Yahoo Finance Blumhouse TV & ITV America Set Unscripted Overall Deal, Prep Horror Competition Format ‘Escape the Maze’
Blumhouse Television is scaring up even more moves into the world of unscripted.
The company has struck an overall deal with ITV America that covers non-fiction programming. It comes four years after ITV took a minority stake in the television arm of the horror hit factory.
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The two companies are already preparing their first project together, horror competition format Escape The Maze (w/t).
The series will follow individual competitors who have been locked inside a dark and mind-scrambling labyrinth, designed by maze architect, Adrian Fisher and The Premier Mission Group, encountering a range of physical and psychological challenges devised to make the experience both frightening and frustratingly difficult.
It will be produced in association with Leftfield Pictures, the company behind survival series Alone, and the hope that it mixes Blumhouse’s horror prowess with Leftfield’s self-shot, isolating and emotionally-charged competition aesthetic.
The companies are currently taking the project out to buyers.
As part of the multi-year overall deal, Blumhouse will have a dedicated team working in collaboration with ITV America to develop and produce genre, paranormal reality and suspense-driven unscripted series. It will work with ITV America labels ITV Entertainment, Leftfield Pictures, Sirens Media, Thinkfactory Media, High Noon Entertainment and Good Caper Content to develop new concepts and IP.
The deal was negotiated by ITV America EVP, Business Development and Strategy Danielle Bibbo, and EVP of Business Affairs Tonko Soljan, with Blumhouse Television EVP and Head of Business and Legal Affairs Marc Barson.
“Blumhouse is one of the most exceptional brands in the industry,” said ITV America CEO David George. “They bring a virtually untapped genre to our portfolio, and we are so excited they chose ITV America to help expand their empire. Their provocative sensibilities combined with our diverse production capabilities will create a slate of big shows and formats that will be like none other in the unscripted business. This is going to be edge of your seat and wild.”
“ITV have been great partners to us already, and we’re thrilled to be expanding upon our relationship with them in unscripted,” added Jason Blum, CEO and founder of Blumhouse. “Together we have some big, wild ideas that viewers are going to have a blast watching.”
“There are no better partners to collaborate with in the unscripted space than ITV, their prowess is unmatched,” said Chris McCumber, Blumhouse Television President. “They’ve been great, collaborative partners with us in the past, and what we’ve ideated with them already is fun, bold and certain to be an enhancement to our existing unscripted portfolio.”
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