Warner Bros. Unscripted TV Moves Into Feature Doc Acquisitions With True-Con Film ‘The Talented Mr. Rosenberg’, Will Shop To Broadcasters & Streamers
07.07.2022 - 21:01
/ deadline.com
EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros. Unscripted Television, the division run by Mike Darnell, is entering the feature documentary acquisitions market with its first big purchase – rights to Canadian true-con doc The Talented Mr. Rosenberg.
While the unit has produced documentaries such as HBO Max’s LGBTQ series Equal and Epix’s Charles Manson series Helter Skelter as well as an upcoming DC Comics doc, this marks the first time that it has picked up the global rights, outside of Canada, to a doc coming out of a market.
The Talented Mr. Rosenberg, which tells the story of Canadian jet-setting con artist Albert Rosenberg, who is described as a cross between Bernie Madoff and The Tinder Swindler Simon Leviev, recently premiered at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival.
Warner Bros. Unscripted Television, in association with its sibling Warner Horizon, will now shop it to broadcasters and streamers in the U.S. and internationally outside of Canada, where it will air on CBC.
The move puts the two Warner Bros. divisions in line with its new sister company Discovery+, which has been aggressively moving into the feature doc space, snapping up festival titles such as Introducing, Selma Blair and Keith Maitland’s Dear Mr. Brody.
The Talented Mr. Rosenberg tells the story of how journalist Courtney Shea exposed septuagenarian Rosenberg, a handsome, fashionable man with a taste for the finer things in life, who is also a lifelong con artist with a history of heartbreaking betrayal, outrageous lies and elaborate masquerades.
Dubbed the Yorkville Swindler, Rosenberg is now ready to set the record straight—or is he? In the film, he attempts to provide insight into his mind and motives. To balance Rosenberg’s self-aggrandizing