European media group Mediawan has taken a majority stake in Submarine, the prodco behind Netflix’s Apollo 10 1⁄2: A Space Age Childhood and Amazon Prime Video’s Undone. The Amsterdam, LA and London-based company was founded two decades ago by Femke Wolting and Bruno Felix, and works across five divisions which feed each other: scripted, documentary, […]
France Televisions, Italian pubcaster Rai and Germany’s ZDF have picked up Bellingcat drama The Kollective, which is being written by Gomorrah scribes Leonardo Fasoli and Maddalena Ravioli. The show, which has been in the works since 2019, is being produced by Amsterdam-based Submarine and has been inspired by the company’s hit documentary Bellingcat – Truth in a Post-Truth […]
Streamers have helped to propel documentaries to new audiences, in particular enticing younger viewers. Richard Middleton discovers how this is affecting what’s on screen Few disagree that documentary filmmakers are in the midst of a rich vein of form, arguably the medium’s most prolific ever. And it is streamers that seem to be providing much […]
LA- and Amsterdam-based production company Submarine has optioned rights to author Matt Haig’s sci-fi novel Echo Boy for adaptation into a hybrid live action/animated series. Submarine has brought long-time collaborator Tommy Pallotta on board the project. He co-developed the animation technique that has previously been used in sci-fi feature A Scanner Darkly and docudrama Waking […]
European cultural broadcaster Arte has ordered a four-part docuseries about the digital economy from Amsterdam and LA-based producer Submarine, France’s Pumpernickel Films and media expert Douglas Rushkoff. Exponential follows Rushkoff as he takes viewers on a journey from the beginning of the digital age through its transformation by big business to the possibilities for a […]
Claire Mundell, Creative director, Synchronicity Films What aspect of the drama business gives you most cause for concern as you look ahead to 2020? I’m most concerned by the battle for writers. With so much opportunity it is a veritable gold rush for good writers, but with the increasing market consolidation there is a lot […]
HBO has picked up North American TV and streaming rights to Welcome To Chechnya, the documentary from Academy Award-nominated director David France (How To Survive A Plague). The doc shadows a group of activists risking their lives to confront the ongoing anti-LGBTQ persecution in the Russian Republic of Chechnya and attempts to expose the little-reported […]
US cable net Discovery Channel has acquired rights to Morgan Spurlock’s new film, Rats. Discovery Communications’ flagship channel is now a partner on the documentary, which Spurlock’s Warrior Poets is producing in association with Dakota Group and film distributor Submarine, which has international sales rights and is shopping it at the Cannes Film Festival this […]
The newly-independent NonStop Entertainment and US film vendor Submarine have partnered to create a documentary distribution company. Scandinavia-based NonStop Submarine will between 10 and 15 docs per year theatrically, and sell digital, TV, DVD and streaming rights in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Holland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. The firm will also […]
HBO Documentary Films has become the first international buyer of filmmaker Nick Broomfield’s new feature doc Tales of the Grim Sleeper. The deal gives premium cable channel HBO exclusive local rights to the Sky Atlantic doc, in which Broomfield (The Leader, Biggie and Tupac) revisits the story of South Central LA serial killer Lonnie Franklin […]
