New Lena Dunham, Sarah Snook Shows Touted as Universal U.K. TV Labels Execs Talk Sector Cuts
They were in the spotlight as global hit series from various production labels under the Universal International Studios umbrella took center stage at the first-ever SXSW London.
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'Global Stories: What makes compelling TV?' was the question discussed by Surian Fletcher-Jones, head of drama at Working Title Television; Sue Gibbs, head of development at Heyday Television, the joint venture of producer David Heyman and Universal International Studios; and Noemi Spanos, creative director at Carnival Films. Beatrice Springborn, president, Universal International Studios and Universal Content Productions (UCP), functioned as the moderator.
Confronted with a question about how TV industry cost reductions, other spending cutbacks and layoffs are affecting their work, the execs shared insight into the challenges but also opportunities.
'One is adapting,' offered Gibbs. 'Heyday as a company, historically, we've always worked with IP. David's known for it with Harry Potter and Paddington. So we will always be looking for IP. I think we're probably looking less to the new books that are coming out because it's so super competitive. They're so expensive. So, we're looking at classic books, old TV shows, articles, etc. So I think it's adapting in that way.'
Gibbs also mentioned that Heyday has often commissioned scripts with writers and then taken them out to the market to buyers. 'We're slightly changing that now and trying to be more fleet of foot,' she explained. 'Perhaps you just go out with a pitch so you can be faster. Or we're trying to set up more projects with buyers. [In the past], we would have perhaps taken them out to a number of buyers at the same time. Now, we are trying to get in with a buyer straight off, which is a financial incentive, but it's really more about the emotional incentive. If the buyer is emotionally invested in your project from the off, they can be more likely to try and help make it work.'
In terms of upcoming shows they are excited for, Spanos touted psychological thriller All Her Fault for Peacock. 'Sarah Snook's character knocks on a door to pick up a kid from a play date, and the older woman who opens the door has never heard of her, her kid has no idea what she's talking about,' she explained. 'That kicks off that sort of thriller engine, but also it turns into a sort of bigger Big Little Lies kind of mystery about all the secrets and lies between these different families and relationships.'
Concluded Spanos: 'What I liked coming into it, reading it fresh and watching it fresh was that there's quite a thematic feminist messaging underneath it all, because it's called All Her Fault, and it's all really about how the mother is treated very differently from the father in that circumstances by the police, by the community, by everyone, really.'
About the series planned on The Birds, Gibbs shared: 'This is obviously a Universal film title, the iconic Hitchcock movie. We're not adapting that. We're going back to the source material, the Daphne du Maurier novella and using that as inspiration. And at its heart, it's looking at when nature turns on you. Obviously, with climate change that is very timely, and we just attached an exciting U.S. showrunner who's very experienced in genre.' She didn't mention their name.
Fletcher-Jones, meanwhile, touted Too Much and how it explores the differences between the U.S. and U.K. in lovable ways.
And she said that Working Title and the BBC are developing a TV adaptation of E.M. Forster's popular 1924 novel A Passage to India, which is set against the backdrop of the Indian independence movement against the British Empire and has previously received the film treatment. The companies are collaborating with Canadian director and writer Richie Mehta on the five-part series. 'Richie is Indian by heritage, so it is completely turning that novel on its head and doing it from the Indian point of view,' shared Fletcher-Jones. 'It's a beautiful piece he's writing and directing it all.' She also called it a take that will 'reclaim colonial history, which feels really sort of Soul Food-y.'
On Wednesday, SXSW London sessions featured appearances by the likes of Idris Elba, ABBA's Björn Ulvaeus and Letitia Wright, among others.
SXSW London, which not only features panel discussions, but also film screenings and live music events, among other things, runs through June 7. Penske Media, the parent company of The Hollywood Reporter, is the majority stakeholder of SXSW.
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