Seasoned French-Swedish producer Patrick Nebout (“Midnight Sun”, “Cannes Confidential,” “Agent Hamilton”) has inked a co-production pact with German powerhouse Odeon Fiction (Netflix’s “Kitz”) to jointly develop and produce the eight-part English-language dramedy “The Studio.”
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The murder mystery and movie industry spoof will be Nebout’s first production for his Stockholm-based Dramanation, a boutique outfit specialised in the creation and packaging of quality European scripted dramas and features with a global appeal.
Under the agreement between Dramanation and Leonine Studios’ banner Odeon Fiction, the German outfit’s exec producer, head of international co-productions Britta Meyermann, will executive-produce and oversee the production alongside Nebout.
Currently in development, “The Studio” is the brainchild of Nebout and his long-time creative partner Henrik Jansson-Schweizer, writer of the duo’s much anticipated satire “Whiskey on the Rocks,” ordered by Swedish pubcaster SVT and Disney +. Their earlier hits include the Oscar-nominated pic “The Hundred Year-Old Man Who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared” and the SVT/Canal+ Nordic Noir “Midnight Sun” – the first ever French/Swedish TV co-production.
For their next original comedy-laced show, co-creators Nebout and Jansson-Schweizer have partnered with some of the best British comedy writing talents, Blackdog Television’s founders Dan Gaster, Will Ing and Paul Powell, whose joint writing or production credits include “The Graham Norton Show,” “Have I Got News for You,” “The Thick of It” and AMC Networks’ Acorn TV upcoming “Art Detectives.”
Positioned as a “creative cousin’ of ‘Call My Agent,” “Only Murders in the Building” and “The Office,” “The Studio” will be entirely filmed in the legendary Les Studios de la Victorine in Nice.
About the series’ premise, Nebout said: “Take a failed small-town theme-park manager, a ferocious Texan lawyer and a process-obsessed CFO, add egotistic actors, demanding agents and needy studio assistants, throw in a shady plan to save a famous but failing film studio on the gorgeously photogenic French Riviera and add a mystery in the shape of a missing studio boss, and you’ve got the starting point for a satirical but heart-warming look at the dirty business of show business, where nothing is sacred and everything’s possible, including getting away with murder.”
A long-time fan of Nebout and Jansson-Schweizer’s joint creative and production endeavours, Meyermann said she “immediately feel in love” with the idea for the show.
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“It’s going to be a distinctive show that I absolutely would want to watch and that I’m missing in the current market,” she said, adding: “It’s not a dark thriller but, as a satirical murder mystery set on the French Riviera, with its cast of larger-than-life characters, it’s fun and entertaining without being superficial. With writers Dan Gaster, Will Ing and Paul Powell on board, we’re in for a very special series, sprinkled with British humor, surprising twists and turns, smart, witty dialogue and eye-candy locations. I’m very much looking forward to this collaboration, hopefully the first of more to follow!”
Nebout said he will be at Mipcom initiating discussions with potential financiers, broadcasters and streamers. “The market is extremely fluid; it’s early days to tell which financing model we’ll go for. But we’ll certainly tap into the French attractive 30% tax rebate and aim for a late 2025-early 2026 start of production,” he told Variety .
Expanding on his vision for Dramanation, Nebout – who most recently exited comics publisher Humanoid’s European audiovisual outlet Sparkling after several years at the helm of the Beta Film-backed Dramacorp – said his plan now is “to remain lean and flexible to take into account the shifting market.”
Together with Jansson-Schweizer, who will join him and serve as creative producer-head of development, the two will work across all genres and scripted formats. “People are coming back to features, both in the theatrical and streaming space. We’ll continue to have ears to the ground, and listen to where the industry is going,” he insisted.
Although Dramanation is initially focusing on premium high-quality dramas, Nebout’s goal going forward is to “stand on both legs” and also produce “low budget genre titles and romcoms that are in demand on the market.”
Other serialised projects in Dramanation’s pipeline include “a big Nordic distinctive noir with international potential,” currently in discussions with a local Swedish channel, and another major European co-production in the English-language.
Meanwhile the buzzy Cold War satire “Whiskey on the Rocks,“ based on an idea by best-selling novelist Jonas Jonasson and directed by Björn Stein (“Shadowplay”, “Midnight Sun”), is due to premiere on SVT on Christmas Day, before a global roll out on Disney+.
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