Netflix has commissioned Simon Chinn and Jonathan Chinn’s Lightbox for a feature doc on memory loss entitled Tell Me Who I Am. The Netflix Original, produced by Simon Chinn, is to premiere at next month’s BFI London Film Festival before launching on the streaming giant on 18 October. The film tells the story of Alex […]
Hulu has paid a seven figure sum for US rights to Untouchable, Lightbox’s feature documentary about the Harvey Weinstein scandal which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January. Directed by Ursula McFarlane, Untouchable was produced by Simon Chinn, Jonathan Chinn and Poppy Dixon. Embankment Films negotiated the deal on behalf of the producers, and […]
Netflix is raising the bar for factual to premium levels and introducing ‘box sets’ and ‘binge-watching’ into commissioning vocabulary, all while growing traditional broadcasters’ budgets and ambitions for documentary. Tim Dams reports. Netflix has famously spent its way into the homes of viewers around the world by backing original dramas such as The Crown, 13 […]
HBO has greenlit Storm Over Brooklyn, the winning project from the Feature Documentary Initiative created by the Whitney prodco Lightbox and the American Black Film Festival (ABFF). Storm Over Brooklyn is a feature documentary, directed by Muta’Ali (pictured), which tells the story of Yusuf Hawkins, a black American teenager who was shot and murdered after […]
Disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein is to be the subject of a feature length doc from UK pubcaster BBC Two. Weinstein (WT) will look at the rise and fall of the producer, whose career is in tatters after multiple allegations of rape, sexual assault and other bizarre sexual practices. The doc will run to 90 […]
Global streamer Netflix has commissioned an eight-episode series exploring delicate hostage situations around the world. Simon and Jonathan Chinn’s prodco, Lightbox, and Doug Liman’s Hypnotic are coproducing Captive. The producers have filmed everything from high-profile cases to those kept hidden from the public, looking at the views of the victims, their families, the experienced negotiators, […]
Platforms, technology and marketing aside, what really drives the international TV industry is content. We asked a selection of execs from around the world for the shows that they feel are pioneering, brilliant or genre-defining. In the world of docs, Simon Chinn from Man on Wire prodco Lightbox says 2015 was the year of the […]
“I am in no doubt that Netflix in particular has completely changed the way we watch and think about television,” says S4C boss Ian Jones, summing up what most in the industry think. “A whole new generation is growing up in a world where an entire series can be watched in one sitting. People don’t […]
UK terrestrial BBC Two has commissioned an observational documentary about British fashion magazine Vogue as it nears its centenary year. Simon Chinn’s Lightbox will produce the 2x60mins series in association with Richard Macer’s Platform Productions. The doc will explore the magazine’s role and influence in the UK, with filming taking place at fashion shows around […]
Documentary producer Simon Chinn has hooked up with his cousin to create a multiplatform production company, which has bagged a commission from the Xbox platform. The producer behind Academy Award-winning docs Man on Wire and Searching for Sugar Man (below right) and his cousin Jonathan Chinn (left), a US non-scripted television showrunner, are the co-founders […]
