Hello Insiders, Jesse Whittock here to take you through a scorching week in international TV and film. Don’t forget to subscribe. Let’s go.
Strike Goes Global
“What happens in America happens here”: More than 20 countries came together for a global day of solidarity Wednesday, as protestors showed support for striking scribes in the U.S. In the UK, Germany, France, Korea and many other places, writers around the world showed why shepherding the WGA through its labor dispute matters. We were on the ground in the UK and Germany, and in the former a succession (see what we did there) of senior scribes along with around 200 others lined up to show support, including Jesse Armstrong, Russell T. Davies, Jack Thorne, Charlie Brooker and, from across the pond, The Flash showrunner Eric Wallace. “What happens in America happens here,” declared Doctor Who showrunner Davies, who revealed to Deadline he would be striking if secondary strike action wasn’t illegal in the UK. Notably, several scribes said they believed the global day could have a positive impact on negotiations. The X Files EP Frank Spotnitz, who is based in the English capital, said the “moral force” could make a difference, while Wallace, who delayed his plane home by a day to attend the Leicester Square gathering, declared he will be telling fellow writers “we are not in this alone” when he returns home from London later. As the strike moves well into its second month with no sign of resolution, the global day of solidarity could provide a shot in the arm, reminding studios just what is at stake in today’s hyper-globalized industry. A photo gallery featuring pics from all over the world can be found here.
“We are today… WGA!”: I was in Cologne this week for German TV event Seriencamp (more on that below) when news of the Screenwriters Everywhere global protests began filtering through. As chance had it, one of the rallies was being held on the steps of the giant Cologne Cathedral on Wednesday evening, so I hot-footed it across town to check it out. Around 50 German screenwriters (and a few WGA memebrs from LA) were out showing solidarity with their American counterparts. Chants of, “We are today… WGA! For fair pay… WGA!” filled the warm Cologne evening air, as bemused tourists and locals heading home from work looked on. Read more here.
Rough Ride For Brit Broadcasters
4boding: If you hadn’t noticed, Channel 4 is in a spot of bother. Ad revenue is cratering, series are being cut and delayed to make ends meet, and producers are cash-flowing projects at short notice. Deadline has been chronicling the woes, which only deepened this week when we confirmed that the UK broadcaster endured the worst TV ratings in its history last month. Oh yes, and more shows are being canceled, with the BAFTA-winning The Big Narstie Show becoming the latest to be culled. Channel 4’s Chief Content Officer Ian Katz emailed dismayed producers on Tuesday in a bid to calm jangling nerves. In the message (which can be read in full here), he said C4 was experiencing a short-term blip but remains in rude creative health. To say it raised eyebrows among C4 suppliers would be an understatement. “This is a case of the worst household budgeting in the history of television,” one tells Insider.
Schofield scolding: One imagines that executives at ITV will reflect somewhat more favorably on their week. Giving evidence on the Phillip Schofield scandal, CEO Carolyn McCall appeared assured in front of UK Parliament’s fearsome Culture, Media and Sport Committee on Wednesday. Unafraid to throw her once untouchable presenter under the bus, she said Schofield’s relationship with a young This Morning runner was “deeply inappropriate” and scolded her former colleague for concealing the tryst. Perhaps more importantly for ITV’s self-preservation, McCall set out a detailed timeline of how the company examined rumors of the relationship in 2019 and 2020. This included McCall revealing that the runner, referred to as ‘Person X’ in ITV’s evidence, was asked 12 times about whether he was involved with Schofield. He denied it each time.
Also at ITV: The UK’s biggest ad-funded broadcaster confessed that it is “actively exploring” a potential £1B ($1.3B) deal to buy All3Media, the super-producer behind Fleabag and The Traitors. It gave no assurance that an agreement will be reached, but it would be ITV’s biggest production acquisition to date after building ITV Studios into a genuine global content powerhouse. Sources say that ITV does not expect competition concerns, but it’s hard to imagine that the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority would not want to take even a cursory look at what would be a giant deal.
Off to Seriencamp
Camping out: Deadline headed to Cologne in Germany for the Seriencamp festival and conference this week — where the country’s top producers, commissioners and creatives converge to talk all things TV. The event began with a masterclass from The Jinx, Catfish and Capturing the Friedmans producer Marc Smerling, who used his keynote interview to offer an analysis on the state of play in the U.S. right now. “Pitching in Hollywood is like banging your head against a brick wall” was his damning indictment. Elsewhere in his masterclass on the golden rules of storytelling, he recalled how several of his biggest projects had come to be and why he has moved heavily into the podcasting space through series such as Crooked City and Operation Tradebom. The following day, showrunners and creatives debated the future of drama, while European execs from Paramount+ and Warner Bros International Television Production considered the merits of searching for new projects through existing IP and the growing importance of packaging projects outside the U.S. All our coverage can be found here.
UTA In LDN
Kramer speaks: Last year, UTA took the agenting world by surprise when it bought UK agency Curtis Brown. This week, it took its latest step into the international market, opening a 28,000 sq ft office in central London. Music, comedy, production arts and podcasting agents will be among those housed at the Fitzrovia base, a few blocks from Curtis Brown’s offices. U.S. agents haven’t always been well received in London, where there’s a very different work culture from Hollywood. However, UTA President David Kramer sat down with Andreas to say the company had done its due diligence and doesn’t plan to make the mistakes of the past. “We watched some of our competitors send film and TV agents to London and we learnt from that,” he said. In a wide ranging interview, Kramer spoke on how UTA and Curtis Brown are meshing together, plans for more international M&A and how the writers strike is impacting agenting. Read on.
Berlusconi’s Legacy
Broadcasting & Bunga Bunga: On Monday, Italy’s most flamboyant and controversial politician-cum-media mogul, Silvio Berlusconi, died aged 86. The former Italian Prime Minister is known as much for underage sex parties as his political acumen. There’s no denying his influence in Italy, however, and this week the country’s leading networks led tributes, ran mounds of news coverage and broadcasted his funeral, akin to how the UK handled the Queen’s passing last year. There’s also no denying Berlusconi’s impact on European broadcasting. Before him, Italy barely had a commercial TV business but he almost single-handedly built up his Mediaset operation to become the country’s leading for-profit TV provider. Max and I wrote an analysis of how he had reached his lofty position and what might happen to his business now. Whatever you think of his personal and political lives, his story makes for a fascinating read. More here.
The Essentials
🌶️ Hot One: Bohemian Rhapsody star Lucy Boyton is leading cast on ITV drama Ruth. Jake with the exclusive.
🌶️ Another one: The BBC ordered Hell Jumper, a doc about an aid worked killed in Ukraine. Max had that, and this interview with BBC factual supremo Clare Sillery.
🧛🏽 Vampire: Filming is underway on Damian Lewis vampire comedy The Radleys, as per Andreas’ scoop.
🧛🏽 More vampires: Malcolm McDowell and Derek Jacobi will star in The Vampyre: Blood and Ink, as Zac revealed.
⛺ Festival: Chris Meledandri confirmed new projects with Pharrell Williams and Pierre Coffin at Annecy. Full round of coverage from the fest here.
⛺ Another festival: Johnny Barrington’s Silent Roar will open a scaled down Edinburgh International Film Festival.
🏆 Awarded: The Last of Us and The Traitors were among the winners at the Banff Rockies.
🎥 Casting: BAFTA winner Lenny Rush joined the new-look Doctor Who.
🏪 Shutting up shop: Warner Bros International TV Production closes its Danish base in a Scandi rejig, as I revealed yesterday.
🤝 Done deal: Banijay bought live ents company Balich Wonder Studio.
🍿 Box office: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse was blocked from release in the UAE.
Max Goldbart and Jake Kanter contributed to this week’s Insider