Hellboy, are filled with humor and heart. There was a common thread in our discussions about
144 World Screen 10/14
episodes. We would have been happy with that result. We ended up violating a lot of rules of television that we were told were inviolable: we had a complicated mythology, we didn’t make a lowest-commondenominator show, it required that you sit forward and pay attention, it wasn’t spoon-fed to you. There was intentional ambiguity, which was something that really intrigued me as a storyteller because I was enchanted by it in shows like The Prisoner or Twin Peaks or in movies made by Michelangelo Antonioni or [Federico] Fellini. There were characters who had done really bad things like murder people, and on network television you weren’t supposed to have guys that did stuff like that. But all those things that broke the rules of television were the very things that people found interesting and made them want to watch the show. For more from Carlton Cuse, see page 418.
WS_1014_ICEXAV_Layout 1 9/17/14 12:10 PM Page 1
WS_1014_CSQA_WEISBERG_FIELDS_WSN_1006_ZUIKER 9/26/14 8:27 PM Page 1
Joe Weisberg & Joel Fields The Americans
Joe Weisberg Elizabeth and Philip Jennings are deep undercover KGB agents posing as ordinary Americans in Washington, D.C., during the 1980s. How they manage to fulfill their covert missions while raising two children who know nothing about their parents’ true identities sets the framework for The Americans, whose showrunners are Joe Weisberg, who worked for the CIA, and Joel Fields. WS: What was the genesis of The Americans? WEISBERG: In 2010, there was a group of Russian intelligence agents who were illegals who were arrested in the U.S. They were called illegals during KGB times because they were officers who served not in Soviet embassies but under deep cover. Everybody thought that after the Soviet Union collapsed the Russians probably weren’t doing that anymore, but it turns out they were. A group of ten of those illegals were arrested by the FBI in the U.S. Everybody knew it had happened and it was a big deal. I got a call from DreamWorks Television, who I was working with at the time and had done some other projects with, and because I had worked in the CIA and had a background in intelligence, they asked if I would be interested in developing a TV show based in any way on those illegals. That was the birth of the project. I was interested in all kinds of different themes. One that really interested me was the families of spies. Back when I worked in the CIA I was very interested in the question of officers who were married and served abroad and didn’t tell their kids what they did. The kids grew up in a family with this giant lie. That was certainly something that always grabbed me.
WS: What kind of toll does living that lie take on a person? WEISBERG: It really depends on the person. At the CIA...some people seemed psychically to have almost no reaction and had no problems with it, and other people who seemed to, over time, have it take quite a toll and became sort of odd as a result. On other people it had the potential to wreak havoc and destroy them. FIELDS: Part of what is so exciting about what Joe created in this show, and what we get to explore creatively, is ultimately even for those of us who aren’t in the CIA, we all struggle as human beings with this question of how truthful are we being in our lives. Are we people who are trying to shed our shells and share ourselves? Or are we going through life wearing our disguises unaware that we all have the lies? To me that is part of what is great that we can explore in this show. WS: How do you break stories together? Do you have a process? And how do you work with the writers’ room?
WS: Is it a challenging to weave together historical events, fiction and actual covert operations to develop the story arcs? WEISBERG: It’s great, and it’s something that initially we thought might be a challenge, but it’s turned into something more like a pleasure and an opportunity. There is the known history of what took place in the ’80s, then the fictional characters going about their lives, and then there is a covert history, which we can, with some latitude, make up some stuff and weave it in. The only thing we try not to do is to make up events that would be so outrageous as to not be credible, or events that we can twist with the real history, that’s what we avoid. And as long as we avoid those, everything seems to work out. The events we make up, we try to have them take place within the context of the real events. Last season we had stories about the Contra war in Nicaragua and about the stealth program that were very central. The things that we made up were more like minor incidents within those bigger stories.
The pairing of former CIA officer Joe Weisberg and producer Joel Fields has resulted in a show hailed by critics as one of the best airing on U.S. TV today. FIELDS: Our process involves taking a walk. Joe and I usually start by walking and talking. We’ll talk about ideas, we’ll talk about characters, we’ll talk about story, and that’s the process, we talk a lot before we start to write. Then we have an incredibly gifted group of writers who weigh in and work with us and are part of a great collaborative process. WS: How much of what we see on the show relates directly to the way spies used to work in the ’80s? WEISBERG: A lot of it, and a lot relates to how spies still work. The general tradecraft of the dead drops, the radio communications, the brush pass, the secret writing, all of that we go to great pains to have it be accurate. But even in this day and age when so much more in tradecraft uses [sophisticated technology], old tradecraft is still in use because at the end of the day, human intelligence relies on people meeting with each other and talking with each other. While old methods may not be entirely what’s being used, they are still used.
146 World Screen 10/14
WS: You have to submit all your scripts to the CIA’s Publications Review Board—how does that work? WEISBERG: When I joined the CIA I signed a secrecy agreement, and they made me sign it a
Joel Fields
WS_1014_ASTRO_Layout 1 9/23/14 9:28 AM Page 1
WS_1014_CSQA_WEISBERG_FIELDS_WSN_1006_ZUIKER 9/26/14 8:27 PM Page 2
The Americans second time when I left, right under the first signature just to make sure I remembered! The terms of the secrecy agreement included that anything I ever wrote for the rest of my life that had anything to do whatsoever with the subject of intelligence, I would submit to the Publications Review Board for their approval. Their approval is very specific. They have the right to have me take out anything that they determine is classified. So Joel and I write scripts together and I submit those scripts to them through e-mail. They look them over and see if they think there is anything classified in them. I’ve gotten pretty good over the years at knowing what they are concerned about, so I’m writing with an eye towards that and make sure that we leave out anything classified, so there hasn’t been too much trouble. The thing I am more worried about, because we operate on a very tight production schedule, is that they will have a problem with something and it will screw up our shooting [schedule]. So I am forever submitting and saying, Can you once again expedite this review? Because they ask for a month to do a review and I usually ask them to do it in more like three or four days! They have always been accommodating so far. WS: How have you made antiheroes so likeable? I find myself caring about Philip and Elizabeth. FIELDS: I actually don’t see these characters as antiheroes in the traditional cable-drama mold. Tony Soprano, the original cable antihero, was a sociopathic mobster and the show really explored his struggle with his sociopathology. Would he or would he not be able to recover from the anxiety attacks that he was suffering because of whatever was going on around him? The Soviets and the Jenningses, they aren’t antiheroes. They aren’t
sociopaths. They are on a different side of history. They are soldiers but they have their own moral worldview. They have their own belief system and their own internal struggles with all of it, which is what makes the show interesting. Yes, they are a portrait of the enemy; but actually in my view, not antiheroes. WS: Did the KGB use sex more freely in order to get what they needed than the CIA did? WEISBERG: That is historical. Yes, KGB officers were trained to use sex to get what they needed. They were encouraged to do so. Oleg Kalugin, who was the youngest general in the history of the KGB, writes about this in his memoir, how he was specifically encouraged when he went off on his first tour to try to entice female targets with sexual favors, even though he was married. But that was common—all officers, even though they were married, were encouraged to use sex, and just not talk about it with their wives. Even though their wives on some level knew or understood. That was with officers that were abroad. In the Soviet Union there is a long, long, history of agents and different people working for the KGB honey-trapping targets to blackmail them. And there is an interesting philosophy behind it: being so uptight about sex was considered a bourgeois preoccupation. The whole socialist/communist view on sex, the KGB said, and there was some truth behind it, was supposed to have been more liberal and KGB officers were told to work in that tradition. Maybe that was all an excuse for abuse of its employees! There is something offensive and ridiculous about it, and needless to say, the CIA never would have encouraged or allowed any of that. In fact, the things that were bureaucratically encouraged in the KGB are things that would have gotten you fired at the CIA.
148 World Screen 10/14
WS: And what about recruiting assets, how often does that work and how often does that not work? WEISBERG: If you really got me started on that I would have to talk for hours and hours. I’ll tell you the really short answer and I’ll just speak about the CIA and the KGB. Both the CIA and the KGB successfully recruited a lot of assets, but you have to ask yourself what “successfully” means. They did recruit a lot of assets. In the case of the CIA, in my opinion, the vast majority [were] of no value to U.S. intelligence whatsoever. So what they were specialized in was getting people to agree to work for the CIA. Also, in my opinion, a very high percentage of them were double agents, so I believe the whole enterprise was pretty screwed up. In the case of the KGB, it was a little more complicated. They seem to have recruited people who in earlier days gave them the plans to the atom bomb. They recruited people who gave them a lot of technology that was useful to them, in part because they targeted more for technology than for political intelligence. But I also believe that they recruited a huge number of people that were not really valuable, and the whole enterprise as time went on during the Cold War degraded for them too. WS: What were some of the challenges you’ve had in The Americans that you haven’t had in other shows? FIELDS: Everything is a challenge on this show and everything is a blessing. There are a lot of technical challenges on this show: the period setting, every exterior has to be redressed. Every extra has to be dressed. Every phone, every car, every parking meter, everything is a special challenge to its period, to its setting in Virginia and D.C. Shooting in the winter in New York is a challenge. The first year we had Hurricane Sandy. The second year we had a polar vortex. There have been a lot of challenges, but they are all outweighed by the blessings. We have a phenomenally gifted cast who are not only as talented as you could hope for but also great people and great creative collaborators. Joe and I have forged a great friendship and creative collaboration. We have such a supportive studio and the network brings so much support and insight and collaboration to the table. We have such a great team. So there are a lot of challenges, but they are outweighed by the blessings.
WS_1014__Layout 1 9/15/14 12:53 PM Page 1
WS_1014_CSQA_CHINBALL_WSN_1006_ZUIKER 9/26/14 8:26 PM Page 1
Chris Chibnall Broadchurch start again. We have three double-sided eightfoot white boards, which actually I learned about from two great U.S. writers, Rockne O’Bannon, who worked on Revolution and created Farscape and seaQuest DSV, and one of his colleagues, Richard Manning. They taught me how to break stories on white boards. I owe them a lot. Sam and I break the series down into episodes; we break the episodes into acts. We do big, long characters arcs. We just put everything on a white board and after a few days there is usually an episode there and you have a go at that.
The death of an 11-year-old boy devastates his family and sets off an investigation that turns everyone in a small coastal town into a murder suspect. This is the story of Broadchurch, a crime drama in the classic whodunit tradition, created by Chris Chibnall, which held British viewers captive over the course of its eight episodes. WS: Where did you get the idea for Broadchurch? CHIBNALL: It was a long-gestating idea in my head. I had always wanted to do a really big ensemble drama. I’m a really big fan of murder mysteries. I’ve been living in Dorset for seven or eight years, where the show is shot. I live a mile from that beach. It’s so beautiful. I had been thinking somebody should really film something here and then I thought, Oh my God, I’m capable of writing something that can be set here! Actually, there is no greater community than a small town, like the small town where I live. It’s a beautiful cinematic landscape and I really fancied doing a good old-fashioned murder-mystery whodunit in the Agatha Christie tradition. But there were also two American shows that were a big influence on me in my 20s and have stayed with me ever since. You can see them in Broadchurch—they are Twin Peaks and Murder One, the Steven Bochco show that is one legal trial over 22 episodes. All that stuff was in a creative cocktail shaker and out comes Broadchurch! WS: Do you have a routine when you write? CHIBNALL: The great Sam Hoyle, my script executive, and I sit and discuss stories endlessly and repetitively, we rub stuff out and
WS: Do you write all the episodes before production starts, or are you writing during production? CHIBNALL: I’m writing as production is going along. On the first season we were greenlit into a particular slot, so it was quite a fast turnaround. I was writing as we went along. With the schedule for the second season, it’s a bit the same. But I like the active process of calibrating the show as you’re watching dailies. You end up tailoring char-
the show to be about. That was way before we started shooting, so I knew from very early on. WS: I was so pleased there were no superheroes, no antiheroes! Is Broadchurch’s huge success a sign that the audience is happy seeing “normal” people in everyday settings? CHIBNALL: I don’t know, but I really hope so, because what you want are stories to help you make sense of your life. What I was interested in in Broadchurch was to say, if this really happened, how would it feel for all the people involved? How would they respond emotionally? It was really taking that genre structure of the story and then applying emotional truth to it. But that’s not a new thing. Joss Whedon was doing that a long time ago in sci-fi with Buffy the Vampire Slayer. What people want are real emotions. WS: You have written for Doctor Who, one of the most successful franchises ever. What did you learn from that experience?
Before creating the megahit Broadchurch, Chris Chibnall worked on some of the U.K.’s biggest shows, among them Doctor Who and Torchwood. acters to performances. It’s a really inspiring thing if you can keep finessing the show as it’s shooting. Because what you write is different from what ends up on the screen. You have to enjoy and use what ends up on screen and feed that back into the writing. That’s where the great symbiosis is. WS: Did you know from the beginning who did it, or was that something that revealed itself as you were writing? CHIBNALL: I wrote one very early draft for myself, because I wrote it on spec, it wasn’t a commission. I wrote that first draft and then I can’t remember if it was a few days or a few weeks later I woke up one morning, literally doing that thing that people only ever do in movies of sitting bolt upright and saying, Oh my God! I had an idea! My subconscious kind of solved it! It worked its way out of my system and onto paper. It just suggested it to me, and from that moment on I thought, Well, it can’t be any other person because it made sense of what I wanted
150 World Screen 10/14
CHIBNALL: That you could always do the impossible. You should always think big when you are writing and you should always try to ground it through emotion. I did one called “Dinosaurs on a Spaceship,” and that was an impossible brief! Steven Moffat, the showrunner, just gave me the title and said, “Do you want to do that?” I thought, Well, there is no way we can do that on a 45-minute BBC budget! But we did, and I think what you take from that is there are some really talented people working on that show. Like a lot of British people, [Doctor Who] is part of my DNA! So it’s always great to drop in and do an episode of that. It’s even more fun working on it than you can possibly imagine! Everybody is great. Everybody loves the show. What’s really exciting about it is you feel that everybody wants it to be constantly excellent, day in and day out. That is a great environment to work in. For more from Chris Chibnall, see page 478.
WS_1014_GMAWW_Layout 1 9/17/14 11:29 AM Page 1
WS_1014_CSQA_SHORE_WSN_1006_ZUIKER 9/29/14 9:17 AM Page 1
David Shore Battle Creek SHORE: I remember going to some seminar and there was a lecturer who teaches television writing, and he says, “The rule of thumb is you say everything three times.” And I thought to myself, What? That’s not the rule of thumb. On House, we said something once and we prided ourselves on being subtle and forcing our audience to be smart and pay attention. I don’t really want them missing anything. But it shouldn’t all be just spoon-fed.
For eight years, with the brilliant yet damaged Dr. Gregory House at its helm, the medical drama House made audiences ponder ethical issues and why people do what they do. The showrunner David Shore will once again place human behavior under the microscope, but with a bit more optimism, in the new series Battle Creek. WS: I can’t even imagine what life was like immediately after House, saying goodbye to those characters and those actors. SHORE: You don’t feel like you’re saying goodbye to the characters because they’re still living and they’re kind of in my head somewhere. There are moments afterwards where something happens and you go, Oh God, I want House to do that. Or, I want House to say that. But the whole thing, it was such a great group of really talented, really nice people. I remember [filming] the last episode, the first AD [assistant director] announces, “That’s a wrap on Omar Epps [who played Dr. Foreman].” And you go, Oh God, that’s a wrap on Omar Epps. Eight years I’ve been working with this guy. And then, “That’s a wrap on Jesse Spencer [who played Dr. Chase].” And you’ve got your head down and you’re working and you’re working and you’re working hard, and then all of a sudden you realize, Oh God, it is ending. And it is tough. WS: I’m lucky because I can still see House in reruns. It’s interesting, when I watch an episode I haven’t seen for a while and I notice something, I think, Wow, how could I have missed that?
WS: How did Battle Creek come about? How did you team up with Breaking Bad’s Vince Gilligan? SHORE: Well, 12 years ago, Vince Gilligan wrote a pilot script for Sony and for CBS, and they almost made it. Apparently they had gone all through the casting process and then they pulled the plug for myriad reasons, I’m sure. Who knows what reasons, there are always reasons, and never good ones! Apparently, Nina Tassler [the chairman of CBS Entertainment] has been sitting on that script all these years,
tend to blow up on him, much to his frustration. Into town comes Josh Duhamel, who plays Milt Chamberlain, and he is an FBI agent who’s a bit of a golden boy. He’s got a very different attitude towards life, very positive, very sunny, believes in people, trusts people, even criminals. He thinks people are fundamentally good. The two of them just have a very, very different view of the world. This is often the case with people with positive attitudes, good things happen for them, which frustrates the hell out of Russ. We all know people who we believe don’t deserve all the good things that have come their way. On the other hand, there’s this constant, overhanging question of, Why the hell is Milt in Battle Creek? What happened? What’s his back story? WS: I remember interviewing Hugh Laurie, who said that he firmly believed that you were House. Are you going to be one of the characters in Battle Creek?
David Shore moved on from complex illnesses and a cantankerous doctor in House to a pair of polar-opposite cops in Battle Creek. thinking, I still want to make that show. Vince has obviously been very busy. The people at Sony went to Vince and he said he didn’t have time. So they said to Vince, Would you mind if David Shore took a look at this, and if he’s interested, would you mind if he ran with it a bit? Vince said he’d be thrilled, which I was very flattered by. So I read the script. I liked it and I really liked these characters and I had the audacity to rewrite the pilot, and Vince seems very happy with it, and that’s what’s happened.
SHORE: No. I think it’s impossible—well, it’s impossible for me—to write without aspects of me leaking through. House was me. I’m not sure either of these guys is me in the same way. Look, I hope I’m not House exactly, and at the same time I wish I was House. I’m not as smart as him, but certainly, those speeches House made, those [represented] my attitude. So, I think I’ve been bifurcated in this. Russ and Milt are both half of me, and the two halves are arguing inside my head. There’s the optimist and the cynic.
WS: Tell us about the two main characters. Who are they? SHORE: Dean Winters plays Russ Agnew, who’s a local detective born and bred in Battle Creek, Michigan, a cynical cop who’s got a bit of a chip on his shoulder, but a good cop who really cares about his community. But things don’t go his way. They’re either underresourced, understaffed, and as much as he cares, things
WS: House made viewers ponder big ethical issues. Right or wrong, why people behave in certain ways. Will we see some of that in Battle Creek as well? SHORE: I hope so. That’s exactly why I write. I write to explore those issues and explore the nature of who we are and why we do the things we do, and fundamentally, what is the right thing to do in a given situation.
152 World Screen 10/14
WS_1014__Layout 1 9/10/14 2:42 PM Page 1
WS_1014_CSQA_SHORE_WSN_1006_ZUIKER 9/26/14 8:26 PM Page 2
Battle Creek WS: One of the themes in House was that everyone has something to hide and everybody lies. What themes are you going to explore in Battle Creek? SHORE: Cynicism versus optimism. Should we approach life assuming the best or should we approach life assuming the worst? I explored cynicism to a great extent in House, and I think I plan on exploring optimism to a certain extent in this show. WS: Has something changed in your life to make you want to look at the other side? SHORE: [Laughs] Certainly it’s more pleasant to live with an optimist than a cynic, even when you’re writing them. WS: What are the responsibilities of a showrunner? SHORE: It’s a vague title, but boss is kind of what it is. You obviously delegate a lot and you need extremely good people and you need people you can trust everywhere. To me, it’s an extension of the writing. The beginning of it is the writing, and then to some extent the end of it is the writing, in my opinion. When I write or rewrite a script, I have in mind what I want there. So, it’s all about meeting with the director to make sure that he’s implementing that vision. Meeting with the casting people to make sure the casting is consistent with that vision. Being in edit-
ing to make sure that the editing tells the story you wanted to tell. Your responsibilities are for the entire process. There are certain things you can delegate a little easier than others, but it’s to make sure that that episode, when it winds up on the air, is what you wanted when you sat down at the keyboard. WS: You’re staying with broadcast television instead of working for a cable network. At FOX, did you have the freedom to follow your vision for the show? Do you expect a similar setting at CBS? SHORE: I absolutely had that freedom. I hope I have that freedom again. The division between cable and network scares me a little bit because, look, I couldn’t show nudity on FOX, I couldn’t swear and I had to come in at exactly 42 minutes and 43 seconds, or something like that. In terms of the topics I explored, there was never a time when they said no. And I worry that the networks are running away from shows they think are cable shows. Good TV is good TV. Good storytelling is good storytelling. And a show like NYPD Blue, which was just a great, great show, probably wouldn’t be put on a network today. There’s no reason it shouldn’t be. Even going back to a show like All in the Family, [if it were pitched to] a network today. It worries me, this division we constantly talk about, because I don’t think there needs to be such a division.
154 World Screen 10/14
WS: How did House advance the drama genre? SHORE: Oh, come on, that’s for other people to answer. WS: You must have some idea about it… SHORE: No, you know, I honestly don’t. I’m thrilled that that question’s even being asked. I never looked at it that way. I just tried to do a good show and a show I found interesting. Its success, along with the success of a lot of other shows, made writers more apt to do what they want to do anyway, which is write flawed, difficult characters, difficult heroes, and center shows around them. It wasn’t just House. It may have made networks more apt to put those shows on the air. So I think I rode a bit of a wave with other shows of characters like that—characters that were different than what you’d seen at the center of a show before. If there are other ways that we’ve done things, God, thank you. But it’s not productive for me to think, What is my place here? I just go, What is interesting? What do I want to do in this show? And do I like this show? Let’s do that one. WS: House really made us think about issues that other shows didn’t, other than news or documentaries. SHORE: Well, that’s what attracts me to writing. It’s philosophical issues that attract me to writing. I’m not interested in whodunits as whodunits; I’m interested in “whydunits.”
WS_1014__Layout 1 9/4/14 11:05 AM Page 1
WS_1014_BLOMGREN_WSN_1006_ZUIKER 9/29/14 9:19 AM Page 1
Lars Blomgren The Bridge Denmark. For me it’s strange, because most of the time a series starts as a creative idea, but this one actually started on the business side.
Place a dead body—actually two halves of two separate corpses—on a bridge between two countries. Then team an outgoing detective from one of the two countries with a socially inept investigator from the other to try to solve the crime, and you have a smash hit on your hands, as executive producer Lars Blomgren has with The Bridge (Bron). The Swedish-Danish co-production, renewed for a third season, has not only been a hit in its original version—it has spawned two successful adaptations. WS: How did Bron come about? BLOMGREN: The commercial station TV4 and the public broadcaster SVT in Sweden had been airing Danish TV series in prime time for some time, but the Danes didn’t air any Swedish shows at all, or maybe one every five years. It was so difficult for us to get into prime time in Denmark. So I sat down together with the management of SVT in Stockholm and we asked ourselves, How can we possibly get into prime time in Denmark? We started working on one idea that didn’t turn out that well, but then we said, OK, what if we place the series near the border between Sweden and Denmark? We were not really talking about a bridge at that point, we were just saying, Let’s try to come up with a series that organically takes place on both sides of the border, with Swedish involvement and Danish involvement, and make it look as Danish as possible, and then maybe we can get it into prime time! And so we did. We came up with the idea of a dead body on the Øresund Bridge. I think we succeeded—it is one of the top-rated shows in
WS: When the series was created, the female detective, Saga Norén, was never meant to have Asperger syndrome, was she? BLOMGREN: She acted like she had it. It was really funny—we received a letter from the Swedish Asperger association thanking us for this very good portrayal of a person with Asperger syndrome! But we never said she had it, we just gave her this [peculiar behavior]. Sweden and Denmark are two really different cultures. If you look at the characters from that perspective, Martin [who is more outgoing] is very much the way we Swedes consider the Danes to be. Saga [strong-willed and a loner] is a lot like what the Danes consider the Swedes to be! The Danes have been salesmen for centuries. They have been in trade but they’ve never had one single industry. We Swedes are the opposite; we
Scandinavia. We also have The Sandhamn Murders, which is a bit like a Scandinavian version of Midsomer Murders, with beautiful people being killed in beautiful locations. That’s more like soft crime, if you will. Then we are doing Arne Dahl, also a returning series, which is a growing success all over Europe. WS: Were all the episodes written before you went into production, or were you writing as you were producing the episodes? BLOMGREN: We are just like the English. First we write and then we produce. But in this show we were a bit late in the production process. We realized quite soon that the dynamics between Martin and Saga were just fantastic, so while we were in production we created a lot of new scenes. We decided that in every episode we wanted to have one scene with them, for example in the car, because [their exchanges] worked so well. We made more changes than usual on a Scandinavian show during production.
In addition to executive producing Bron, Lars Blomgren brought his expertise to the U.S. and French/British versions of the show. look at something and figure out how it works. They look at something and they want to try to sell it. WS: Was the first series immediately a hit in both countries or did it take a while to catch on? BLOMGREN: It was an immediate hit. It was interesting in a way because the strong female character actually scared some people away. The ratings of the second episode dropped. Then it picked up; after the third episode people started using the catch-up services to get into the show. The ratings kept going up and it became a big success. WS: Are you working on other shows? BLOMGREN: We have four TV series in production right now, and they are all returning series. We are doing a third season of Bron. We have a series called Beck. We started producing it in 1996 and we are doing more TV movies right now. It's hugely popular in Germany and all of
156 World Screen 10/14
WS: What has been driving the success of Scandinavian drama? It has worked in its home territories for many years, but what is it that makes it connect with viewers in so many countries? BLOMGREN: Quality, for one. I keep coming back to the fact that we are like a rather peaceful part of the world, and if you look at the best crime shows they are in a way like family dramas on steroids. We could never afford to do big shootouts or thrillers. We have to do more characterdriven series. And what happens in a good crime story, at least in the Scandinavian ones, is that you get close to people in stressful situations. We have [the tradition of] Ingmar Bergman. If you haven’t had a war in 200 years then you develop bourgeois problems instead, such as not being loved by your family. We have a way of mixing drama and crime [that has helped these shows travel]. For more from Lars Blomgren, see page 482.
WS_1014_ESCAPADE_Layout 1 9/17/14 10:19 AM Page 1
WS_1014_M.NIGHT_WSN_1006_ZUIKER 9/26/14 8:25 PM Page 1
M. Night Shyamalan Wayward Pines
What started a few years ago as a slow trickle of feature-film talent to television has become a seemingly endless flow. And it’s no longer just the premium and basic-cable networks benefiting from this trend. Take Wayward Pines, a FOX and FOX International Channels event series for 2015. The actors lined up for the production, based on a series of novels by Blake Crouch, include Oscar nominees Matt Dillon and Terrence Howard, plus Oscar winner Melissa Leo. M. Night Shyamalan, whose credits include The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and The Last Airbender, was enlisted to direct the pilot and help craft the show as executive producer. WS: How did you come to be involved in Wayward Pines? SHYAMALAN: We [at my production company Blinding Edge Pictures] were thinking about getting into TV for the first time. We started having conversations about ways of doing it, about stories we could tell. I was very hesitant. I felt like there should be a gut [response to an idea]. I didn’t want to think it through so much. And then Ashwin Rajan, who works with me here, read this script. I had walked into his office as he was reading it. He had this look that said, “I’m reading something here, let me finish it.” So I walked away. He called me and said, “I read this pilot and I think it’s great. I don’t want to tell you too much. You should read it.” I read it late that night in bed. I called him and said, “I need to know what happens. If it’s too similar to something I’ve done before, I don’t want to do it. But if the answer isn’t something derivative, I’m interested!” Chad Hodge, who wrote the pilot, got on the phone and told
me what the story was. I was like, “Ah, I can do that! That’ll be great!” It had that kind of David Lynchian tonality, and there was an explanation as to why everyone was acting like they were in a David Lynch movie. [Laughs] I said, Let’s just do it. There was no thinking. There were all these other things I had been thinking about doing, had been deliberating for months and months. This was a very gut reaction. That’s always a good sign, when internally you feel at peace with the decision. It turned out to be the right decision, now that I’m on the other side of it, just finishing up the last episode. It was a very positive experience for me. You’ve caught me in a philosophical moment. I’m finishing this TV show and a new movie, so I’m [at a point where] I’m evaluating my life and my decisions. How do I feel about myself and what I did over the last year? I’m really happy. WS: How has the transition been for you, moving into directing television?
your endurance and your ability to create. That isn’t what happened. In fact, there was so much back and forth between my [new] movie and Wayward Pines, and it wasn’t enervating—it was fueling me. First of all, you have to work really fast in TV. So you’re stripping away all your comforts and bad habits, especially when coming off two giant movies. The beauty of the TV show was, as we were [in production], the network and I would say, “We really love this scene,” or “This character has now blossomed, I’d love to put that moment in the pilot,” or “I need to bring this out in this character.” It was a fascinating experience, because it also taught me a kind of permanent vigilance through the process of post-production. I didn’t think of it in the traditional film format of, you prep, you shoot, that’s it, let’s see what your grade is at the end of it. You think of it as listening to the story the whole time, and you work that into how you’re making the [show]. That was really nice. I could go in like an assassin and shoot
With his deep connections in the film world, M. Night Shyamalan was able to enlist a host of Oscar-nominated actors for his first TV series. SHYAMALAN: When you’re writing and directing your own movies, it’s a long cycle. When I’m doing my thrillers it’s probably two years, at the fastest a year and three-quarters, between movies. The last two movies I made were big CGI studio films. There were three years between [each release]. In fact, because they were big CGI movies, I didn’t have that intimacy of the art form that I thrive on. At the end of the day, the dinner table scene is my favorite scene. [Wayward Pines] allowed me to work with a battalion of actors that I wanted to work with. If I read a movie that simply doesn’t have enough parts that are fit for a whole bunch of actors I’d like to work with, well that’s another two years that I can’t work with them. My selfish goal is to tell stories that I’m interested in, in a long form on TV, and then put world-class actors in all the roles. That excites me, it motivates me. You’d think that if you’re adding something to your plate, you’re going to diminish
158 World Screen 10/14
for two or three days to fill in episodes. I remember being in my hotel room saying, Your only job is to get X, Y, Z from the character—concentrate on that. Get Matt [Dillon], Melissa [Leo], whoever, focused on giving you this particular thing. It was a new part of the art form. Rather than being so macro focused, it allowed me to go in and do some surgical work, which I found super satisfying, as did the actors. The story is so luscious and big, and it just rolls like a big 18-wheeler over you. Our job as storytellers is to make sure it has genuine idiosyncratic human qualities in it. So we were able to make it more of a director’s medium than [TV] normally is. We hired really wonderful directors that brought a slightly different touch to each of their episodes. When we felt like we found a partner, we asked them to do a second episode. WS: Is there more involvement from network execs than you’d find in the movie business?
WS_1014_STORYBOX_Layout 1 9/23/14 10:59 AM Page 1
WS_1014_M.NIGHT_WSN_1006_ZUIKER 9/26/14 8:25 PM Page 2
Wayward Pines SHYAMALAN: Putting aside my two big CGI studio movies, my thrillers are very much like independent movies [where studio execs will] see the screenplay, they’ll approve the budget, and then I go shoot it and show it to them and they’ll say how they feel about it. Then I go away and work on cutting this and doing this, and then I come back and show them another cut. Then we test it. That’s the end of it. I found [the relationship with the networks] was healthy. Yes, there were more people involved, naturally, but I needed them to be involved. I wasn’t directing and writing every episode. After my pilot, I laid out the structure of the piece with the writers. Other than the casting and the hiring of the directors and the crew, where my oversight was strongest was being an architect over the story. The minutiae of, “Hey the kitchen scene needs to be shorter,” I let [the writers and the network executives] work that out and then they would show it to me. I’d come back and say, “I love it,” or “You gutted it—you need to put it back!” They always listened. We were very much in sync over the tone. That’s the advantage of having the pilot written before you sell [a show]. You’re not going to have a partner that doesn’t get it. Maybe one day I will sell a TV show on a pitch. But I could see how that could cause [confusion]—“Oh, you wanted to do that with
it? You wanted to make it funny and weird?” “Yeah.” “We didn’t see that [in the script] at all!” WS: In serialized shows, audiences will often complain about being given more questions than answers in the course of a season. How did you decide how much to reveal as you mapped out the episodes? SHYAMALAN: We made a pretty bold decision. In retrospect [the decision we made] was very unlike me, but, again, this is why it’s great to try a different format, to test yourself a little bit. We made a decision right away to do a big reveal right in the middle—the big reveal. We could have easily strung it out for the run, but we didn’t do that. I wanted to live in that world where we as audience members understand everything and now we’re dealing with the ramifications. In many ways it morphs from one show to another as you’re watching, which I really like as well. WS: We have to talk about your amazing cast, many of whom are also making their first move to TV. SHYAMALAN: Most of them had never done television before, or if they had, it wasn’t their primary job. I basically cast it like an independent movie. There was a tone I was going for, a grounded and quirky tone
160 World Screen 10/14
[where the actors] complemented each other. The first day of rehearsals, we all had dinner together at my house. Sitting around the table, I thought, This is amazing! They felt excited knowing that no matter what scene they were in, they were in it with a world-class actor. In the movie industry, if you’re not making X, Y, Z comic-book version number ten, if you’re not interested in that or don’t fit into that dynamic, there’s not a lot of space for you. At least 40 percent of movies now are that. We’re certainly not making Terms of Endearment or Kramer vs. Kramer anymore. So there are a lot of world-class actors on the table. I think that’s what the pull of TV is right now—it’s honoring resonance. And that’s a great thing for all of us. WS: I know it’s being billed as a limited event series, but does the ending leave room for a second season? SHYAMALAN: Blake Crouch has written many books. With him we deviated from the books, but we informed each other. He was writing his [book series] and we were writing our show—so it was almost like two versions of the same conceit from two storytellers. You never know. I’m intrigued by the way it ends. And that was what I wanted. I wonder what happens next. It certainly fits that mold of a Twilight Zone episode!
WS_1014__Layout 1 9/15/14 12:51 PM Page 1
WS_1014_CSQA_NOLAN_PLAGEMAN_WSN_1006_ZUIKER 9/26/14 8:24 PM Page 1
Jonathan Nolan & Greg Plageman Person of Interest
Jonathan Nolan Person of Interest is the story of a genius billionaire recluse who creates an all-knowing machine that can spot criminals (or their victims) and who then teams up with intrepid ex-CIA operatives to stop those crimes from happening. In it, showrunners Jonathan Nolan and Greg Plageman also engross viewers with thought-provoking, timely topics of surveillance, protecting the public and the right to privacy. WS: What is your process for breaking stories? Do you work together on all the story arcs? NOLAN: We sure do. Greg and I started working together very early. I had written a script and Greg came in and we started figuring out how we could shoot the pilot and build it into a series. We went to New York together with a director and an incredible team to shoot the pilot. It was a dream for me to shoot in New York. We then pulled together a team of incredible writers. Some of them Greg had worked with before. I had never worked in television before. I had never really collaborated with other writers before. That was part of the reason I wanted to do TV in the first place, to be part of that writers’ room. I spent over a decade working on features. [With] my brother [Chris Nolan it’s] more of a serial collaboration than a parallel collaboration. He’ll go off and shoot the last movie we worked on and I’ll start writing the next one. It’s a very isolating experience. I’d been on the Warner Bros. lot writing for years and years by myself, and I wanted that collaboration.
WS: Where did the idea for the series come from? NOLAN: I grew up in the U.K. in the 1970s where, because of The Troubles with the IRA [bombings by the Irish Republican Army], Scotland Yard and MI5 were backing the installation of security cameras everywhere. This was [an extension] of Jeremy Bentham’s 19th-century panopticon and the way the English built prisons so that inmates could be spied on at any time of the day. When I moved to the United States, in the late ’80s, there weren’t security cameras everywhere. It was like moving back in time to a more innocent age when everyone was not spying all the time. Then, for good reasons and not-so-good reasons, that panoptic state followed me across the Atlantic and set up shop here in the United States. Now, between state-sponsored CCTV [closed-circuit television] and private surveillance [there are cameras in major cities like New York]. As a little kid I understood intuitively that there were more cameras than there were
PLAGEMAN: Shane Harris, the author of the book The Watchers: The Rise of America’s Surveillance State, is a friend of ours, and we brought him to the show a couple of times to talk about the state of surveillance. He is way ahead of the curve, a journalist who is tied into the Beltway and understood everything that was happening with Admiral John Poindexter before almost anyone else. You might recall, Poindexter had this idea going back to 1983 when there had been an attack in Lebanon [on the U.S. Marines barracks]. He thought we could have done a better job in predicting these types of attacks if there had been surveillance. In this case, the prototype was Total Information Awareness. There were a number of these projects that were being funded. The long and the short of it is when we finally got a version of it up and running after 9/11, Congress heard about it and shuttered it in 2005. [All the surveillance projects then] went into something called the “black budget.” We essentially funded surveillance, only nobody heard about it. The technology was
Jonathan Nolan and Greg Plageman have used their deep interest in government surveillance to deliver a new twist on the crime procedural. people to watch them. I was always fascinated by all the stories that might unfold and be caught on camera but no one was watching. The CCTV cameras that are all throughout London and now throughout Manhattan are witness to acts of violence and even banal things that play out over the course of one day. All that human drama playing out and no one is watching, or if people are watching, it’s not what they are looking for. They are not looking for kidnappings or gang warfare; they are looking for acts of terrorism. I went to a meeting with J.J. Abrams. We really hit it off, and several hours into the meeting—we had been talking about a lot of different film projects—I finally told him about my idea. Four years later I find myself with Greg running a massive TV show. It’s been very cool! WS: How similar is the machine in the show to the one the U.S. government had at one point?
162 World Screen 10/14
out there and the necessity for it still existed, and they were going to build it. The revelations from Edward Snowden about what the NSA is doing worldwide have brought that [into the open].
Greg Plageman
WS_1014_ARGENTINA_AV_Layout 1 9/18/14 8:01 PM Page 1
WS_1014_CSQA_NOLAN_PLAGEMAN_WSN_1006_ZUIKER 9/29/14 9:21 AM Page 2
Person of Interest WS: Person of Interest has updated the traditional procedural. NOLAN: What makes the show unique is that it’s building very much on this tried-and-true format of television where you have a story of the week. Cable shows are all novelized. But a huge amount of the audience doesn’t have time to watch every week, and the idea that you can turn on the television and find a compelling story that has a beginning and an end within one episode, that’s the most enduring model of storytelling on television. I look at The X-Files as a benchmark for how you can have your cake and eat it too—how you can have a story of the week but also have a really big, really compelling genre story that is moving forward every week, getting the audience that is watching every week more and more engaged. I really think that doing that model is harder [than serialized drama]. You need writers who can come in and tell one compelling story, wrap it all up in one episode, but also move the ball forward with this huge arc that we are spreading out over 23 episodes. Our writing staff has to do all of that every episode; it’s pretty extraordinary what they do. WS: Do the issues we see in the show regarding the right to privacy versus protecting the public reflect the debate that takes place in your writers’ room? PLAGEMAN: Definitely. This is an age-old trade-off: privacy versus liberty. Post 9/11, the Patriot Act and all the things that have transpired since then, have laid the groundwork for the situation we are in now. For Jonathan and me, the challenge is not to be
preachy about the situation, because that would be too easy. It’s too easy to say, Look at what your government is doing, isn’t this outlandish, isn’t this outrageous? Yes, to a certain degree it is, but what did you expect them to do? The interesting aspect for our show is to say, Let’s just say this exists. Let’s just say [surveillance] transpired out of a need for people to feel protected by the government, but also out of convenience. All of us click on end-user license agreements to get Facebook or Twitter or Gmail or whatever; we all agree to it [and relinquish tons of personal data in the process]. So to sit there and act like hypocrites, saying that we didn’t know [corporations and the government have all this information about us] is a little silly. So Jonathan and I said, Let’s just use it as a backdrop. The information is out there, it’s available and there are parties that are using that information. We find ourselves in a really interesting place in history right now in terms of privacy and technology, and it’s only going to get trickier. The ability of an algorithm to basically predict your taste in what you are going to do next is only getting stronger and stronger. If we take that as a given for the show, it becomes a really fertile ground for some really interesting stories about larger questions—questions about privacy and anonymity and even free will. WS: Is it true that from the beginning of the series you have known how you want it to end? Is that part of your creative process or is it also done in the event that if CBS decides it won’t renew another season, you can tie up all the loose ends?
164 World Screen 10/14
NOLAN: I’ve been primarily a film writer, and a huge part of figuring out how to write a film script is to start at the end. On The Dark Knight we knew exactly what the end was. It is relatively easy, when you know where it’s going, how to build toward it, especially if it’s a strong ending. Doing television, even though the number [of episodes can be] mind-boggling, the variability is huge, too. We’ve had friends who had shows that never make it past the pilot. That’s the thing about the television business; it’s very difficult. You have a pitch, they like it, and [the project] goes forward. You write a script, they like it, it goes forward. You shoot a pilot, they like it, you go forward. You shoot 12 more episodes, they like them, you go forward. You shoot nine more episodes, a full season, they are doing well and you go forward. [It’s a] yearto-year crazy treadmill where you are trying to roll these things out and make sure they are great. We’re in the old-school model. We are making 23 of these babies a year and we are trying to make all of them fantastic, but we are shooting them in a very new-school way. We’re shooting guerrilla-style out in New York. That’s an awful lot of stories to cover. Greg and I decided very early on that we needed to know where the story was going every season. And it’s exactly your point, if we got through the first season and it wasn’t going well, we would want to wrap it up and tell a clean story. That model is becoming increasingly important to both the networks—who are realizing that they are punishing the audience by just yanking a show before they can even finish the story—and to the studio for the long-term catalogue value of these shows. You’d like to think that the business is headed a little more in this direction now. You did the first six, it’s not working out, let’s get through 12, wrap it up, have your DVD set, make it more of a miniseries. There is a little more grace to that. That’s the long picture. As for each season, we’ve always known at the beginning of every season where it would end. The writers all sit down together and just talk about where we want the story to go. With some provisos in mind, we know how to get to that point, and the funny thing is, even with 23 episodes, at the end of every season, we’re still breathless, there is still so much to tell. Every season we have a finale that packs two or three episodes’ worth of content into one episode because we always have more story we want to get to.
WS_1014__Layout 1 8/26/14 3:41 PM Page 1
WS_0914__Layout 1 8/25/14 12:44 PM Page 1
WS_0914__Layout 1 8/25/14 12:44 PM Page 2
WS_1014_CONSOLIDATION_WS OTT 3 9/26/14 8:38 PM Page 2
the big
get Bigger
168 World Screen 10/14
WS_1014_CONSOLIDATION_WS OTT 3 9/26/14 8:38 PM Page 4
onsolidation fever has swept the media business with a wave of deals since the start of 2014, including several whoppers of industryshifting scale. Some of the biggest whales in the industry have already been swallowed. Although the biggest proposed move so far— an $80-billion bid by Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox for Time Warner—was nixed, another one like it might be around the corner. From a big-picture perspective, the current consolidation has certainly been bound to happen. It was just a matter of time until it did. “The key driver of the consolidation is the globalization of the final media vertical,” says David Reynolds, an analyst at investment bank Jefferies Group. “Advertising and publishing have gone down this road and now, finally, broadcasting is doing so.” In the wake of the flurry of deals in recent months, he says, “There is a lot more consolidation to come.” The underlying factors pushing the current rush of activity can be summed up in two words: digital and global. And they are closely related. By “digital,” in this context, we mean the advent of online as a video market in contrast to traditional linear broadcast or pay TV. Given the market-dominating nature of some of these deals, it can be hard to perceive them as fundamentally defensive in nature, but there is a good argument to be made in favor of seeing them that way. The challenge of digital is felt by both pay-TV companies facing pressure on their subscription model and by broadcasters seeing continual audience erosion, with its negative impact on advertising.
BALANCING THE SCALE “Scale is of increasing importance amid the rise of new-media platforms and the likes of Netflix, Amazon and YouTube,” says analyst Adrien de Saint Hilaire of Exane BNP Paribas. “These transforming mergers are about retaining clout, and in order to achieve that, bigger is better. There are different specific drivers in the deals.
Sometimes it’s about costs and synergies. Sometimes it’s more about content or finding growth assets to protect the core business.” The current trend underlines the huge importance of the American market, not only because the biggest deals are being done there, but because being global means having to be present in the U.S.— or, as Saint Hilaire puts it, “sensitive to” the American market. A media analyst at a London firm, whose company policy is not to speak for attribution, cites two principal factors pushing the latest phase of consolidation in television. “Partly it is relatively
ropolitan areas, to the Comcast portfolio. “Comcast and Time Warner Cable [merging] is a defensive move,” says Saint Hilaire. “It’s about unlocking synergies and preventing price wars.” The deal was followed in May by the announcement that AT&T would purchase DIRECTV in an even bigger transaction valued at $48.5 billion (plus almost $20 billion in assumed debt). In the U.S. payTV space, the merger will transform AT&T, whose existing U-verse brand has only about 5.7 million subscribers, into a giant with an additional 20 million subscribers
The media business is in the midst of a new wave of consolidation as companies vie for valuable IP and channel real estate. By Jay Stuart cheap to finance acquisitions with debt because interest rates are low. Partly there is a sense that pay-TV operations are moving to a global scale as a function of OTT technology and the emergence of players like Netflix,” he says. Asked if the need for content is driving most deals, he replies, “I would say it is scale driving them.” While scale has global implications, the fact is that the biggest deals to date have been mainly situated in the U.S. domestic space. The first mega-deal, in February, was Comcast’s acquisition of Time Warner Cable in a transaction valued at $45.2 billion. When given the green light by regulators, the move will add New York and Los Angeles, among other major met-
from DIRECTV. It also has an international dimension in bringing DIRECTV’s 18 million subscribers in Latin America under the AT&T umbrella. Randall Stephenson, chairman and CEO of AT&T, claimed before antitrust legislators that “the merger will put downward pricing pressure on cable products—cable bundles, cable video and cable broadband.” As with the Comcast-Time Warner Cable deal, whether the lawmakers believe that rationale for clearing the takeover remains to be seen. In the shadow of such megadeals, another big merger in the American TV station market has passed almost unnoticed. In July, Journal Communications and E.W. Scripps agreed to merge their tele-
10/14 World Screen 169
vision operations under the E.W. Scripps name, creating the fifthlargest independent TV group, reaching 18 percent of all households with stations in 27 markets, including 15 ABC affiliates. Why is all the consolidation happening now? Nick George, a partner in PwC’s U.K. Strategy group specializing in technology, media and telecommunications, explains, “Advertising has improved post-recession. The subscription business proved quite sticky during the downturn. Consumers tended to hold onto their pay-TV subscriptions. These companies traded well and now with the recovery they are looking to grow. We are seeing a postrecession surge led by groups that have come through the downturn and are looking to grow.” He adds, “Content and digital are the two axes of the trend. Content is attractive for digital. Traditional television viewing remains strong and online adds a new growth dimension.” With big groups on the hunt for content assets, consolidation is a natural development because there are so many opportunities for acquisitions. “Content is a $50-billion business and it’s very fragmented,” Saint Hilaire says. “It’s dominated by the American majors, which account for 70 percent to 75 percent of the business in the U.S. The market is growing at 5 percent to 7 percent per annum. There is a very long tail of small production companies.”
DIGITAL MATTERS In March, The Walt Disney Company agreed to acquire online video company Maker Studios for $500 million and a performance-linked earn-out of up to $450 million. “Short-form online video is growing at an astonishing pace,” Disney’s chairman and CEO, Robert Iger, stated when the deal was announced. With Maker Studios, Disney now has a channel provider with 380 million subscribers and 5.5 billion views per month on YouTube. It’s interesting to note that Ynon Kreiz, the president of Maker Studios, was involved in an earlier
WS_1014_CONSOLIDATION_WS OTT 3 9/29/14 9:22 AM Page 5
With its acquisition of Leftfield Entertainment, the outfit behind reality hits like Counting Cars, ITV Studios became the largest unscripted independent producer in the U.S. phase of consolidation a few years ago in the sports area, when he led the investment group which bought into Europe’s nascent North American Sports Network and steered it toward a takeover by ESPN. Just as Disney has moved into enhancing its capacity to deliver specific content for the digital market, so multi-country European broadcaster RTL Group has taken smaller, acquisitive steps to shore up its position in advertising in the digital space. In July, RTL revealed that it would pay $144 million for a majority stake in U.S.-based digital advertising marketplace SpotXchange. The company automates the process of buying ad slots from online video publishers. RTL Group co-CEO Guillaume de Posch explained the move as protection against the group being “disintermediated” from the process of selling online video ads. “We fully understand how to sell commercial spots on TV,” de Posch said at the time. “But in online video, the world is much more atomized.” RTL Group is the first TV broadcaster to buy an ad exchange, following similar acquisitions by Facebook, Google, Twitter and others.
21st Century Fox has long had its eyes on Time Warner’s HBO pay-TV operation and especially the group’s sports rights (mainly visible on the Turner U.S. channels). A merger would have helped Fox, already a sports giant with the FOX Sports brand, challenge ESPN. Cable magnate John Malone told The Wall Street Journal that sports rights were an “important” factor in the attempted takeover but “not the driver.”
TIME TO BUY The unsuccessful move on Time Warner followed a series of divestments over the last few years by the company that have made it more affordable and attractive to potential buyers. Time Warner chairman and CEO Jeff Bewkes has spun off AOL (whose acquisition of the company in 2000 remains the biggest failure of consolidation in media history), Time Warner Cable, and the Time Inc. publishing division. With operations in Europe, Asia and Latin America, HBO was also very attractive as an international brand for 21st Century Fox, which already has a massive portfolio of channels on the global market. The unsuccessful move on Time Warner came four years
after Murdoch’s failed attempt to take over BSkyB in the U.K. His group already owns 39 percent of the money-spinning pay-TV operation and the aim was to swallow the rest. James Murdoch, today 21st Century Fox’s co-COO, said at the time that the aim was to consolidate BSkyB with other Sky businesses in Italy, Germany, India and New Zealand to create the first state-of-the-art, global, 21stcentury digital pay-television business, centered in the U.K. “We felt it would be helpful to be bigger in order to compete with other international companies such as Google, Apple and large telecom companies, all of whom are much larger than BSkyB and have been investing in the audiovisual business heavily on a global, rather than a national, basis.” When the younger Murdoch claimed in the U.K. parliament that BSkyB was not a big player in the grand scheme of global media and communications competition, his argument was widely dismissed as simply self-serving. But the current consolidating trend reflects a general acceptance within the TV industry of Murdoch’s thesis.
170 World Screen 10/14
“Amazon, Google, Facebook and the like are already global,” says Jefferies analyst Reynolds. “Broadcasting has some catching up to do.”
FIGHTING BACK Saint Hilaire adds, “Look at Google: it’s immensely profitable. It still generates most revenues through search, which is not really competitive with TV. But the merger wave is a sort of retaliation. Google is very profitable, and it can invest and leapfrog the existing media giants. Broadcasting is cash-flow generative, but it tends to be local. Google is global and has better margins. You’re not going to destroy your P&L trying to catch up, so you get bigger.” In July, the Murdoch empire sold its own pay-TV operators in Germany and Italy to BSkyB. The British platform agreed to pay $4.1 billion for Fox’s 100-percentowned Sky Italia and $4.9 billion for a 57-percent stake in Sky Deutschland (also offering to buy out that company’s minority investors). BSkyB said it would save £200 million ($330 million) via synergies (mainly cost cuts) within two years of combining the British, German and Italian operations. The benefits
WS_1014_BOPAUL_Layout 1 9/19/14 11:20 AM Page 1
WS_1014_CONSOLIDATION_WS OTT 3 9/26/14 8:39 PM Page 6
Credit: Getty Images
This has been a big acquisitions year for Discovery Communications, with its 50/50 joint venture with Liberty Global to purchase all3media, producer of The Gadget Show (left), and its deal for a controlling stake in the pan-European broadcaster Eurosport, which holds the rights to such events as the French Open (right). will include the accrued tax losses of the German operation. Ironically, the deal combining the Sky pay-TV operations is actually in line with Murdoch’s stated ambitions of a few years ago, although Fox was a seller rather than the buyer this time. It does, however, benefit from the synergies as the main shareholder in BSkyB. Also, the move to take over BSkyB was shot down by regulators in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal which engulfed the Murdoch group’s newspapers. There is nothing to suggest such a deal might not happen in the future.
SPORTING CHANCE At the end of May, Discovery Communications announced the completion of its acquisition of a controlling interest in Eurosport International, taking its stake to 51 percent from 20 percent as part of a larger strategic partnership with TF1 Group. The closing price for Eurosport International was based on an average enterprise valuation of €902 million ($1.2 billion). The acquisition of Eurosport takes the group to a point where its business outside the U.S. is bigger than its domestic business, according to Jean-Briac (JB) Perrette, the president of Discovery Networks International. With Eurosport’s six pay-TV brands, Discovery Com-
munications now operates more than 210 worldwide TV networks reaching 2.7 billion cumulative subscribers. Eurosport’s Géraldine Filiol, who has headed both sales and acquisitions and was recently named deputy managing director for international communications, marketing and external relations, tells World Screen that Discovery’s move into the sports market adds a fourth major player to the picture of global competition for premium rights along with ESPN, Fox and, more recently, Al Jazeera. Discovery is now operating at the intersection between factual programming and sports, and for the first time has a significant presence in the business of live television. The move into sports is an excellent fit for Discovery because, Perrette says, the American group’s programming brand is all about “telling factual stories,” and sports are full of them. The acquisition is a fine example of consolidation aimed at enhancing a group’s strategic content position. Also in May, Discovery and Liberty Global formed a joint venture to acquire all3media, the largest independent production group in the U.K., from its founders and the Permira funds for about £550 million ($930 million).
With revenues of £505 million ($820 million) in the latest fiscal year, all3media has a diversified catalogue of more than 8,000 hours of content across many genres, and production capabilities in drama, comedy and factual programming. Steve Morrison, cofounder of all3media, said “the new strategic owners come with a long-term view of the importance of building a leading global content company.”
THE NEXT MEGAMERGER? At about the same time, 21st Century Fox and Apollo Global Management formed a joint venture with the intention to combine the Shine Group, Endemol and CORE Media Group. The deal follows Apollo’s acquisition of a majority stake in Endemol, producer of Big Brother and many other hit formats. Shine alone has about 30 different companies in a dozen countries. How all the pieces would fit together has not been made clear. “The scale of the mega-deals involving telcos and cable groups might be bigger in absolute terms, but I would not underplay the content deals,” says PwC’s George. “Leading content producers may be smaller by revenues [but] they are no less significant. This is because of the M&A that has already happened
172 World Screen 10/14
in the production sector, where some things benefit from scale. Bigger groups are well positioned to sell internationally and they are more diverse and resilient. As groups have come together with the consolidation of smaller producers, they have become more important for the biggest players to have.” These production groups are a far cry from the small cottage businesses that existed 20 years ago and were often dependent on one-off commissions, he says. “They are content platforms with multiple routes to market. They are no longer narrowly dependent and with their greater scale they are well positioned to leverage their intellectual property.” George adds, “One feature of Europe will remain and that is that there are quite specific market characteristics from country to country. But if you look at the format business, for example, you see there are ways to develop IP and package creativity that can transcend the differences by adapting to them. The larger-scale production groups that exist are the culmination of a lot of innovation and hard work. They are following growth strategies to bring different types of content, including digital content, short form and long form.” He says is it hard to say whether existing big productions groups will
MEA_1014_MBC_Layout 1 9/26/14 10:59 AM Page 1
WS_1014_CONSOLIDATION_WS OTT 3 9/26/14 8:39 PM Page 7
other countries in Europe, which have wrestled with economic crises and have regulatory hurdles. “Look at the situation with the launch of Netflix in Europe,” he says. “In Germany, the free-to-air broadcasters are going to be ready for Netflix. In France and Spain, they are going to be naked.”
A TASTE OF BRITAIN
Red Arrow Entertainment Group, a division of ProSiebenSat.1, owns a network of companies across Europe and North America, including CPL Productions, which makes Off Their Rockers, the British version of Benidorm Bastards. get even bigger. “We probably will see the smaller and medium-sized players today trying to get bigger and achieve critical scale as their predecessors have already done.” Exane BNP Paribas’ Saint Hilaire comments, “Not all of the merger deals aimed at getting bigger will work. Look at Endemol. It has dramatically lost value.”
PROCEED WITH CAUTION The need for caution applies to broadcasting as well as contentdriven consolidation. “Look at broadcasting on a pan-European basis,” Saint Hilaire says. “Any geographical expansion has generated very little synergy. ProSiebenSat.1 buying SBS was based on the idea that it could help reduce the costs of rights, the main costs of broadcasting, which normally account for 60 to 75 percent of costs. It has not worked. They just had a collection of assets rather than an integrated group.” ProSiebenSat.1 sold off its SBS Nordic asset to Discovery last year. Saint Hilaire adds, “RTL built its pan-European expansion more organically and there is greater integration with some circulation of programming and sharing of
best practices. But even so, the synergies are really not that obvious. In the case of BSkyB and Sky in Italy and Germany, they’re talking about synergies of £200 million ($324 million) but in the grand scheme of things that is fairly limited, only about 4 percent of their combined revenues.” Saint Hilaire sees ITV and ProSiebenSat.1 as the two key consolidators in Europe. “Five years ago they were struggling with low margins and audience issues. New management has done a tremendous job in transforming those groups, turning them into high-margin cash cows which can now invest in new assets. It has been an outstanding transition in both cases. Where these groups are going now is a bit different. ITV has a heritage of programming and legacy assets in content. For ProSiebenSat.1 it is harder. ITV is more into content, while ProSiebenSat.1 is more interested in digital assets. Broadcasting produces good margins and cash flow, but it can’t last forever as it exists. They need to have a balanced business.” ITV has made an ongoing practice of snapping up independent
producers. The biggest deal of late came in May, when the group announced that it would buy 80 percent of American producer Leftfield Entertainment Group for $360 million. The acquisition makes ITV Studios US Group the largest unscripted independent producer in the U.S. In March, ProSiebenSat.1’s production-and-distribution arm Red Arrow Entertainment acquired a minority stake in Collective Digital Studio (CDS), which oversees YouTube multichannel networks. Last year, ProSiebenSat.1 formed its own multichannel network, Studio71, and the new partnership will aim to exploit synergies between the companies. “Digital functions globally,” ProSiebenSat.1 executive board member Christian Wegner commented. “Having established a leading multichannel network in the German-speaking region, we are taking the consequent next step with CDS to create a global player in what is a highgrowth sector of the entertainment industry.” Saint Hilaire says deals like this are creating a “significant gap” between the U.K. and Germany and
174 World Screen 10/14
The wave of mega-consolidation probably has not run its course yet, and it might spread from the U.S. Liberty Global is currently sniffing around ITV. The company acquired BSkyB’s 6.4-percent stake in ITV in July for £481 million ($779 million). Another British broadcaster has already been snapped up, with Channel 5’s sale to Viacom. “The media and communications landscape remains vibrant and a good place to do deals,” PwC’s George says. “We are seeing more investment into the U.K. and Europe. People were focused on emerging markets for growth. Media investors have faced some challenges in the Middle East and even Eastern Europe, and good deals are not easy to come by in Asia. The U.K. offers reasonably good prospects and is a good place to do business.” Our anonymous U.K. analyst sees more consolidation ahead in Europe, citing Mediaset, Vivendi and ProSiebenSat.1 Media as groups that may be involved in deals. Also possible on the horizon are strategic alliances between media telco operators. “You will see more deals, but they are likely to be in adjacent areas, like RTL Group and SpotXchange,” predicts Saint Hilaire. “Online video is a likely area, in infrastructure and technology. This is mostly driven by the U.S. Those companies with sensitivity to the American market will do better. Companies in the U.K. and Germany are better positioned in this respect relative to those in southern Europe, where companies have limited ability to invest abroad and weaker management skills. There will also probably be more consolidation in the content area.”
WS_1014__Layout 1 9/25/14 10:50 AM Page 1
WS_1014_MEXICO_WSN_1007_GLOBAL PERSP 9/26/14 8:42 PM Page 2
Comarex’s Acapulco... Forever Yours.
who founded this company, always told me that a good story can enchant the world,” Azcárraga told MIPCOM attendees in his last appearance at the market two years ago, to receive the Personality of the Year award. The Mexican media giant produces more than 90,000 hours of original content each year that is exported to 85-plus countries. “Our productions, mainly telenovelas, have gained significant acceptance in Mexico and in other territories due to their quality, consistency and focus on the family,” says Carlos Castro, the general sales director at Televisa Internacional. “Mexican content works in practically all areas,” says Epigmenio Ibarra, the CEO of Argos Comunicación, which has made such shows as Nothing Personal for Azteca, The Lord of the Skies for Telemundo in the U.S. and Capadocia for HBO Latin America. “Besides its cultural riches, diversity and talent, [Mexico] has a capable industry with great potential,” Ibarra adds. That potential is evident in the track record that Mexican productions have already achieved internationally. Comarex has not only built a strong business in selling Azteca’s Spanish-language novelas across
Made in Mexico L
The creativity of the Mexican media market is taking center stage at MIPCOM. By Jessica Rodríguez
ast summer, a little Spanish-language dramedy from Mexico called Instructions Not Included surprised Hollywood when its limited-screen U.S. debut grossed almost $8 million at the box office on an ultra-competitive Labor Day weekend. It went on to rake in more than $46 million by the end of the year. The hit film came just a few months after U.S. Hispanic broadcaster Univision managed to trump an English-language network (NBC) in the much-coveted 18-to-49 demographic for the first time—thanks largely to content sourced from its programming partner (and part owner), Mexico’s Grupo Televisa. It may have taken some time for the world’s largest media business to recognize the content creativity of its next-door neighbor, but viewers around the world have been watching Mexican content for decades. At MIPCOM, this prolific provider of Spanish-language programming will take center stage, having been selected as this year’s country of honor at the market. In association with ProMéxico, a government organization that supports Mexican exports, a range of sessions are planned at MIPCOM to showcase the country’s TV, film and digital media producers. Highlights include Emilio Azcárraga, chairman and CEO of Televisa, discussing what’s driving the company’s success as an exporter of high-quality content, in conversation with Anna Carugati, World Screen’s group editorial director. “My grandfather,
176 World Screen 10/14
the globe, it is also actively selling the format rights to its shows. In one of its most recent deals, the hit telenovela Acapulco...Forever Yours is being remade for Astro in Malaysia. Two more novela adaptations will follow for Malaysia’s dominant pay-TV platform, which runs a dedicated telenovela channel, Astro Bella, featuring Comarex content. “We have been working with Astro for more than ten years,” says Marcel Vinay, Comarex’s CEO. “We have done Akademi Fantasia [the Malaysian version of the talent competition La Academia Azteca] with them— they were the first to do it in Asia. We are the supplier of one of the largest drama channels on Astro. This is another step forward.” The recognition by MIPCOM of Mexico as a country with a thriving and innovative content sector “benefits all of us who are Mexican producers,” Vinay adds. This is a view shared by Ibarra, who says the country of honor recognition provides a global platform for Mexican producers who have been “fighting to make worthy and distinctive TV.” The Mexico country of honor activities, which will include screenings, networking sessions, panel discussions and a “Casa Mexico” outside of the Palais, will allow the country’s producers to “rub elbows with the global TV market’s major players,” Ibarra continues. “I celebrate this initiative and the opportunity we have been given.”
WS_1014_ONE-ON-ONE_LESLIE_MOONVES_1005_ONE-ON-ONE 9/26/14 8:48 PM Page 3
ONE-ON-ONE
ention Leslie Moonves to just about any international television executive and not only will his name be recognized, but words like “gifted,” “brilliant” or “programming genius” will quickly be added to describe him. Moonves, the president and CEO of CBS Corporation, is known as the man with the Midas touch for spotting and scheduling hit shows. He started his career as an actor and later took a position at
Warner Bros. Television, where he eventually became president and oversaw the development of several shows, including Friends and ER. In 1995, he moved to CBS as president of entertainment and continued to rise up the ranks of the company, which at the time was part of Viacom. In 2006, Viacom split its businesses into two publicly traded companies: Viacom and CBS Corporation. Today, CBS Corporation encompasses the CBS Television Network, The CW (a partnership with Warner Bros.), CBS Global Distribution Group, the pay-TV service Showtime Networks and the publishing group Simon & Schuster. Under Moonves’s leadership, CBS has been the most-watched network among total viewers for six years in a row and for 11 of the last 12 years. In the 2013–2014 season, CBS was not only the most-watched network among all viewers, but also number one among adults 18 to 49 and adults 25 to 54 in prime time (not including sports programming). The Big Bang Theory was the number one comedy among all viewers and among adults 18 to 49. The Millers was the number one new comedy. NCIS was the number one drama, and 60 Minutes remained the top news program. This kind of ratings success translates to advertising revenues, but advertising is not the only income filling CBS’s coffers. Programming sales in the U.S. domestic market, internationally and to digital platforms; retransmission fees; and reverse compensation all contributed to revenues of $15.28 billion in 2013 and operating income of $3.26 billion. Broadcast is the form of television that has been around the longest, but complacency has not been part of Moonves’s approach to the business. He and his team have, in fact, devised innovative formulas to finance shows and embraced digital platforms. For the limited series Under the Dome and Extant, CBS made deals with Amazon’s Prime Instant Video service prior to their airing, making the series profitable regardless of their ratings performances. Moonves has always been focused on one goal—making shows people want to watch— and that seemingly simple objective continues to pay off.
LESLIE MOONVES
By Anna Carugati
CBS CORPORATION
10/14 World Screen 233
WS_1014_ONE-ON-ONE_LESLIE_MOONVES_1005_ONE-ON-ONE 9/26/14 8:48 PM Page 4
there will be consolidation in cable distribution. In that environment, will it be more difficult for broadcast or cable networks to get fair value for their content? MOONVES: I don’t think so. If you look at our battle with Time Warner Cable, which is now a year old, we eventually got paid appropriately for our content. I don’t think the fact that these companies are getting bigger is going to change that. As long as we do the job that we are doing, which is produce premium content and acquire the appropriate sports rights, we will be fine and we will get paid fairly. We’ve made big deals with all these companies in the past and I’m sure that will continue.
Heading into its 12th year, NCIS is not just the top-rated drama in the U.S.—it has been named the most-watched drama in the world and has spawned two spinoffs, NCIS: Los Angeles and the brand-new NCIS: New Orleans. WS: CBS is doing well financially. Are you looking to make any acquisitions in the U.S. or internationally? MOONVES: There is a lot of conversation about M&A [mergers and acquisitions] and what is available. Yes, we are indeed doing very well financially, but part of that is because we have a great deal of discipline. I would venture to say we look at a lot of things, but we are reluctant to stick our neck out. Right now we feel confident that the assets we have are performing extremely well—the network, the production group, Showtime, etc.— so we are reluctant to change the mix unless we see great opportunity out there and, at the moment, there is nothing that we are dying to have. WS: Are there any companies that would fit into your portfolio? MOONVES: We just spun out our CBS Outdoor [billboard advertising] business and consider ourselves a content-and-distribution business primarily. Any acquisition would be opportunistic; there is nothing we are looking for to fill our portfolio. Obviously we like producing content for CBS, The CW, Showtime and our syndication group. We would like to continue expanding that if possible, but most of the expansion
comes internally, as opposed to from acquiring companies. WS: There has been a lot of consolidation in the business lately. Given 21st Century Fox’s recent bid for Time Warner, would CBS be in a better position if it were still part of Viacom and a bigger company? MOONVES: CBS and Viacom have both performed extremely well since we split apart. The truth of the matter is that we are entirely different businesses. Viacom is a big motion-picture company and a big cable company, and CBS has a different group of assets. The stocks of both companies have performed very well over the last number of years, so there doesn’t appear to be any real need, and I don’t think it would give us any more power to be back together. I think everybody is very content to be apart. WS: What are your goals for CBS Television Studios? MOONVES: CBS Television Studios produces for a lot of different ventures, but obviously the CBS network is number one. So my goal is for them to continue to produce premium content, make the best shows they possibly can and maximize their revenue. They’ve done a terrific job of expanding the NCIS and CSI franchises, as well as pro-
ducing what I consider to be possibly the best show on television, The Good Wife. What also impresses me about CBS Studios is the diversity of the product that they make, going all the way from syndication shows to top-notch cable programming. WS: Is there a need at this point for CBS to produce more films? MOONVES: We have a small featurefilm company (CBS Films) that does a few movies a year. I don’t think there is any need for us to expand beyond that. We are not looking to be a competitor for the $100-million-plus movies, the Transformers or Batman or Superman movies, as good as they may be. We’re going to remain a rather small movie company. We enjoy producing content, but we don’t want to get into that rat race. WS: Besides, look at how much feature-film talent has been coming to television. MOONVES: That’s exactly right. I think the quality of television is at an all-time high—some would argue that the quality of television is where the real power is now, even more than in feature films. WS: With the proposed Comcast and Time Warner Cable merger,
234 World Screen 10/14
WS: I have a home in Connecticut. Last August, I was so upset I didn’t have CBS in Manhattan on Time Warner Cable that I moved to Connecticut! MOONVES: I’m glad to hear that! And clearly Time Warner Cable was hurt more than CBS. Some would say it put them in a vulnerable spot to the point that they had to sell the company. WS: Give us an idea of the choices that went into making this year’s CBS fall schedule, placing some of the dramas where you placed them and carving out a slot for NFL football on Thursday nights. MOONVES: It started there. Once we had the opportunity to grab Thursday night football, that changed the whole equation. Thursday night was already a strong night for us, where we won in every demographic. The fact that we were able to add football in the beginning of the season gave us the opportunity to move The Big Bang Theory to Monday night. In addition, because the spin-off NCIS: New Orleans follows NCIS on Tuesday nights, we were able to move another strong performer, NCIS: Los Angeles, to Monday to strengthen that night. The new shows we have on the schedule, from Stalker to Scorpion to Madam Secretary to NCIS: New Orleans, are all placed in time periods where they have great lead-ins. Obviously not every new show will
WS_1014_ONE-ON-ONE_LESLIE_MOONVES_1005_ONE-ON-ONE 9/26/14 8:48 PM Page 5
Crime procedurals like Elementary, one of CBS’s highest-rated properties, have helped CBS Studios International become a leading supplier to free- and pay-TV platforms worldwide. work. But, as we like to say, every show is in a position where it can succeed. And hopefully we will continue to build on our past track record of success. WS: Looking at the fall schedule, the vast majority of the shows are produced by CBS Television Studios. Was that a conscious decision or
did it just happen that they were pitching great shows this year? MOONVES: Our strategy is similar to that of other networks. We buy from everybody and have a lot of shows on our schedule from Warner Bros. But revenues from the international marketplace and the SVOD marketplace [that we can generate from our own shows] have become more
The Good Wife, coming off a critically acclaimed season that landed Julianna Margulies a best actress Emmy, has been described by many as the best drama currently on network TV.
important in the equation of picking shows. We always say that when it’s a jump ball, when it’s 50-50 [between one of our shows and another studio’s show], we will choose our show. If an outside studio has a better show, we’ll pick that one. But clearly the strength of CBS Studios is important to us. WS: There are people who are seeing an inevitable decline in the ratings of linear channels. Do you agree with that? And if that’s the case, how can you avoid that erosion? MOONVES: The number of people who are watching on linear channels is still close to 75 percent of the total viewership. They are still watching shows at the time they are on. But as the world changes, we are prepared for the shifting schedule. Nielsen is becoming more sophisticated in counting time-shifted viewers and audiences on all platforms. We are fully prepared so that as more people watch a show three days or seven days after it airs, or on CBS.com, they will be counted, and that’s fine with us. As I said, the back end becomes as important as, if not more important than, the front end. And as viewers are changing their habits, it is still about having the best content and that’s all we care about. How they watch it, when they watch it, as long as it’s counted, it’s fine with us.
10/14 World Screen 235
WS: Are you and your advertisers satisfied with the improvements being made in audience measurement? MOONVES: There is no question that Nielsen has gotten a lot more sophisticated and a lot more accurate. I think they are working very hard to count as many different venues as they can, and that’s good for us. We’re working hand in hand with Nielsen to get to the right place, and once again, our economic models are working across the board, and we are doing quite well financially. WS: Speaking of economic models, Extant and Under the Dome changed the way shows have traditionally been financed and sold. MOONVES: It started a year ago with Under the Dome. Summer programming on the networks had been mainly relegated to reality shows, some of which have done very well, such as Big Brother and America’s Got Talent. But we found the model to break that pattern, whereby great international sales as well as deals with the Amazons and Netflixes of the world enabled us to put on premium quality drama in the summer and make it economically viable. After Under the Dome worked so well, we added Extant, and next year we are adding a new show called Zoo
WS_1014_ONE-ON-ONE_LESLIE_MOONVES_1005_ONE-ON-ONE 9/26/14 8:48 PM Page 6
The premium pay-TV network Showtime is part of the CBS Corporation portfolio, offering a mix of movies and distinctive original series like the British-American co-production Penny Dreadful, a horror thriller that will return for a second season in 2015. [based on a sci-fi thriller by James Patterson]. It hasn’t been CBS alone, but I think we led the way. We have added what we like to call a brandnew daypart, which is summer premium drama programming, and it now makes great financial sense to continue with that. WS: The NCIS and CSI franchises have been expanded. How do you and your team decide when another show can be added to a franchise? MOONVES: It’s really interesting. Both came about in different ways. NCIS is still the number one drama on television. It became self-evident that it would be a great idea to expand the franchise to another city while the original NCIS is doing phenomenally well. We have Gary Glasberg, who is the executive producer of NCIS, in charge of NCIS: New Orleans and it became a great opportunity. In the case of CSI: Cyber, it’s a very interesting story. It was an idea that was pitched to us about a particular character, and it really fit into the CSI franchise. It wasn’t our intent, per se, to look for another CSI. Instead, this idea came in and it fit perfectly for that franchise. Once again, both CSI and NCIS are selling extraordinarily well internationally and have a great deal of value, even after all these years. These are two different examples of how a fran-
chise can expand, and we look forward to hopefully many more years of both of them. WS: What kind of input does Armando Nuñez, the president and CEO of CBS Global Distribution Group, have when you are considering greenlighting a new series? MOONVES: Armando has been the head of our international group for many years, and a few years ago he added domestic syndication, too. He is a very valuable part of the process. He is aware of what is in development. He looks at pilots and is consulted on everything we do, because the international and domestic marketplace both become big concerns when you are spending the kind of money you need to spend on premium drama and premium programming in general. Armando is an extremely important part of the team. WS: Do you still prefer series with stand-alone episodes? MOONVES: We prefer series with stand-alone episodes, and a lot of these stand-alones have some elements of a continuing story. We think it’s really important that they be stand-alones, and that has been our attitude for many years; it has served us very well. It not only helps us at the network with our ratings, but it
certainly is a better model for international distribution and domestic syndication so viewers aren’t afraid that if they skip an episode [they miss crucial story lines]. Some of our shows, like The Good Wife, have a bit more serialization, but we really want to make it clear that you can tune in to a CBS show at any time and not be lost. WS: That must help Armando, because international broadcasters can schedule shows with standalone episodes more easily than serialized shows. MOONVES: That’s right, and when you compare the syndication value of the non-serialized to serialized shows, the difference is fairly huge. WS: Do you agree that, as some people say, we are in a golden age of television for scripted drama? MOONVES: Absolutely. Drama has never been better. There are many more channels programming drama. You have the premium-cable services—Showtime, HBO and Starz— and then basic-cable networks like FX doing terrific programming; the list goes on and on. In addition, each of the broadcast networks also has a number of dramas that they can point to where the quality is terrific. You can talk about The Good Wife on CBS, or The Blacklist on NBC, or Scandal on ABC. Every network has them.
236 World Screen 10/14
WS: Has the drama genre evolved significantly over the years? MOONVES: Not really. The key is still the quality of the shows. Cable has become a different animal than it used to be in that they are doing a lot more original drama. There are considerably more networks doing drama, but that makes for good competition, and I think the quality is extraordinary. WS: How do you determine which dramas are a fit for CBS and which are more appropriate for Showtime? MOONVES: On Showtime we can get away with a lot more [adult] language, violence and sexual content than we could on CBS. When you are a non-advertising-based premium channel, the standards are very, very different. In addition, Showtime thrives on serialized dramas, like Homeland, Ray Donovan, Masters of Sex and Shameless. These are four shows of great quality, and all deal with more adultthemed drama, violence, language and sex. It becomes fairly selfevident what belongs where; Showtime and CBS are very different organizations. I’m very proud that we have the Showtime shows, the CBS shows, The CW shows and the syndication shows, and that they are all for different audiences and all very good within their respective businesses.
WS_1014_ON_THE RECORD_1005_ONE-ON-ONE 9/29/14 8:28 PM Page 3
ON THE RECORD
ames Murdoch began his career at News Corporation, working for the conglomerate’s Asian satellite television group STAR TV and serving as chairman and CEO from 2000 to 2003. During his tenure he turned the company into Asia’s leading pay-TV channel operator, amassing a portfolio of panregional brands as well as thriving local businesses in high-growth markets like India. He then moved on to BSkyB, one of the world’s leading pay-TV platforms, where he was CEO from 2003 to 2007 and chairman from 2007 to 2012. Murdoch was then named chairman and CEO of News Corp.’s operations in Europe and Asia. In June of 2013, News Corp. split into two companies. News Corp. held on to the publishing interests, including The Wall Street Journal, The Times of London and the New York Post. A new company was formed, 21st Century Fox, of which James Murdoch is co-COO alongside Chase Carey, encompassing the television, cable and satellite businesses, as well as various feature-film and television studios, including Twentieth Century Fox, and their distribution arms.
Today, James Murdoch has direct responsibility for 21st Century Fox’s global television business. This includes the Fox Networks Group and the company’s holdings in BSkyB, Sky Deutschland, Sky Italia and STAR India. He oversees the management of a portfolio of brands that includes FX, National Geographic Channel, Nat Geo WILD, FOX Life, FOX Sports 1, FOX Deportes, and their digital extensions, such as FXNOW and FOX Sports GO. Fox Networks Group also contains FOX Broadcasting Company, FOX International Channels (FIC), MundoFox and Fox Sports Enterprises. Murdoch remains a strong proponent of the pay-TV business. He is quite bullish on the newly enlarged Sky business in Europe—BSkyB recently acquired part of Sky Deutschland and all of Sky Italia—of which 21st Century Fox owns nearly 40 percent. Certainly scale matters in today’s media landscape, but, according to Murdoch, quality content matters more. In fact, as the industry questions the future viability of linear channels, given the increasing number of viewers who prefer to watch their movies and TV shows on-demand, Murdoch approaches the issue from a different viewpoint. He sees the challenge less in terms of linear versus ondemand, and more in terms of how to best fuel both—and that’s with quality movies, sports, entertainment and factual programming that matter to customers, because in the end, it all comes down to them. Murdoch tells World Screen that as long as 21st Century Fox can continue to deliver differentiated high-end product, its future is bright.
JAMES MURDOCH 21ST CENTURY FOX
By Anna Carugati
on the record
WS: What has been fueling the success and expansion of FOX International Channels (FIC) around the world? MURDOCH: Over the last number of years, FIC has been able to expand pretty quickly in a lot of markets where there is also natural pay-television growth, everywhere from Malaysia to Brazil. The group’s growth started with the National Geographic brand and the FOX and FX entertainment channels internationally. Now FIC is getting much more substantially involved in sports. We’ve acquired a number of sports companies. Fox Pan American Sports was a joint venture, of which we acquired the other half [we didn’t already own], as was the case with ESPN STAR Sports, where we acquired ESPN’s half. We have been able to consolidate the sports business into the FIC business, and that has created a new dimension of growth for the company. We are very excited about it. We have always been a company that has a global outlook and we have operated in markets that are very diverse for a very long time. It was a natural outgrowth of our general sensibility to invest in the international channels business and invest in programming that works in these markets at a new scale. FIC has been pioneering in a lot of areas, from global debuts of programming to investment in local programming, particularly in places like Taiwan, where it has resonated and created scale. It’s a diverse portfolio of businesses but it’s something that, alongside the STAR business in India, has created an ex10/14 World Screen 373
WS_1014_ON_THE RECORD_1005_ONE-ON-ONE 9/29/14 10:20 AM Page 4
U.S., if you will, footprint and profile for the company that I think is really unprecedented among our competitors.
sports business and the scriptedentertainment business, then we think there is an enormous amount to play for.
WS: Do growth opportunities internationally outpace growth in the U.S.? MURDOCH: Our affiliate growth is faster internationally than it is in the U.S., but growth in the U.S. is pretty good in our business. It’s driven by investing in new services to create brands and products that really matter to our customers. We see very good prospects in the U.S. business and continue to invest there. For instance, we can always change the mix, as we have with Fox Soccer in the U.S., turning it into FXX in the last year. That has added a new dimension to the company and a real scale in the cable business. We see a lot of growth in global pay-television consumption with the proliferation of platforms and new innovations for customers. It is a very competitive market and it is supercompetitive creatively. But if you make things that really stand out for customers and that are differentiated and special, like the
WS: Given the skyrocketing cost of sports rights, how do you decide which are the must-have sports championships or events? MURDOCH: We’ve been deeply involved in sports in the U.S. through our broadcast business and through our regional sports networks, and around the world, traditionally through joint ventures, like ESPN STAR Sports and Fox Pan American Sports, which we have now acquired, and through the Sky businesses in Italy, the U.K. and now Germany as well. We’re a big believer in programming that is fundamentally high quality, hugely engaging and differentiated. When it’s live—as it is in sports—that adds something as well. We have been able to make sports work and they are very profitable businesses. But you have to choose, and there is nothing that is really must-have at any price. You try to make agreements and find the products and partners that you can work with to create a lot of
FXX, one of 21st Century Fox’s U.S. cable networks, recently snapped up the syndication rights to the entire library of The Simpsons, slating 552 episodes over a record 12-day marathon. value. We are very pleased with our partnerships with various sports bodies and teams around the world. There are some things that we pass on if we don’t think the economics can work. For example, the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team in the L.A. market was something that we stepped away from at the same time we were acquiring the YES Network last year in New York. We felt that was a better fit
National Geographic Channels International partnered with its sister U.S. network and FOX this year for the global event series Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, hosted by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. 374 World Screen 10/14
for us and a partnership that would create more value for both sides. It’s a question of making choices. Even though we’re a significant investor in the cricket business in India—we broadcast BCCI cricket as well as numerous cricket boards from around the world—we are also creating with partners a new Indian sports league around the traditional Indian sport of kabaddi, which we think will be a very attractive proposition. The league is just in the middle of the first season now and the numbers are really encouraging. You can find opportunities in sports in surprising places. As long as you are committed to bringing outstanding production quality and a real commitment to offer a sport to customers in the best way you can, which merits the quality of the sport being played on the field, then sports can be a great business. Really unique, differentiated programming is more valuable than ever. It gives us the best position in the marketplace as it evolves. WS: As viewers increasingly watch films and TV programs on demand, how do you keep linear channels relevant? MURDOCH: We look at the channel business generally as an engine for creating content and programming. Up until now, the best way to get a lot of choice and quality in front of customers had been to bundle linear channels together, because that’s the way the tech-
WS_1014_ON_THE RECORD_1005_ONE-ON-ONE 9/26/14 8:43 PM Page 5
nies like Amazon, Netflix or Hulu Plus, who we are very involved with; or the Sky Go businesses around Europe, which are probably the most developed TV Everywhere and multiscreen pay-television experiences in the world, and which customers love. So, there is no question that more and more a large percentage of viewing will be on streaming platforms. We think that is pretty exciting. In terms of the overall filmedentertainment business, clearly we are seeing a lot of experimentation with windowing and windows starting to compress because customers would rather have more control. In many cases they will pay a premium for those compressed windows. We think that is an interesting opportunity. The fundamental root of the business is that television and film programming is more popular than ever. We are able to work with storytellers who are bringing incredible things to the screen, big and small. That is something we have a great belief in. If we work with outstanding individuals and create an environment that allows them to make their best work and enables them to take risks, then we think the platforms and the business then follow from the quality of the programming. That is why we are so committed to investing so much upstream.
nology works. Increasingly, customers are enjoying streaming programming and doing more ondemand viewing, and for us that’s really not that different; it’s actually a really great product to make. We are pushing ahead very hard on our over-the-top services, with our investment in Hulu, [and] also our authenticated nonlinear services. For example, the FXNOW app, an authenticated app in the U.S., is a tremendous product for the FX brand, which stands for unique quality television programming. The FXNOW app offers ondemand viewing of series, full series stacks in many cases. It’s a great product, which really resonates with customers. We think that the channel business, generally speaking, will move increasingly to streaming services, and that’s why it’s so important for us to have a number of brands that really stand for something and are destinations where people in an on-demand environment can find programming they love. There is no question that the live viewing of sports is very unique and is something that drives a lot of value for some of these brands. But it’s not a defensive game, it’s more about how you can make products for customers that really work, that deliver the programming that they are going to love, in the easiest way possible. Increasingly, that’s streaming services and that’s why we are very involved in that marketplace. WS: The FXNOW app is amazing. You have one addicted customer to The Strain! MURDOCH: Isn’t The Strain amazing? It’s really special. And it’s exciting for FX to be able to attract a storyteller like Guillermo del Toro to create something that is so different and so special. It’s something we are really proud of. WS: How do you see consumption of content evolving in the next two to five years? MURDOCH: Video content and storytelling are so powerful for customers, and today we see so many ways to consume them thanks to the mobility of the programming and the number of
Cumbia Ninja is among the local productions airing on the FOX channel in Latin America. screens available to customers. For example, look at the smartphone proliferation in India really driving new distribution platforms for our video programming. Everywhere around the world you are seeing this kind of flexibility and these new products emerge. There is no question that television and film consumption, at least in the home or around individuals, is moving more and more to a streaming environment as broadband networks get better and connectivity
becomes more ubiquitous. That creates some challenges from a business perspective, but most of all it creates real opportunities to innovate in terms of how we tell our stories, how we monetize them, how we sell advertising, how we bring different brands to customers in new ways, how we make the experience of accessing the programming really great, by working with third-party distributors, like traditional MVPDs that are launching new services or compa-
10/14 World Screen 375
WS: As distribution platforms consolidate—Comcast and Time Warner Cable, Liberty Global and Virgin Media—what are the repercussions for channel groups and broadcasters? Will you still be able to get fair value for your channels? MURDOCH: I think it’s a question of what the programming is. For our content, when we look at the evolution of the business in the U.S. over the last two years, we have taken a number of more niche channels and reimagined them as massmarket and meaningful entertainment brands, be it the Speed network becoming FOX Sports 1, or Fox Soccer Channel becoming FXX and really complementing the FX suite of channels. We have invested in programming against those channels and that puts us in a very good
WS_1014_ON_THE RECORD_1005_ONE-ON-ONE 9/26/14 8:43 PM Page 6
Star Plus is regularly India’s top general-entertainment Hindi-language channel thanks to shows like Satyamev Jayate, created by Bollywood star Aamir Khan. position to be able to continue to get a fair price. The question is, Can we keep the quality of what we do at a high enough level, and can it matter to customers? If it can, then we are still in a very good place. I do think that as you have larger channel groups investing more in programming, and you have larger distribution platforms, including some of our own—the Sky services coming together as one platform as we announced a little while ago—the bigger-scale players probably do succeed. The middle ground—channels that are maybe not as differentiated as they could be, don’t have really distinctive brands that really matter to customers, or are underinvesting for customers on the screen—will be a problem in this new environment. WS: Can consolidation in distribution have an impact on studios? Do the content producers also need to get bigger in order to offset the size of the distribution businesses? MURDOCH: We look at the production business and the channels business as two sides of the same coin; we see them as very much going together. There is already an enormous amount of competition to be as creatively excellent as you can be. That has always been the case, but I think it’s going to be more acute now than ever. I’m not sure it’s a question of size. It’s not a question of volume. It’s a question
of quality and making sure that the product is really excellent. WS: What was the strategy behind the sale of Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia to BSkyB? MURDOCH: We’ve always been very clear that we think the Sky businesses can be very strong together. We tried to acquire the balance of BSkyB a couple years ago and the recent deal was driven by the same rationale. We are very excited about the enlarged and combined Sky. It’s going be a very competitive business and a rapid innovator as each of the Skys has been. We remain an almost 40-percent shareholder in the business and we’re very committed to seeing it grow. This is structurally the right way to reorganize these businesses, to create the most efficient balance sheet, to pull them together in a way that is effective and create a new company that is really exciting. The Sky business in the U.K. is a multiservice business with a lot of scale in its home market. The Sky Deutschland business, which we created from scratch almost seven years ago, in the last four years has become a rapidly growing 21st-century digital television business. Sky Italia has been a really consistent performer, creatively and financially, even in a marketplace like Italy, which has obviously had its struggles over the last few years. We’re very excited
about them coming together and think there is significant potential to unlock. It’s a way to reorganize the businesses to create a larger-scale player with new headroom for growth in underpenetrated markets. Customers around the world really respond to quality. They respond to services that are tailored to them and services that innovate for them. The Sky [platforms] represent great value for customers. WS: Have you seen the same dynamics at work in the pay-TV business in the Indian market? How has STAR India been performing? MURDOCH: The business in India is really wonderful. We’ve definitely seen the same dynamic in terms of demand for choice and an exciting and thriving cable and satellite paytelevision business over the last 15 years. When I was in Asia running STAR TV, I remember we were at 30 million cable and satellite households in India, and we were investing heavily in Hindi programming. Today it’s around 150 million households and a rapidly growing digital base with the introduction of direct-to-home satellite services. We see an enormous amount of growth in the overall distribution and penetration of pay television, and, within that universe, the penetration of digital services that are very exciting for customers. Our STAR business has had a very good
376 World Screen 10/14
run and we feel very confident about the future. We’ve produced a ton of programming. We own most of the IP associated with it, so we are able to distribute on multiple platforms. We’re seeing a lot of innovation in the Indian marketplace today, creatively and technologically, in terms of how people consume television. On the distribution side, the direct-to-home satellite business has really transformed the marketplace with the penetration of digital. Tata Sky, of which we own some 30 percent and which we started a number of years ago with our partners, has been the fastest-growing digital television platform in the market for some years now, and it’s continuing to grow. We see a very positive outlook for the Indian television business. We’re very committed to it and are confident about the future. WS: Are there certain business sectors or geographic regions where you are seeing particular potential for growth? MURDOCH: At 21st Century Fox we’re very focused on investment in programming and copyright, and on differentiated programming: sports, scripted entertainment and strongly branded factual entertainment, like National Geographic Channel. We are investing a lot in expanding the sports businesses. In addition to the acquisitions I’ve already mentioned, we’ve invested in EMM [Eredivisie Media & Marketing], our Dutch sports venture. We see the channels and content business growing well and we are also very confident about the film business. We think there is a lot of growth potential in the filmed-entertainment business because there is a lot of innovation in terms of how people are consuming that product. We’re very excited about our slate and the creators and storytellers that we’re working with currently and will be working with over the next couple of years; it looks really promising. Overall, as long as we continue to invest on screen for customers and we get that right, we’re in a good position to build upon the assets that we have. So, over the next three to five years, we have a very clear plan and we are excited about it.
WS_1014_INCONVERSATION_1005_ONE-ON-ONE 9/26/14 8:44 PM Page 3
IN CONVERSATION
stablished by a Royal Charter in 1922, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) declared from the start that its mission was: “to enrich people’s lives with programs and services that inform, educate and entertain.” Through the decades, just as British society was rocked by major cultural revolutions, the U.K. broadcast landscape experienced numerous seismic shifts due to advances in technology. The BBC has worked to adapt to those changes and to competition from commercial rivals and pay-TV platforms. It added channels to its flagship BBC One, each serving different audience segments, and it now operates ten national TV channels. The catch-up service BBC iPlayer has been a massive hit. Over the years, the BBC has offered a wide variety of shows that have resonated strongly with viewers, from splendid Sir David Attenborough documentaries including Planet Earth to respected currentaffairs programs like Panorama; from high-end period dramas like Pride and Prejudice to the current award-winning Sherlock; from the sci-fi megahit Doctor Who to major entertainment formats like Strictly Come Dancing. Remaining dedicated to high-end public-service programming in an increasingly fragmented and competitive television environment has created several challenges for the BBC. Tony Hall, its director-general, is determined to maintain the BBC’s relevance, its excellence and the loyalty of its viewers. He has had an inside view of the strength of the public broadcaster. He worked for 28 years in various news positions and eventually became chief
executive of BBC News in 2001. He later left the BBC and returned as director-general in 2012. Since it first started broadcasting, the BBC has been financed by a license fee levied on British households. In 2013 that brought in £3.7 billion ($6 billion). No increases are foreseen for another three years. The British government has frozen the license fee at its 2010 level until March 2017. The license fee is used to program and operate ten national TV channels, ten national radio stations, BBC Online, BBC World Service and more. The broadcaster also receives revenues from its commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, whose businesses include program sales, licensing and merchandising and operating international channels. In 2013, BBC Worldwide returned to the BBC some £174 million ($284 million), which was pumped right back into programming. The BBC Trust, the governing body of the BBC (separate from the Executive Board, which is headed by Tony Hall) ensures that the broadcaster delivers on its mission and that license-fee payers are getting their money’s worth. The Trust recently set strategic objectives for the BBC and challenged it to make the most creative and distinctive output; innovate online to create a more personal BBC; serve all audiences; and improve value for money through a simpler, more efficient and more open BBC. Hall offers World Screen his response to these challenges and explains his vision for allowing BBC in-house producers to make shows for competing channels, moving BBC Three online, expanding the iPlayer and continuing to make quality programs.
TONY HALL BBC
By Anna Carugati
10/14 World Screen 425
WS_1014_INCONVERSATION_1005_ONE-ON-ONE 9/26/14 8:45 PM Page 4
The next step is to work with our many partners to develop our plans. These are far from final proposals. It’s clear that in some areas we need to put in safeguards, for example to protect smaller producers. But we want to be in a position to put the plans to the BBC Trust to form part of their own review of supply this autumn. And then it will take a new Charter to put them into effect.
Sherlock, one of many jewels in the BBC’s drama crown, was a big winner at this year’s Primetime Emmys in the miniseries category. WS: Rules governing the BBC require that at least 25 percent of its programs come from independent producers and that a minimum of 50 percent come from in-house producers. In a recent speech, you said you want to open up the BBC to further competition and allow the BBC’s in-house producers to make shows for other channels in the U.K. HALL: The BBC is one of the world’s great program-makers. It is also one of the biggest commissioners of programs from the U.K.’s amazingly successful independent production sector. The two together have helped make this country’s creative economy envied across the world. Some have called for the BBC to abandon in-house production and become purely a “publisherbroadcaster.” I’m convinced this would be the wrong route for us. Maintaining an in-house production arm is vital to our future, not only because of the benefits it brings back to the BBC through intellectual property and rights but because of the great programs it continues to make. Some of our biggest hits are made by our inhouse production teams, and there is no case for them to suddenly stop making programs. But what I do want is a level playing field between BBC producers and independent ones. I want proper competition in program supply, overturning the current system that no longer works as it should. Under
our plans, independent producers will be able to compete to make programs for BBC Television, without caps and quotas, but in exchange the BBC should be able to make programs for other broadcasters, both in the U.K. and abroad. Every day, viewers, listeners and users in the U.K. have the opportunity to choose freely from hundreds of television channels, hundreds of radio stations and millions of websites. The fact that they choose the BBC 140 million times a day is a tribute to our quality, not a sign of a
lack of competition. So I want to extend that competition to the way we make programs. Ultimately this plan should drive up the quality available to all viewers. For the independent sector there is the attraction that the current 50-percent guarantee for BBC in-house production would be removed, and for in-house there is the knowledge that BBC Production would be able to compete freely around the world and take their ideas that weren’t made by the BBC to other broadcasters.
WS: Tell us about transforming the iPlayer from a catch-up service to the BBC’s primary digital entertainment destination and complementary fifth channel. And why have you decided to move BBC Three to the iPlayer as an online channel only? HALL: The iPlayer service is the best in the world—but we want to make it even better. We want to transform it from being catch-up TV to online TV. As BBC iPlayer adapts, it will become more interactive and contain more content that has been specially commissioned exclusively for viewers on iPlayer. This is a journey all broadcasters are on, but I want the BBC to be at the forefront of it. On BBC Three, it wasn’t an easy decision to move the service online, but I believe it was the right
BBC One continues to invest in top-end drama, recently premiering the period piece Our Zoo, which BBC Worldwide is showcasing at MIPCOM. 426 World Screen 10/14
WS_1014_INCONVERSATION_1005_ONE-ON-ONE 9/26/14 8:45 PM Page 5
More than 50 years since its launch, Doctor Who is still one of the BBC’s biggest brands domestically and across the globe, with the show doing particularly well for BBC America. thing to do. The 2010 license-fee settlement means that we have to make some tough choices. We have had to look for savings wherever we could. My main concern was that any choices we made shouldn’t compromise the quality of our programs. Looking around the organization it was clear that we had taken incremental change as far as we could. Any further cuts would have led to a dangerous salami-slicing of our services and visible impacts on quality. So we needed to make a big decision. The move online meant that £30 million ($48 million) will be freed up for us to invest in drama, which is a vitally important genre to us. Subject to the BBC Trust’s approval we also want to extend children’s programs by an hour a night and provide a BBC One +1 [time-shifted] channel. For BBC Three there is a tremendous opportunity to create a new space for young people that will be exciting and distinctive. It will give us a chance to look at new forms, formats, different durations and more individualized and interactive content. It’s a great opportunity to bring young audiences more exciting programming.
WS: With all the success of the iPlayer, are you concerned about the future relevance and viability of linear channels? HALL: Linear channels still have a long life ahead of them. For all the success of catch-up services, all the facts show that people still enjoy watching TV live and together. TV channels are, in a way, social media in the true sense of the term. When England played Italy in the World Cup, BBC One had an audience of more than 15 million at nearly midnight. This August more than 2 million Scots (out of a population of 5.3 million) watched the opening ceremony of the Common wealth Games in Glasgow. It was the third-best-performing program in Scotland since 2001—showing that the power of television to bring people together around big national events is undiminished. In fact, we are seeing a new trend starting—perhaps unexpectedly. There are more big events than a few years ago, and those big events are getting bigger. So in the future, we will need to find the right blend of engaging, well-scheduled linear channels and distinctive on-demand content, so that everyone feels they are getting something from the BBC.
WS: What are the types of shows the BBC needs to continue to offer in order to meet its public-service obligations and at the same time draw large audiences to its linear channels? HALL: It’s important to me that our program-makers feel they can be free to take risks and be creative. We’ve seen Sherlock be hugely successful at the Emmys, and dramas like Happy Valley and Line of Duty play out brilliantly with audiences because of their creativity and originality. Building on the success of series like this, I want to allow every BBC program-maker to feel they have a license to be bold and not simply rely on derivative structures or plot lines. We need to create an environment where program-makers feel they can do their best work, take proper risks and create programs that stand out from the crowd. One of the things we are really well placed to do is give free rein to great writers, actors and comedians. Somebody like Steven Moffat can work with the BBC to create two fantastic shows in Doctor Who and Sherlock, both of which are hugely popular with audiences, but which have the ability to evolve at their own
10/14 World Screen 427
pace in a way that just wouldn’t happen at a commercial broadcaster. British television drama is particularly good at this—we let writers shape their stories in their way, no matter what that means for the length of each episode or the number of episodes. Other, more formulaic markets don’t allow for that kind of creative freedom. As for new programs, we have a second series of The Fall starring Gillian Anderson and a gripping new drama called The Missing, as well as a new factual series: A Black History of Britain with David Olusoga on BBC Two. I’m also really looking forward to Christmas on BBC One, as for me it reflects so many of the channel’s strengths: variety, range, quality and entertainment; really special programming that brings families together every year. WS: The iPlayer is just one area where the BBC is looking to innovate. In what other areas are you looking for innovation? HALL: Internally one of the most interesting things we’re working on is a new digital innovation unit, called the Guerrilla Group, based at BBC Birmingham. They will help
WS_1014_INCONVERSATION_1005_ONE-ON-ONE 9/26/14 8:45 PM Page 6
The BBC is using all of its platforms to mark the centenary of World War I this year, with a lineup that includes the docudrama Our World War, broadcast on BBC Three. us explore the next generation of content and services by helping find new and creative ways to tell our stories. They will have a particular focus on working with young and diverse audiences. As far as our audience proposition goes, in the tradition of BBC iPlayer, we’ve had some real successes recently. We’re seeing audiences increasingly access our content through their phones and tablets, so we’ve launched news, sport and weather and a number of children’s apps alongside our iPlayer and iPlayer radio apps. The BBC Weather app was the fastestgrowing app we’ve ever had, with 8 million downloads since it launched just over a year ago. BBC Playlister allows you to tag and save the music you hear on the BBC and play it again in full using our digital music partners— helping people discover and enjoy more music. Looking ahead, we’re working on plans for greater personalization of our services, such as recommending TV or radio programs that are more relevant for you or
services linking to your location. There are a lot of really interesting new ideas we’re working on.
to invest in new content, particularly in areas people really value, such as new British drama.
performance allows us to understand whether we’re doing enough to provide fresh and new content.
WS: In 2016/2017 there will be 26 percent less funding available for public service in the U.K., and at the same time, competition in the market is increasing. What plans does the BBC have for savings while still investing not only in programming but also in new projects? HALL: There is no doubt the licensefee settlement of 2010 has left us with hard decisions to make. We’re on track with our savings plans, but there haven’t always been easy choices. For example, we were clear that the BBC Three move wouldn’t have happened at the time it did if we didn’t have financial pressures to juggle. We’ve taken new daytime originations off BBC Two, and we’ve made adjustments to our radio schedules. We’re also reducing our property portfolio and making big savings in our contracts with third parties. I want to make sure that we have enough money
WS: The BBC Trust has said that there aren’t enough creative risks being taken at the BBC. In what ways are you investing in new talent and programming development? HALL: I feel passionately about bringing new talent to the BBC. We’ve increased the number of young people coming into the BBC significantly by launching new apprentice schemes. When I rejoined the BBC we only had 37 apprentices; by the end of this year we will have 170— about 1 percent of our publicservice workforce. I see these as the stars and commissioners of the future, and we will do all we can to keep and encourage them. On screen you’ll notice that we are commissioning more content exclusively on BBC iPlayer, which allows us to work with new and emerging talent in exciting ways that are not possible on a linear channel. We’re also making sure that the data we track about our
WS: What opportunities for growth do you see in BBC Worldwide? How important are international businesses and markets to the BBC? HALL: Last year BBC Worldwide returned over £170 million ($277 million) to the BBC. This was money that helped us put more outstanding programs on air and develop programs we wouldn’t have had the chance to otherwise. This was particularly true in highend drama and factual, with titles including Top of the Lake, Sherlock and our natural-history landmark series Hidden Kingdoms. This year, BBC Worldwide’s annual Showcase event attracted over 700 attendees and launched over 2,800 hours of TV programs, whilst our fourth annual China Showcase sold 300 hours of programs. In North America, BBC America delivered its best year yet in ratings, which climbed by 13.5 percent, delivering eight consecutive years of growth.
428 World Screen 10/14
WS_1014_EXEC BRIEFING_WORNER_1005_ONE-ON-ONE 9/26/14 8:40 PM Page 3
EXECUTIVE BRIEFING
nyone jittery about the future of broadcast networks—given the fragmentation of the audience, viewers creating their own on-demand schedules and sluggish advertising markets—need only look to Seven Network in Australia for a very large dose of good news. This year Seven is celebrating its eighth consecutive year as the country’s most-watched network. It also collected more advertising revenue than its competitors, with a share above 40 percent.
A driving force behind Seven’s many successes is Tim Worner, CEO of the broadcaster’s parent company, Seven West Media. He has been at Seven for nearly two decades, during which time he has seen the media landscape change significantly. He is well aware of, but undaunted by, the challenges facing the broadcast business. His can-do attitude, fueled in equal parts by reliance on ratings, gut instinct, and a firm belief in the power of ideas, has infused the company’s culture and driven many of the network’s successes. Seven is the home of big entertainment shows like The X Factor and My Kitchen Rules, dramas like Winners & Losers and the long-running Home and Away, the best American and British series, news and major sporting events. Seven has two sister digital services: a general-entertainment channel, 7TWO, and the male-skewing 7mate. The catch-up service PLUS7 rounds out Seven’s offerings. Worner began his career as a journalist and joined Seven in 1995. He held positions as head of program development, head of sports and head of infotainment before being promoted to director of programming and production in 2002. He was appointed CEO of Seven Network Television in 2011 and in July 2013 was named CEO of Seven West Media. Today, Worner oversees not only the group’s TV businesses, but also its newspaper, magazine, online and radio assets, and its investments in other media concerns, such as a 33.3-percent stake in Sky News. Worner doesn’t take Seven’s market leadership lightly. He knows firsthand how difficult it is to reach that position. He is also well aware of the tough but necessary balancing act required to contain costs while preserving quality programming. In an effort to boost the company’s content-creation capacity, and consequent revenues, Seven has set up production companies in the U.S. and the U.K. He is also passionate about sports, not only as a fan of football and thoroughbred horse racing, but also because he considers live sports to be a prime driver of broadcast TV, as they reliably draw large numbers of viewers year after year. Worner talks to World Screen about Seven’s success and his plans for its future.
TIM WORNER
SEVEN WEST MEDIA
By Anna Carugati
10/14 World Screen 493
WS_1014_EXEC BRIEFING_WORNER_1005_ONE-ON-ONE 9/26/14 8:40 PM Page 4
Inspired by the format success of some of its original reality and lifestyle series, among them House Rules, Seven West has stepped up its international content-creation capabilities with production joint ventures in the U.S. and the U.K. WS: As your responsibilities at Seven have increased, from head of production to head of the network and now to CEO of Seven West Media, is the creation of content still a major concern for you? WORNER: My role may have changed a bit and now involves
other businesses as well as the television business, but content is absolutely at the core of our company and one of our stated aims has actually been to expand the amount of content we originate and create. In the last 12 months, we have established the produc-
tion joint ventures 7Wonder and 7Beyond in the U.K. and the U.S., respectively. We have had a lot of success exporting the formats for My Kitchen Rules and House Rules to other territories, and we’d really like to build on that going forward.
7 News, which produces bulletins from key Australian cities every night, including Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, is one of the country’s longest-running national news services. 494 World Screen 10/14
WS: Is content a driving force of the company? How so? WORNER: Content is the driving force of the company; we are now delivering it across multiple platforms, and we only see this growing in the future. Our company’s most precious assets are people and ideas. When you get the right people and the right ideas together, you can really take great strides in a big hurry. WS: Seven has had to make cuts in its budget. How have you contained costs and at the same time continued to produce high-quality programming? WORNER: All media businesses have had to deal with structural change, and for us sometimes that has meant having to walk away from content that under normal circumstances we would have preferred to retain. That is never an easy walk to take, but if we believe something just does not represent value any longer, we will do it. In addition, the search for operating efficiencies never ends. We are always challenging ourselves to produce our content more effectively.
WS_1014_EXEC BRIEFING_WORNER_1005_ONE-ON-ONE 9/26/14 8:40 PM Page 5
WS: What have been some of the entertainment, news and sports programming strengths of Seven that have allowed it to maintain its ratings leadership? WORNER: There are three key planks to our strategy: live sports, live and local news and public affairs, and Australian programs. This is not to say that foreign content does not have a place on Australian schedules—far from it. But we tend to concentrate on those three areas.
studios, and we certainly have a really healthy respect for all of them. There is still a very real role for foreign content in Australia, but there is no question our audience is getting access to a lot of this content illegally prior to us being able to monetize it. That is going to be a conundrum these studios and distribution houses are going to have to deal with. It is simply unreasonable to expect that we will continue to allow this to happen without there being a very real impact on pricing. We are already seeing that, and if nothing is done to prevent the illegal access to content, I think we will very quickly see it become a lot more pronounced.
WS: Tell us about Seven’s relationship with the Hollywood studios. Even with Seven’s many successful homegrown shows, what role do imported shows have on Seven, 7TWO and 7mate? WORNER: I think we’ve kept a strong relationship with all the
WS: How are formats faring on Seven and in Australia in general? WORNER: The big, multiple-night reality franchises are still very strong. Along with live sports, they are the most powerful programming options by some distance. We have had a great deal of suc-
We have to keep finding smarter ways to produce. That in itself can be a very creative process. Again, that is a process that is powered by ideas.
cess with My Kitchen Rules, which in its own way approximates live sports. In its fifth season it still held on to the title of the number one show in the country. When you consider that you are running it for three and four nights a week for 13 weeks, it has the potential to be a game-changer. House Rules built its year-on-year audience 20 percent in its second season as well. These have become exceptionally popular with our sales teams because it is so easy to integrate an advertiser’s message into the content. WS: What is the state of the Australian advertising market in 2014? What is Seven’s share of the advertising pie? WORNER: We are forecasting low single-digit growth in the ad market for the coming year, and this follows a couple of consecutive years of subdued conditions. It’s tough, but we are holding onto our share, which has been consistently above 40 percent.
WS: Are you working to diversify the company’s revenues away from advertising? WORNER: We have had to put a lot of work into becoming less reliant on advertising and cover-price [newsstand] revenue in our publishing businesses. We look at ourselves now as an audience business with content at its core. We are originating and creating more content all the time, and we have had considerable success selling that content into other territories and selling that content on demand. Beyond that, we are looking at what can be done with the very strong brands we have created in terms of social media, live events, merchandising and other areas. The one thing we cannot do is stand still, because if we do we will get run over. WS: Seven has won the rights to the Olympic Games through 2020. Why was this an important deal to make? WORNER: I think there is going to be something of a revolution
Seven Network has made room for a number of international formats on its grid, including The X Factor, which last year won the Logie Award for outstanding light-entertainment program. 10/14 World Screen 495
WS_1014_EXEC BRIEFING_WORNER_1005_ONE-ON-ONE 9/26/14 8:40 PM Page 6
In addition to acquiring series from the U.S. and the U.K., Seven Network has been investing in its own Australian scripted fare, such as the period piece A Place to Call Home, which was the top-rated local drama of 2013. in the way these big multi-sport events are going to be delivered to viewers, and the Olympic Games is going to be the very best example of it. These events, where there is so much action occurring simultaneously, really lend themselves to being delivered over multiple platforms. In addition, these big, live tentpoles are second to none as programming launch platforms. We are still monetizing programs we launched out of the Sydney Olympics coverage in 2000. I think we also need to consider that in an environment where the audience is fragmenting, events like the Olympic Games can only become more valuable as pro gramming propositions. WS: Tell us about Hybrid broadcast broadband TV (HbbTV). Why is this an important development for Seven, and how will it allow you to better serve and connect with your viewers?
WORNER: HbbTV allows for a seamless transition from spectrumdelivered content (normal free-toair TV) to broadband-delivered content. The amount of spectrum-delivered content is constrained by how much spectrum we can use. The amount of broadband-delivered content is practically not constrained at all. That means we can deliver extra content that may not necessarily appeal to a mass market, and we have never been able to do that before. Previously, when we bought the rights to a premium sporting event, sometimes we had to leave some of that precious content on the cutting-room floor because we were constrained in the amount of content we could deliver. Those days are over. Through the use of HbbTV we can now deliver all of the content from a sporting event that may be considered slightly less mainstream in accordance with viewers’ spe-
cific interests. This allows us to monetize those assets and satisfy the more personalized tastes of our viewing audience, all from the comfort of their living rooms, delivered to the biggest screen in the house. WS: Are there areas where the television, magazine and print businesses at Seven West Media can work together? WORNER: We have had enormous success integrating our magazine titles into television offerings. Better Homes and Gardens has the highest readership of any consumer magazine in Australia. It’s no coincidence that the brand also fills a 90-minute prime-time slot every week on our television network and the show is still rating after being on air for more than 20 years. Our title Home Beautiful was heavily integrated into our reality franchise House Rules and the circulation uplift was outstanding, as was the integration of our adver-
496 World Screen 10/14
tising partner’s messages across the magazine, the TV series, Yahoo!7 (the online joint venture with Yahoo!) and the app. When we develop new series now, we are always looking at how we can leverage them across all of our assets. WS: As CEO of Seven West Media, what have you learned from the television business that you can apply to newspapers and magazines? WORNER: It doesn’t matter whether it’s television, newspapers or magazines, it still comes down to a contest of ideas. Whoever identifies them, originates and develops them and executes and markets them the best will win. I guess it is another way of saying that content is king. That has been so clear to us in television for so long, and it is absolutely no different in magazines, in newspapers or indeed online. Some things never change.
WS_1014_AD-INDEX_WS OTT 3 9/29/14 11:50 AM Page 8
ADVERTISERS’ INDEX
41 Entertainment 238, 239 4K Media 305 9 Story Entertainment 248, 249 A&E 589, 591, 593 A+E Networks 403, 459, 497, 500 ABC Commercial 533 ABS-CBN Corporation 551 ABTA 661 ACTF 285, 287, 289, 291 AFL Productions 665 all3media international 387, 485 AMC Networks International 63 American Cinema International 73, 75 Animasia Studio 349, 351 Animation from Spain 355 Applicaster 99, 623 APT Worldwide 518 Argentina Audiovisual 163 Armoza Formats 432, 433, 447, 449, 451 ARTE 511 Artear 221 Artist View Entertainment 34, 35 Asia Television Forum 489, 563 Astro 147, 553 Atresmedia 197 ATV 16, 17 Audiovisual from Spain 145, 622 AXN 547 Azteca 79, 175 Band Content Distribution 84, 85 Banijay International 463 BBC Worldwide 108, 109, 438, 439 BBC Worldwide Latin America & US Hispanic 605 Bejuba! Entertainment 327 Beyond Distribution 77 BlueBox Entertainment 481 BoPaul Media Worldwide 171 Breakthrough Entertainment 250, 251 Brightcove 166, 167 CAKE 309 Calinos Entertainment 14, 15 Canada Media Fund 137 Canal 13 Sudmedia 613 Canal Futura 161 Canamedia 523 Caracol TV Internacional 107, 566 CBS Studios International 201, 211 CDC United Network 655, 657 Cennarium 421 Cisneros Media Distribution 219 CJ E&M Corporation 131, 475, 555 Construir TV 627 Content Television 411 Cyber Group Studios 240, 241, 372 Daewon Media 325 Daro Film Distribution 89 DHX Media 256, 257 dick clark productions International 51 DISCOP 579 Disney Media Distribution 599, 611 Distribution360 133 Dori Media Group 228, 581 DreamWorks Animation 246, 247 DRG 395, 397 E! Networks Latin America 645 Eccho Rights 384, 385, 440, 441 Electus International 95 Entertainment One Television International 1, 413 eOne Family 252, 253 Escapade Media 157 Fighting Spirit Media Group 205 FILM.UA Distribution 139 Filma 275 Filmax International 225 Foothill Entertainment 329 Forum Des Images 423 FOX International Channels Content Sales 39, 41, 43, 45, 203, 528, 564, 582, 607 Fred Media 313 FremantleMedia 429, 442, 492 FremantleMedia International 177, 180, 377, 386, 529, 532, 565, 567 FremantleMedia Latin America 587 Gaumont Animation 237, 259 Gaumont International Television 47, 49, 207 Genius Brands International 271 Global Agency 380, 381, 382, 383, 430, 431, 434, 435, 436, 437 Global Screen 189, 217 Globosat 155 GMA Worldwide 151 GO-N Productions 299 GRB Entertainment 113, 115, 117, 119 H2 595 Hasbro Studios 265 HBO Asia 541 HBO Latin America 603 HIT Entertainment 261, 371 IMPS 273 IM Global 143 Imagina International Sales 193, 648 Imira Entertainment 617
Incendo 83 International Academy of TV Arts & Sciences 365, 704 ITV-Inter Medya 12, 13 ITV Studios Global Entertainment 6, 7, 27, 29, 31, 33, 258, 378, 379, 453, 455, 501 Kanal D 10, 11 Keshet International 467 Lifetime 597 Lightning Entertainment 24, 25 Lionsgate 37 m4e/ Telescreen 301 Mannam Media 631 MarVista Entertainment 4, 5, 227, 242, 243 Mattel 275 MDeC 311 Media Development Authority of Singapore 530, 531 MediaCorp 123 Mediatoon Distribution 284, 286, 288, 290 Miramax 23 Mondo TV S.p.A. 331, 362 Multicom Entertainment Group 709 Muse Distribution International 417 NATPE 487, 660 NBCUniversal TV Distribution 20, 21 NBCUniversal Asia 539 Nerd Corps Entertainment 267 Netflix 53 New Dominion Pictures 517 NHK Enterprises 513 NHNZ 69, 71 Nippon Television Network 121, 491 Nottingham Forest 315 O3 Productions 173, 575 Off the Fence 505 ole 125 ORF-Enterprise 153 Passion Distribution 461, 507 Peace Point Rights 141 Penthouse Entertainment 231 PGS Entertainment 244, 245 Planeta Junior 321 Pol-ka Producciones 637 Power 19 Priority Public Relations 165 ProSiebenSat.1 TV 53 Rainbow 275 RCN Television 359, 619 Realscreen 527 Record TV Network 584, 585 Red Arrow International 87, 409, 457 Rewind Networks 561 Rio Content Market 643 Rive Gauche Television 103 RTL CBS Entertainment 537 Russia Television and Radio/Sovtelexport 181, 399 Saban Brands 2, 3, 254, 255 Scholastic Media 293, 295, 297 Scott Free 53 Scripps Networks International 67, 535 SDI Media Group 703 Secuoya Content Distribution 473 Sesame Workshop 317 Shaftesbury 81 Shine International 389, 391, 393, 443, 445 Smilehood Media 361, 635 Smithsonian Channel 91 SND M6 Groupe 135 Sony Pictures Television 53 Space 651 SPI International 178, 179, 269, 577 Splash Entertainment 303 Starz Worldwide Distribution 65 StoryBox Entertainment 159 Studio 100 Media 307 Studio Glam 469, 471 Sullivan Entertainment 8, 9 SundanceTV 101 Talpa Distribution 477 Tandem 53, 104, 213 TCB Media Rights 498, 499 Technicolor Animation 323 Telefe 629 Telefilms 601 Telemundo Internacional 424 Televisa Internacional 191, 479, 543, 580, 664 Televisa Networks 621 Terranoa 524 TM International 195, 215, 503 Tricon Films & Television 519 TV5MONDE 185, 187, 557, 659 TVE 232, 625 TVN 641 Twentieth Century Fox TV Distribution 199, 209 Universal Cinergia Dubbing 639 Viacom International Media Networks 549 Vibrant TV Network 149 Warner Bros. International Television 710 WWE 105, 615 ZDF Enterprises 183, 263, 401 Zodiak Rights 223, 405, 407
10/14 World Screen 705
LIGHT YEARS - FINAL 2013__1208_HOUSE 8/22/14 3:29 PM Page 1
TRULY GLOBAL
LIGHT YEARS - FINAL 2013__1208_HOUSE 8/25/14 1:14 PM Page 2
Print and Digital Magazines World Screen TV Latina TV Europe TV AsiaPac TV MEA TV Brasil TV Drama TV Kids TV Formats TV Real TV Novelas TV Ni単os TV Listings Print and Digital Guides World Screen Distributors Guide TV Kids Distributors Guide TV Formats Distributors Guide TV Latina Channels Guide TV Latina Distributors Guide Websites WorldScreen.com TVLatina.tv TVKids.ws TVReal.ws TVFormats.ws TVDrama.ws TVNovelas.ws TVEurope.ws TVLatina.ws TVUSA.ws TVAsiaPac.ws TVMEA.ws TVCanada.ws TeveBrasil.com Daily Online Newsletters World Screen Newsflash TV Kids Daily Diario TV Latina Weekly Online Newsletters World Screen Weekly TV Kids Weekly TV Formats Weekly TV Real Weekly TV Drama Weekly TV Latina Semanal TV Ni単os Semanal TV Novelas y Series Semanal TV Canales Semanal Apps World Screen Reports World Screen App TV Latina App Video Portals WorldScreenings.com TVLatinaScreenings.tv
WS_1014_WORLD'S END_WSN_1108_WORLD'S END 9/26/14 8:42 PM Page 2
WORLD’S END
IN THE STARS Almost every national constitution forbids the establishment of an official state religion. But this secular bent doesn’t stop people from looking to the heavens for answers to life’s most troublesome questions: Will I succeed? Will I find love? Will I get caught staring at Heidi Klum’s cleavage?
Howie Mandel
Sofía Vergara
Gérard Depardieu
Ozzy Osbourne
KATHERINE HEIGL
GÉRARD DEPARDIEU
eran film star reveals that he can drink upwards of 12 bottles of wine a day without feeling drunk. “I can’t drink like a normal person,” Depardieu says. “I can absorb 12, 13, 14 bottles [of wine]...per day. But I'm never totally drunk, just a little pissed. All you need is a ten-minute nap and voilà, a slurp of rosé wine and I feel as fresh as a daisy!” Horoscope: “Learn to adopt the mantra of ‘everything in moderation.’ Self-discipline can be an attractive virtue.” (astrology.com)
that these little pearls of random
in the new political drama State of Affairs, in which she plays a CIA analyst specializing in the Middle East. The actress posts a photo from the set on Twitter and Facebook noting how the setting was meant to depict the city of Kabul. However, social media fans quickly point out that the background set is of Iraq, not Afghanistan, complete with posters of the Iraqi flag behind her. Horoscope: “The Sagittarian has a ‘mouth faster than brain’ trait that will show up at the worst times. This is why sometimes it’s best to say less.” (mysticalblaze.com)
foresight occasionally prove pro-
HOWIE MANDEL
Every day, papers and magazines worldwide print horoscopes—projections for people born in a specific month, based on the positions of the stars and planets. While many people rely on these daily, weekly or monthly messages for guidance in their lives, some readers skip over them entirely. The editors of WS recognize
phetic. But rather than poring over charts of the zodiac to predict world events, our staff prefers to use past horoscopes in an attempt to legitimize the science. As you can see here, had some of these media figures remembered to consult their horoscopes on significant dates, they could have avoided a few surprises.
Global distinction: Blonde TV/movie star. Sign: Sagittarius (b. November 24, 1978) Significant date: September 18, 2014 Noteworthy activity: Heigl is making her TV comeback
Global distinction: Got Talent judge. Sign: Sagittarius (b. November 29, 1955) Significant date: September 17, 2014 Noteworthy activity: The America’s Got Talent judges take to the red carpet ahead of the season nine finale of the NBC series. Mandel is photographed posing with co-star Heidi Klum, and the snapshot reveals the 58-year-old comedian staring down the model’s cleavage-baring dress. Klum appears unbothered by his ogling, giving a wide smile to the camera. Horoscope: “In the career field, resist temptations caused by others, otherwise you could encounter unnecessary problems.” (astrology.com)
SOFÍA VERGARA
Global distinction: Colombian beauty. Sign: Cancer (b. July 10, 1972) Significant date: September 7, 2014 Noteworthy activity: Ex-fiancé Nick Loeb insults the voluptuous actress by implying that he doesn’t dig her cleavage-filled sense of fashion. “I’m sort of a conservative, so I like a girl to dress a little classier,” he says during an interview with the New York Post. “I’ve always sort of liked the more classic, elegant look on a woman.” Horoscope: “Sure, it’s good to be confident in yourself...but a bit of humility goes a long way, too.” (sasstrology.com) 708 World Screen 10/14
Global distinction: French-born actor. Sign: Capricorn (b. December 27, 1948) Significant date: September 16, 2014 Noteworthy activity: During a recent interview, the vet-
OZZY OSBOURNE
Global distinction: Burnt-out rocker. Sign: Sagittarius (b. December 3, 1948) Significant date: September 10, 2014 Noteworthy activity: After his TV personality wife, Sharon, begins fielding questions from the press, Osbourne—who seems eager to dodge the publicity— proceeds to get into what he assumes is his car, only to discover that he mistakenly hopped into the ride of one of the reporters, much to their amusement. Unfortunately for him, the mishap is caught on film. Horoscope: “Today, make a special effort to pay attention to detail. If you don’t, you may end up having to redo something you thought you’d already completed.” (sasstrology.com)
JENNIFER GARNER
Global distinction: Hollywood leading lady. Sign: Aries (b. April 17, 1972) Significant date: September 7, 2014 Noteworthy activity: While helping hubby Ben Affleck complete the ALS ice-bucket challenge—an awarenessraising campaign that recently took the U.S. by storm— Garner gets pulled into the pool by her beau, resulting in the death of her cell phone. “I had a day without my phone, and at first, it was, ‘Ben, you could have told me so I could have taken it out of my pocket,’ but [then] it was so liberating not to have it,” she tells Access Hollywood. Horoscope: “No matter how well you prepare, disruptions and surprises can cause you to alter your plans.... Whatever you do, don’t sweat the small stuff!” (astrology.com)
WS_1014_MULTICOM_Layout 1 9/19/14 3:08 PM Page 1
WS_1014__Layout 1 9/19/14 4:54 PM Page 1