Specific: " data-tag="louis-theroux">louis theroux‘s Mindhouse Productions making premium sky documentary about sad lockerbie The bombshell as the famed documentarian and his Mindhouse co-founder, “The U.S. market swoon,” talks about future investments and moving forward in the script BBCcontroversial jimmy saville play.
Along with co-founders and creative directors Nancy Strang and Aaron Fellows, Theroux sat down for a rare interview with a deadline for lunch at the Soho House Hotel as the trio’s fledgling production company turned three, turning 36. It has been a whirlwind of months, where they have secured multiple commissions, struck distribution deals, developed meaningful relationships with talent and set their sights on the states.
Deadline may reveal three-parter lockerby, Which has been described by Sky as “the first premium box-set series about disaster” and was released several months later. sky/peacock drama On the tragic incident that led to the death of nearly 300 people remain unanswered questions to this day. Prior to 9/11, Lockerbies was the worst terrorist attack to have occurred against the US, killing nearly 300 people when Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over the small Scottish town.
Theroux, Joe Mindhouse unveiled at Edinburgh TV Festival 2019 After a career spanning two decades in front of some of the UK’s biggest documentaries, told Deadline lockerbie “Exactly the kind of project I wanted us to be involved in when we set up.”
“Our values are about storytelling and being audience friendly, and I have no shame in saying that we really want to reach a wider audience,” he said. “At the risk of sounding inflammatory, we also want people to feel like they’ve learned something about the human condition.”
The premium box-set also reflects Theroux’s desire to stay away from presenting all of Mindhouse’s shows – one of their main drivers for setting up Shingle – and is neither fronting nor producing. Is Lockerbie.
Strang, who is Theroux’s partner, said the team came up with the idea soon after launching Mindhouse and wanted to channel the success of “Untold Stories” like Sky/HBO. Chernobyl.
“It is a murder mystery and hence we are taking a documentary-thriller approach,” he added. “There is a whole generation of people who do not know or remember this story about a small place in Scotland that has become an epicenter for geopolitical forces.”
After consulting with Jim Swier, who has been seeking justice for decades after his daughter Flora was killed in an attack, Strang said the team is approaching the doctor with the utmost sensitivity.
Theroux said: “We come from the BBC, which has a track record of ticking all the boxes on contributory care and a responsible approach to storytelling. It courses through our veins.”
world premium factual drive
Premium Factual – One of the key trends for all three are rapidly taking advantage of the interest of global buyers MIPCOM to emerge from Cannes – Won business mainly from British broadcasters since launch like BBC god of snooker And Louis Theroux interview…, And channel 4‘s Really Sex With Alice Levine,
With that in mind, the company is developing a series about YouTuber KSI to co-produce a previously announced Amazon Prime Video document as well as a global streamer and another big box-set series.
“We want to lean into the US market and global stories,” Strang said. “There’s still a lot of resonance in the retrospective storytelling and we’re seeing that internationally.”
The trio has insisted several times that they are still willing to create content for the BBC and other UK players. Upcoming shows include a BBC Mark Zuckerberg doc, which Strong is producing with “a”Inside the President’s War Room-style technique”, and follows a companion BBC critically acclaimed . god of snooker document title God of Tennis. For Channel 4, Mindhouse is producing a TV version of comedian David Baddell’s book Jews do not count, The team revealed will include contributions from David Schwimmer, Sarah Silverman and Neil Gaiman.
But big budget commissions will require investment and Mindhouse has so far avoided taking investments from any big player, instead staying independent. A first-look distribution deal with BBC Studios is due to expire later this year.
Praising BBC Studios for its support, Fellows revealed that the company is “exploring other options” and has “some ambitions that may require more investment at some point”, while admitting that they “It is comforting that the deer stop with us.”
Theroux elaborated: “There is an emotional attachment to keeping the company independent but we also want to grow, that means bringing in more money. You have to be a little harsh and think about the costs.”
Theroux is “happy as Larry” about the current state of Mindhouse. He described the progress as “exceeding my expectations when I look at spreadsheets” and admitted “My only regret is that I probably could have done this a few years ago, but I didn’t know Aaron and Nancy.” , so I didn’t have to beg.”
One of his most treasured elements has been the opportunity to work behind the scenes on the show, overseeing the entire slate instead of coming home one prep gig at a time.
“It’s weird to be a presenter because you’re a star in one sense and the most irrelevant in another,” he said. “You’re both pampered and baby. It’s suspected that when you leave the room everyone says ‘Thank God he’s gone, now we can get down to the real work.'”
Led by Theroux on all shows, Mindhouse is working with a talent roster of budding presenters who can also contribute off-screen, such as BBC Radio 2’s Rylan Clarke, my dad wrote a porn With host Alice Levine and health guru Joe Wicks running the Talent Residence for Young People in collaboration with BBC Studios.
“It’s about giving new ground to specific voices and collaborating with them,” Theroux said. “My idea with Mindhouse was always to have people on screen who add something interesting and different.”
The strategy is much broader than “finding a new Louis,” Fellows said, adding: “The way we work with Louis is much more collaborative. With people like Alice [Levine] We are talking all the way through writing, editing and scripts.”
scripted push detected
Also on the horizon is a scripted push from a fact-minded company and Theroux cited Russell T. Davis. a very british scandal and James Graham quiz As a possible blueprint for scripted shows that have a documentary flavor.
Strang said there are “early talks” with the playmakers and Indy is also working on its first feature, a “twisty-turny psychological thriller” coming out of the US.
“The stories we brainstorm often have barriers like access and collecting and creating a play will solve that problem,” he said. “We can work with talented play makers and screenwriters and feel that this is an exciting place.”
BBC has a drama to be launched soon Steve CooganShow starring Jimmy Savile to computeA highly controversial project about a former BBC presenter who was posthumously ousted for sexually abusing hundreds of people, leading to a scandal that turned the BBC inside out.
Theroux made two documentaries about Savile, one while he was alive and one after Savile’s death, and he has previously stated that he was “haunted” with his time.
He urged critics who believe Jeff Pope’s words to compute Former BBC drama director Piers Wenger will glorify Saville to reserve judgment on upcoming drama after being insisted “public interest” In a show that would “voice the victims.”
Theroux said, “I am in favor of bold storytelling, and the challenge here will be to what extent the show focuses on the experiences of Jimmy Savile and to what extent it does justice to the victims.” “It’s easy to say the show should never happen unless you’ve questioned the idea, but you just don’t know. People thought Downfall [about Hitler’s last days] Was crazy at first but it was a really interesting bit of storytelling. There is so much drama in moral or questionable personalities and the questions it raises get me out of bed in the morning. ,
Back to Mindhouse and drama aren’t the only new genres indie is expanding into, with Channel 4’s outfit five boys a week the creator Barnaby Coughlin Last year for leading a fact-ant push and co-executing the KSI show.
Coughlin is leading the charge in factual entertainment and the rest of the team is also brainstorming ideas for what Mindhouse can do in the general entertainment and podcasting space.
“It is fair to say that we are ambitious and all the things we are not doing are possibilities for things we could have done,” Fellows said, neatly summarizing ambition.