Slingshot, EuropaCorp partner for drama JV

David Ellender’s Slingshot Global Media and Luc Besson’s EuropaCorp Television Studios have partnered in a non-exclusive development joint venture pact.

The pair plans to co-develop and finance two projects a year. The firms believe their straight-to-series business models could compliment each other.

Slingshot founder and CEO Ellender said together the companies would be able to “create globally appealing television by combining our assets”.

Slingshot is the LA-based production company former FremantleMedia Enterprises CEO Ellender launched in February, while director Besson’s EuropaCorp recently hired production veteran Matthew Gross as president of EuropaCorp Television Studios US. He has been charged with supercharging the French company’s push into the US scripted TV market.

Slingshot’s projects include a pair of shows with actor Keanu Reeves, Rain and New Angeles, and a Blumhouse Productions co-venture, The Sitter. It also has a first-look deal with new production house El Jefe.

EuropaCorp has a library of films and is currently producing movies such as Taken 3 and Transporter 4. It also produces a Transporter TV series, launched international drama XIII recently and had Taxi Brroklyn air on NBC in the summer over the summer.

“The Slingshot Global Media / EuropaCorp Television Studios alliance creates a ‘whole is greater than the sum of its parts’ scenario,” said Gross.

“By joining forces it strengthens our financing and distribution abilities with the straight-to-series model.”