Havas prodco Save Ferris returns to independence

French prodco Save Ferris Production has returned to independence after five years operating within advertising giant Havas Media.

Save Ferris – a reference to US movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off – has been 51% owned by Havas since 2012, having been founded by Jean-Charles Felli and Christophe Tomas in 2000.

Financial terms of the agreement that has led to the firm regaining indie status were not revealed.

Following its untangling from Havas, the prodco intends to “go on developing and creating projects tied to the production of local and international content for both the movie and TV industries, as well as for the digital platforms”, it said in a statement.

Thanking Havas CEO Yannick Bolloré and managing director Dominique Delport (who is also chairman of Vivendi Content) for “their trust and support”, Felli and Tomas said they were entrepreneurs first and foremost.

They declined to comment on how the partnership with Havas had drawn to a close. However, they insisted Save Ferris would continue to create and produce for “the Havas-Vivendi galaxy”.

Vivendi is currently in the process of buying Havas from Bolloré Group, whose founder, Vincent Bolloré, owns both groups.

Two months ago, Bolloré restructured its content arm, Havas Productions, with Christopher Thiery and Sebastien Deurdilly named co-managing directors, as well as remaining in charge of subsidiary arm HCRLS.

Another Havas-owned producer, Upside Television, is better known in international circles as a distributor, but is now moving into production.

Save Ferris’s key series include web series Kaïra Shopping for Canal+, back in 2009. The brand extended into a film, Les Kaira in 2012, and another, Les Francis, in 2014.

More recently, the prodco created action adventure series Frat for SVOD platform Canalplay, as well as short series Brutal, Surf Therapy and Deep for Vivendi’s mobile platform Studio+.

It has also made concert video recordings for MTV and Deezer, and has developed an activity for branded web series.