UK indies ride Netflix waveBy Peter White7 September 2017
Pulse Films lands Madeleine McCann doc as SVoD services help to prop up flat indie sector
Pulse Films will investigate the disappearance of Madeleine McCann for Netflix, as the SVoD revolution gathers pace for UK indies.
The eight-part true-crime series is being made in association with Viacom-owned Hollywood studio Paramount Television. It aims to shine a light on the three-year- old’s disappearance in 2007, and will include interviews with key figures and investigators.
Pulse managing director of non-scripted television Emma Cooper is exec producing the project. The Vice-owned indie declined to comment.
The project is Paramount Television’s highest profile factual series to date. It recently co-produced comedy-drama Lemony Snicket’s A Series Of Unfortunate Events for Netflix and is co-financing BBC1’s forthcoming John Le Carré adaptation The Spy Who Came In From The Cold.
Pulse’s project is the latest in a long line of McCann documentaries; in May, BBC1 aired Panorama special Madeleine McCann: Ten Years On, while a Crimewatch special on the disappearance drew nearly 7 million viewers in 2013.
UK originations
Pulse is the second UK producer to emerge with a multimillion-pound order from Netflix this week. Fortitude indie Fifty Fathoms is making The Eddy, directed by La La Land’s Damien Chazelle, the biggest scripted SVoD commission for a UK producer since The Crown.
The 8 x 60-minute series is written by National Treasure’s Jack Thorne and is being filmed by the Endemol Shine-owned producer, run by Patrick Spence and Katie Swinden, in France. It will be shot in English, French and Arabic.
The Eddy is being produced in association with WME’s IMG, which distributed The Night Manager and is co-financing Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s forthcoming BBC America thriller Killing Eve.
The two major commissions coincide with the release of Pact figures showing that revenues from global SVoD services are helping to prop up a relatively flat UK indie sector.
Pact Census data highlighted that production revenues from firms such as Netflix and Amazon grew by 101% from £62.8m in 2015 to £126m in 2016. This was part of an overall rise in international commissions from £430m in 2015 to £468m last year.
The global growth was in contrast to a dip in domestic revenues of 3% as UK commissioning spend fell to £1.5bn, the lowest since 2011.
Pact chief executive John McVay said that the UK market is steady but international is “basically where we now make our money”.
Noting that Netflix has hired BBC Storyville editor Kate Townsend to head up a UK-based factual division, he added: “The opportunities for British producers have never been as great.
https://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/indies/uk-indies-ride-netflix-wave/5122034.article443