Former HBO executive Gábor Krigler reveals how his new prodco, Joyrider, has dealt with Covid-19 and how he plans to use his Series Mania pitch to expand beyond Central Europe.

‘Soviet noir’ drama Balaton Brigade centres on a Stasi unit in Hungary

In 2019, Gábor Krigler quit his job as a producer at HBO Europe to launch a new independent production company called Joyrider in his native Hungary.

After two years, he feels one of his big ambitions in life has been fulfilled. He spent eight years at HBO Europe learning his craft and attributes his current success to having worked for a big player for so long.

“I never really wanted to work for a major corporation,” he says. “Don’t get me wrong, it was definitely a dream job and I got to learn the nuts and bolts of producing TV series when there was no opportunity in Budapest in those days. It was a great education but I wanted to do my own thing, and my time at HBO gave me all the skills I needed to strike out on my own.”

When he left HBO, Krigler couldn’t see much opportunity for foreign producers in Hungary apart from the governmental tax break that refunds 30% of film production costs incurred in the country. Joyrider was lucky to have an investor come on board that could pump money into development. This process took the company as far as making a pilot, and Krigler had almost managed to get some shows out to market by March 2020.

What happened next hardly needs saying. Covid-19 forced Joyrider to reset when tantalisingly close to getting its first show out, but Krigler is quick to point out it could have been worse.

Gábor Krigler

“We had to completely rethink our strategies,” he says. “But it also coincided with the Hungarian National Film Institute setting up a TV production fund for local companies. Suddenly it was possible to get production funding from state sources, which changed the game.”

Another tactic Joyrider employed was talking to local broadcasters as the international content market held its breath. This, says Krigler, helped Joyrider to earn a reputation with international buyers.

“Whoever we talk to in the market, they want to know immediately who the anchor broadcaster is. That is, who have you got on board already? With me coming from HBO, where everything was internally funded, we had to change our thinking and start to prioritise that first big buyer from our own region. That, plus the tax break, helps us to visualise our finances.”

Krigler is referring to Central Europe where the other big buyers include Germany and Poland. Across the region he says buyers are a lot more risk-averse as a result of the pandemic, which means funds are shrinking. On the flip side, producers have made more than ever in the past year and are now struggling to find places to sell their content. How will Joyrider adapt to the changing face of the industry?

“The key is coproduction,” says Krigler. “We have a much clearer vision of that side of things thanks to the pandemic and we currently have four projects that are – fingers crossed – nearing a TX date. They’re certainly closer than other shows have been. All four have a strong coproduction partner from abroad and a solid financing plan with variables that can be changed if necessary. It’s all about being flexible and able to tailor your approach.”

Among the partnerships Joyrider has agreed is a pact with Ivana Miković, the former chief operating officer at Serbian public broadcaster Radio Televizija Srbije, to coproduce an offbeat comedy drama with her new prodco Firefly. Frust (6×50’) tells the story of a struggling young writer who accidentally kills a drug pusher who is terrorising his neighbourhood and becomes an anonymous social media superstar.

Series Mania is set to be held from August 26 in Lille, France

Krigler says that, like Eastern Europe and other regions, Central Europe is still waiting to be hit by the streaming boom. He says Poland is the biggest market for Hungarian shows, and while it is getting prepared for the advent of streaming it doesn’t dominate the TV landscape yet. But with the benefit of being able to see the VoD wave on the horizon before it hits, how is Joyrider preparing?

Krigler says: “One of the most important things we can do now is minimise risk. The emphasis with streamers is always put on either IP or on-screen talent and we’re talking to as many big names as possible. If everything goes according to plan we’ll be shooting the four series mentioned next year, but we’re always looking further ahead than that. Personally, I am always on the lookout for new talent through teaching positions I hold, and it’s about keeping your finger on the pulse.”

Before those four shows enter production, Joyrider has a series further into development with Budapest-based partner Film Force. Balaton Brigade (8×50’) is a ‘Soviet noir’ drama about a unit of the East German Stasi secret police stationed on a beach in Hungary to make sure people don’t defect to the West while on holiday.

The drama is set in the summer of 1986 as the Cold War is coming to the boil and a Stasi agent is working on capturing a reform Communist from the GDR while secretly planning to flee with his family to the West. With shows like Chernobyl and The Serpent, Soviet-era drama is en vogue, but Krigler has no interest in being linked with the trend.

“This show almost predates all of them,” he says. “I never like to look at trends and create shows accordingly because trends come and go, and making a show takes years. I grew up in Lake Balaton, where the show takes place, and I started thinking about the series while still working for HBO. We initially had a German broadcaster onboard but they backed out due to Covid, so we took it to Hungary’s RTL Klub and they were interested.”

After an arduous process and the RTL Klub greenlight, Balaton Brigade has found international buyers for the show, to be revealed during Krigler’s copro pitch session at Series Mania in Lille at the end of this month, where he’ll be one of 16 producers to pitch their series in development to potential financial partners.

Ivana Miković

Balaton Brigade is being pitched under Series Mania’s project exchange with Berlinale’s Series Market, which took place in March and where the show was unveiled.

The main characters of the show speak German while the dialogue is about 30% Hungarian, according to Krigler. With the pandemic giving birth to an explosion in locally produced non-English-language content, could even such a niche language as Hungarian make it to the world stage?

“Not yet, although we are at the beginning of the phenomenon,” says Krigler. “It’s still a tiny language and a very small market. We haven’t really had a proper breakthrough yet.

“Shows I made at HBO were shown in the US and Spain but not to a huge fanfare, despite getting a good response. Broadcasters in Hungary are still very much focusing on the local market, and to have an international boom you need investment – not just monetary investment, but time and effort.

“We’re making steps towards it by working with foreigners – Balaton Brigade is in German, we have an entirely Italian series, one that’s half Polish and a series we’re making with a company in Bosnia. If we can keep working internationally, the Hungarian industry has very strong potential.”