Mediawan Acquires French Production Banner Radar Films (EXCLUSIVE)

Mediawan has acquired a majority stake in Radar Films, the French production company behind “Belle and Sebastian,” one of France’s most successful family movie franchises.

Headed by Clement Miserez and Matthieu Warter, Radar Films has been producing French and English-language films, teaming up with France’s top studios, including Gaumont and SND. Besides “Belle et Sebastien” which traveled to dozens of territories, Radar Films also produced “The Secret” with Jessica Biel, and “The Love Punch” with Pierce Brosnan and Emma Thompson.

With Mediawan as its new owner, Radar Films will aim at ramping up its English-language production input, said Miserez. The producer said the banner will also start making ambitious TV series for French and international audiences.

“The media industry is going through turbulent times, especially in France with the upcoming audiovisuel reform, so forging an alliance with Mediawan is a great opportunity for an independent production company like Radar Films,” said Miserez, who will keep spearheading the outfit with Warter.

The slate of TV shows in development at Radar Films include a series spinoff of the 2017 period movie “L’Ecole buissonnière” which Radar is developing with Studiocanal, as well as a show on France’s anti-terror forces written by Edgar Marie (“A Gang Story”). Radar Fims is also developing a reboot of “Emmanuelle,” the cult 1974 erotic movie, which will be written by several women, and directed by photographer-turned-director Sonia Sief.

“The ambition of Mediawan is to create a powerful ecosystem to produce content that find audiences abroad to tap into the ever-growing demand for premium programs. Clément Miserez and Matthieu Warter are boosting this strategy,” said Pierre-Antoine Capton, the chairman of Mediawan.

Over the last two years, Mediawan has been making several key investments in companies in France, notably ON Entertainment (“The Little Prince”), Makever, Mon Voisin Productions (“Call My Agent!”) and the French TV business of EuropaCorp, as well as Nice Pictures, the banner of French illustrator and author Joann Sfar. Mediawan made its first international acquisition with Palomar, the Italian banner behind “The Name of the Rose.”

Popular on Variety

Source: Read Full Article