Nine leading independent production companies from eight different countries have formed a ground-breaking creative and development alliance called The Creatives, designed to house a slate of high-end drama series & films and increase their collective power.
Spearheaded by France’s Haut Et Court, the production companies came together over the last year to strengthen their independent status through collaboration in the fast-changing TV and film landscape.
The new label has struck a unique three-year partnership agreement with Fremantle, which will help develop and fund high-quality international dramas series working in collaboration with Christian Vesper, President of Global Drama at Fremantle, and Fremantle’s Global Drama Team.
Between them, the nine companies have over 100 films and series in various stages of development or production. The films and series produced by the group will be signed under the newly formed label The Creatives. The labels are: Haut Et Court (FR), Lemming Film (NL), Versus Production (BE), Maipo Film (NOR), Razor Film (DE), Spiro (ISR), Unité (FR), Masha (USA) and Good Chaos (UK).
The group will work closely together in co-production and strategic partnerships, information sharing, combining each other’s talent and networks. The Creatives are focused on sustainability, diversity, and fair practice, and bolstering talent relationships.
The Creatives, company statement: “Nine companies, nine different identities, who want to keep their individuality and their cultures as well as that of the talent they work with. We cooperate, we exchange ideas, we develop, we produce, and we maintain our idiosyncrasies. In return, as a response to an exponential growth of the market, we offer writers and directors a home of a significant scale where they will benefit from a global approach. At the same time, they retain control of their stories and keep hold of rights, as much as possible. In this hugely competitive world, we all believe it is the only way to swim upstream and stay ahead of our competitors.”
Carole Scotta, Haut Et Court, Co-Founder: “We have pioneered this unique deal structure, with the valued support and backing of Fremantle. The Creatives will protect the independent development process that has been the backbone of storytelling in Europe for decades. We unite in order to stay as free and creatively interesting as possible, and supply films and series which audiences will respond to. We are committed to offer fair conditions to the talent we work with and to strengthen the long-term relationships with our writers, showrunners, and directors as well as with new talent. Fremantle have given us their full support and importantly, complete creative freedom, and we look forward to partnering with Christian, Andrea and the Fremantle team as we look to build a diverse slate of high-quality series”.
Christian Vesper, President of Global Drama, Fremantle: “At Fremantle we proudly support the independent production community and the array of exceptional talent that it represents. Today’s announcement underlines this commitment, and we look forward to partnering with each of the brilliant production companies which represent The Creatives. At Fremantle we believe passionately in providing our valued partners and our brilliant talent with the right level of support, whilst also fully embracing their independence, creativity, and complete freedom to work unencumbered with the network or platform that is best suited for each project. This successful formula is in the Fremantle DNA and represents a perfect fit for this ground-break and innovative new label. We believe The Creatives will deliver a consistent slate of high-quality, authentic and sophisticated productions, each of which will have creative freedom at its very heart, and we are extremely proud to be partnering with them.”
