Discovery, CBC, ZDF board upcoming BBC Titan sub disaster documentary
Discovery Channel in the US, CBC in Canada and ZDF in Germany are on board a forthcoming BBC documentary about the underwater vehicle that imploded during an expedition to view the wreck of the Titanic last year.
The Titan Disaster (working title) is a UK and Canada coproduction made under the Canada-UK bilateral coproduction treaty that is being supported by the UK Global Screen Fund.
The UK producer is Renegade Stories, which will coproduce for BBC Two and iPlayer with Canadian Galafilm in Quebec alongside Discovery Channel in the US, CBC in Canada and ZDF in Germany.
Exploring the major mysteries behind the tragedy that captured the world’s attention when it took the lives of five people in the North Atlantic in 2023, it will include never-before seen footage of Titan’s final successful dive to Titanic and Stockton Rush’s last interview recorded for mainstream TV. The executive producers are Alan Hayling and Arnie Gelbart.
The UK Global Screen Fund has also invested a forthcoming feature documentary about Irish author Edna O’Brien for Sky Arts executive produced by Barbara Broccoli.
Blue Road: The Edna O’Brien Story is a minority UK coproduction with Ireland made under the European Convention.
The UK producer is Eleanor Emptage of Tara Films, who will coproduce with Ireland’s Claire McCabe and Sinead O’Shea of SOS Productions.
The executive producers are Barbara Broccoli, Katie Holly, and Kathryn Ferguson for Tara Films, Niamh Fagan for Screen Ireland and Jack Oliver for Sky Arts.
The documentary feature film, which will receive its world premiere at Toronto International Film Festival in September, is directed by Sinéad O’Shea and presents a portrait of one of the world’s greatest and most charismatic writers.
Oscar-nominated actress Jessie Buckley narrates the personal journals of O’Brien, which are being made public for the first time. This project was fast-tracked under the UK Global Screen Fund coproduction strand.
This latest round of awards has also seen Piripenguins, a UK-majority TV animation project for BBC and Rai in Italy that was announced earlier this year.
The animated children’s series, created and series directed by Massimo Fenati, follows a colony of penguins enjoying life to the full on a remote iceberg floating somewhere in the ocean.
It comes from Eaglet Films, which is working alongside Italy’s Pedro Citaristi and Lucia Geraldine Scott of Red Monk as well as Scotland’s Sueann Rochester for Wild Child Animation. The project was fast-tracked under the UK Global Screen Fund coproduction strand as an unofficial coproduction.
Financed through the UK government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), the awards allocate over £1.7m (US$2.2m) to 11 projects, including eight feature films, through the fund’s International Coproduction strand, supporting UK producers to work as partners on international coproductions and help create new global projects. To date the strand has now awarded over £8.1m to 51 co-productions.
The awards, in the form of non-recoupable grants, support UK independent companies as minority coproducers for feature films of all genres, and as majority and minority coproducers for TV animation and documentary projects.
Creative industries minister Chris Bryant said: “Whether you watch great British movies on a silver screen or a smartphone, the UK’s independent film and TV trailblazers showcase the UK to the world, and we are 100% committed to supporting them so they can grow their business overseas and reach new global audiences.”
Denitsa Yordanova, BFI head of UK Global Screen Fund and International Funds, said: “The UK Global Screen Fund is so proud to have awarded 51 international coproductions to date, supporting partnerships with 32 territories and backing the UK independent screen sector to realise its global ambitions and reach new audiences.”
UK Global Screen Fund applications are now open, and assessed on a rolling basis, for international distribution festival launch support; international distribution film sales support; and international distribution prints and advertising support.
The £7m per year UK Global Screen Fund was launched in April 2021 to boost international development and distribution opportunities for the UK’s independent screen sector, across film, TV, documentary, animation and interactive narrative games content.
Applications for International Coproduction funding will re-open in late September and applications for International Business development will re-open in 2025.
