Fremantle’s Andrea Scrosati & Christian Vesper Talk New $162M Scripted Fund; M&A Strategy & That $3.2B Revenue Target – Venice
04.09.2023 - 14:55
/ deadline.com
Fremantle kicked off its presence at the Venice Film Festival with a bang this year with the announcement of its new €150M ($162.7M) Scripted Fund forged in partnership with Israel-based IBI Investment House.
The fund is reserved exclusively for select projects being developed by Fremantle’s stable of scripted drama companies, which include UK’s Dancing Ledge and Element Pictures, Italy’s The Apartment, Wildside and Lux Vide, as well as The Immigrant, specialized in Latin America and Spanish content.
First projects backed by the fund include previously announced feature Maria, the high-profile Maria Callas biopic, starring Angelina Jolie and directed by Pablo Larraín, who is at Venice this year with Augusto Pinochet dark comedy/horror El Conde.
Two newly unveiled series will : four-part thriller Generation Loss, written by Bridgerton’s Sarah Dollard, and six-part revenge thriller Shelter, to which Jeremy Webb (The Last Of Us, The Umbrella Academy) is attached to direct.
Fremantle is not involved in Larrain’s Netflix-backed El Conde but is present instead with five other Golden Lion contenders, including Yorgos Lantimos’s buzzed about , Stefano Sollima’s well-reviewed Adagio, Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, Salvatore Costanzo’s 1950s Cinecittà drama , and Pietro Castellitto’s Enea
In a sign of a growing presence in the film world, the company is basing itself out of a vast beachfront villa just down the road from the festival’s main hub for the first time this year.
Deadline sat down with top Fremantle execs, Group COO and CEO Continental Europe Andrea Scrosati and President Of Global Drama Christian Vesper, in the peace of its lawned garden to discuss the genesis and implications of the new scripted fund.
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