FremantleMedia buys into indie start-up Corona

FremantleMedia has bought a 25% stake in indie start-up Corona TV.

Corona TV is the new sister company of Corona Pictures, the movie prodco launched by Richard Johns and Rupert Jermyn in 2009. It will make drama programming.

The FremantleMedia deal gives the production and distribution group first look at Corona’s TV output.

Richard Johns

FremantleMedia and Johns and Jermyn previously worked on the development of Birds of Prey, a TV adaption of the first three novels of Wilbur Smith’s Courtney series, from Layer Cake scriptwriter JJ Connolly.

The deal was brokered by FM’s director of global drama, Sarah Doole (pictured), who will take a seat on the board of the new company.

She said: “Richard and Rupert have together over twenty five years’ experience in producing successful feature films. Because of this, they look at scripted projects in a completely different way from most production companies, bringing a big screen presence to the small screen.

Rupert Jermyn

“We’ve looked at their production slate and they have some exciting ideas, which are ripe for international coproduction funding. Having them as part of the FremantleMedia family gives us some brilliant projects for our scripted pipeline.”

The Corona co-founders added: “As film-makers we have always created big stories for the world rather than one particular market. This move gives Corona Television the strategic financing, distribution and marketing firepower most drama producers can only dream of, allowing us to tell stories for TV on a truly global scale.”