REBRANDING
Endeavor Content‘s U.K.-based content studio The Story Company, which was launched in 2021, has rebranded as The Story Collective and made three senior hires.
Former ITV Studios producer Kate Lewis (“Vera”) joins as executive producer and brings with her a slate of projects she has been developing under her Neon Ink banner. Lewis will manage and expand the company’s slate of scripted projects, and provide creative support to their portfolio of invested production companies and writer partnerships. Former Tiger Aspect executive Amy Mobley joins as head of production from Fremantle’s label Euston Films, where she was responsible for overseeing all of the company’s productions, including “Baghdad Central” and “The Sister.” Natasha Neill, who has had previous stints at Entertainment One, Greenbird Media and Shine TV, joins as CFO from her previous role at Lookout Point.
The executive management of The Story Collective includes former Lookout Point MD Damian Keogh, who serves as CEO, Helen Jackson, former content chief of BBC Worldwide, as executive chair and Lookout Point founder Simon Vaughan as executive director. Also on the board are non-executive directors Jonathan Norman, who is MD at global investment bank Houlihan Lokey, and Chris Rice who is co-CEO of Endeavor Content.
(Pictured, from L-R: Kate Lewis, Amy Mobley, Natasha Neill)
SALES
TrustNordisk has boarded international sales rights to “A Matter of Trust,” Annette K. Olesen‘s Danish ensemble drama which is set to world premiere at Tribeca. Set during a summer day, the movie follows five unrelated people — a husband, a doctor, a wife, a student and a young daughter — whose lives are turned upside down with irreversible consequences. It stars Berlin Silver Bear-winning Danish actress Trine Dyrholm (“Queen of Hearts”), as well as EFP Shooting Star winner Jakob Cedergreen (“The Guilty”), Morten Hee Andersen (“Margrete – Queen of the North”), and new talents Sofie Juul Blinkenberg, Ellen Rovsing Knudsen and Emil Aron Dorph. Olesen made her feature debut with “Minor Mishaps” which won a prize at the Berlinale in 2002, and went to direct “In Your Hands,” “Little Soldiers” and episodes of the Emmy Award-nominated and BAFTA Award-winning drama series “Borgen.” She was also involved in the HBO series “Kamikaze” which won a prize at Series Mania. – Elsa Keslassy
STREAMING
Netflix is launching a collection of African content titled “From Cape to Cairo” to celebrate the annual Africa Month in May, just as it drops “Blood Sisters,” its first original TV series out of Nigeria, and its new South African show “Savage Beauty.” The Netflix African content collection, which will launch on May 1, is being grouped in category rows such as “Our Music, Our Culture, Our History,” “African Women Behind the Camera,” and “Stories From the African Diaspora.” Highlights include recently-launched South African thriller “Silverton Siege,” reality series “Young Famous and African,” and Netflix’s Egyptian original “Finding Ola,” toplining star Hend Sabry as a happy divorcee who embarks on a journey of self-discovery. Netflix is also launching a new podcast entitled “Never Late | African Time,” featuring on-screen and behind-the-screen talent in its African productions. – Nick Vivarelli
SERIES
“Outlander” and “The Hobbit” actor Graham McTavish is narrating the international version of Love Nature original series “The Ocean’s Greatest Feast (1×50’). Produced by Earth Touch, the documentary delves into South Africa’s annual sardine run, in which billions of sardines spawn and travel 1000 miles to get to South Africa’s wild coast. It will premiere on Love Nature’s linear and streaming platforms, outside of its co-production territories. The film is a co-production between The WNET Group, Love Nature, Bonne Pioche Television for France Télévisions (France), SVT (Sweden) and NHK (Japan). In the U.S., the documentary is narrated by broadcaster Nora Young and premiered on PBS as part of its Nature series.