News

In one of the biggest co-production deals unveiled at Content London, Mediawan’s label Atlantique Productions has joined forces with Participant to make an ambitious limited espionage thriller series based on the Pegasus spyware scandal.

Amit Cohen and Ron Leshem are on board as creators and showrunners for the mini-series which will adapted from the bestseller “Pegasus: How a Spy in Our Pocket Threatens the End of Privacy, Dignity, and Democracy.” The book charts the sprawling international investigation conducted in 2020 and 2021 which revealed how governments used Pegasus spyware technology to spy on politicians, activists and business executives.

Executive producers on the highly anticipated “Pegasus” show are Nathalie Perus for Atlantique Productions, Thomas Anargyros for Mediawan Studio France, Jeff Skoll and Miura Kite for Participant. Maria Feldman and Claire Rudnick Polstein are also attached as executive producers. The project is being presented today (Tuesday) at Content London.

“Pegasus: How a Spy...

David Fincher To Receive Honorary Cesar Award

David Fincher is to receive an Honorary Award at this year’s Cesar Awards. The primary French awards show will fete the Gone Girl filmmaker at its 2023 ceremony on February 24 at the Olympia in Paris. The awards body described Fincher as an “outstanding technician” and “a true visionary.” Awarded since 1976, previous Honorary Cesar Award winners include Robert Redford, Penelope Cruz, and George Clooney. The nominees for the 48th César Awards will be announced on January 25.

BFI And Film4 Launch New £90,000 Short Film Fund

The BFI and Film4 have partnered on Future Takes, a new pilot short film fund. The open call is seeking applications for “ambitious and original” short-form work, awarding up to £90,000 each to up to seven projects. The deadline for applications is Monday, 13 February. The fund will be available to teams with a background in – but not limited to – filmmaking, theatre,...

Mediawan Rights, the commercial division of French independent media powerhouse Mediawan founded by Pierre-Antoine Capton, Xavier Niel and Matthieu Pigasse in 2015, is poised to step up its premium documentary clout through its dedicated sales unit.

Presided by veteran sales executive Valerie Vleeschhouwer, Mediawan Rights has signed an exclusive partnership deal with Forbidden Stories, the production banner behind many critically-acclaimed investigative documentaries, such as “Green Blood.” The outfit was founded by Laurent Richard, an award-winning French documentary filmmaker and producer who won the Prix Europa Award for the European Journalist of the Year in 2018.

Mediawan is already a leader in the docu landscape with outfits such as Cc&c (Clarke Costelle & Co), Black Dynamite and Troisième Œil, and the recent acquisition of Lagardere Studios, which comprises key documentary producers such as Imagissime (“Who Killed Little Gregory?”), Maximal Productions, 909 productions, Electron Libre productions and Réservoir Prod, as well as Aito Media in Finland,...