Yahoo Finance ITV Studios, Moritz Polter’s German Scripted Label Windlight Pictures Hires Top Executives – Global Bulletin
APPOINTMENTS
The German scripted label set up by executive producer Moritz Polter (“Das Boot,” “Freud”) and ITV Studios in April has been named Windlight Pictures, and has revealed three key hires.
Simone Ruff and Cosima Degler have joined as producers and development executives, while Georg Höss is head of legal and business affairs.
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Polter is based in Germany with an international scope and reports into Lisa Perrin, managing director of international production at ITV Studios in London. He was previously executive producer of international television series at Bavaria Fiction.
Ruff is also from Bavaria Fiction, where she has been working with Polter for the last two years, and produced
the acclaimed series “Freud” (Netflix/ORF).
Degler (“Millennials”) has been part of the Hager Moss Film team, an affiliated company of Constantin Television, since 2018.
Höss (“Brecht”) joins from Bavaria Film where he was head of legal and business affairs and a member of the management board for many years, overseeing hundreds of TV and feature film productions for Bavaria Fiction.
Pictured (L-R), Moritz Polter, Cosima Degler, Simone Ruff, Georg Höss.
Meanwhile, German content agency Quintus Studios has appointed Adam Jacobs as creative director, reporting into founder and MD Gerrit Kemming. Jacobs is responsible for overall editorial strategy including Quintus originals, projects which are developed for the company’s owned and operated channels such as Free Documentary, FD Real and ENDEVR.
Jacobs has had a prior stint as director of factual programming at Discovery U.K. and Western Europe. Executive producer credits include “Outback Truckers” (Discovery), “The Secret History of World War Two” (Channel 5), “World’s Greatest Palaces” (UKTV), and “Royals on the Frontline” (UKTV).
LICENSING
All3Media International has set a deal with NBCUniversal to license game show format “Cash at Your Door” to E! in the U.S., with All3Media International’s sister company Lion producing the U.S. adaptation.
Originally produced as an Amir Matar Production for Channel 10 in Israel, “Cash at Your Door” literally knocks at the doors of potential contestants’ homes. NBC Universal’s adaptation has two rounds, with players given three strikes before they are out. In the final bonus round players are asked three questions each worth increasing amounts. Players must decide to quit or keep going to try and win the final prize of $25,000 by answering all questions correctly.
The format has been recently adapted for Mongolia and Italy.
STUDIO
Neglected land outside Marlow, U.K. is being turned into a creative campuses for film and television production. The project is set to create over 5,000 jobs and provide an annual boost of £350 million ($487 million) to the U.K. economy.
Robert Laycock, CEO of Dido Property, is the leader of the studio’s founding team, which includes entrepreneurs and arts industry professionals. Sustainable design will support both local ecosystems and the low-carbon future of film production. The facility’s design team includes firms Prior+Partners (led by key London 2012 Olympics master planners) and Wilkinson Eyre (two-time Sterling Prize-winning architects).
WRAP
International online content market Key Buyers Event: Digital has wrapped its third edition, which gathered over 1600 participants from 80 countries. More than 550 online meetings were held between global distributors, producers, and the Russian community.
The event was organized by Roskino with the support of the Russian Ministry of Culture, the Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovative Development of the City of Moscow, and the Agency for Creative Industries. It was held June 8-10 on a dedicated online platform. Companies including Netflix, Apple, BBC Studios, Mediaset Spain, Wild Bunch, Armoza Formats, Beta Film, Capelight Pictures, Loco Films, BF Distribution, Koch Media, APC Kids, and others participated in the event.
SALES
Spanish broadcaster Atresmedia has ordered a first series run of “Lego Masters” from Banijay Iberia’s Shine Iberia, whilst TV 2 has commissioned the debut Norwegian adaptation from Mastiff Norway.
Shine Iberia has launched its casting call for the format which sees pairs compete against each other to create the most awe-inspiring designs and brick models. Production is also underway in Norway for TV 2, where its first-ever winner will be crowned by presenter and the 2010 Eurovision final host, Erik Solbakken, who will host the local production.
German and Danish versions of “Lego Masters” were hits.
“Lego Masters” was originally created by Tuesday’s Child Television and The Lego Group, with Banijay serving as the exclusive format and finished tape distributor globally.
SERIES
BestCrosses Studios has optioned historian Lane Demas‘ book “Game of Privilege: An African American History of Golf,” for a documentary series about African American golf.
The series will explore the role of race, class and public space in golf course development, the stories of individual black golfers during the age of segregation, the legal battle to integrate public golf courses and the little-known history of the United Golfers Association (UGA) — a black tour that operated from 1925 to 1975 and had to fight segregation and exclusion.
It will also shed light on the experiences of some of the most celebrated African American professional golfers including Tiger Woods, Bill Spiller, Ted Rhodes, Charlie Sifford, Althea Gibson, Jim Dent, Renee Powell, Jim Thorpe, Walter Morgan, Calvin Peete and Lee Elder.
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