Disney EMEA seeks three key types of unscripted content for Star on Disney+

ETVF: The Walt Disney Company in EMEA is looking for three key types of unscripted show for the Star segment on Disney+, according to the region’s director of unscripted content Sean Doyle.

Sean Doyle

Speaking at The Edinburgh TV Festival on Monday, Doyle said Star, which provides content aimed at adults, is in the market for unscripted boxsets, human stories and programmes that tackle issues.

Boxsets must be “premium and broad” and focus on people “who can give defining versions of events of their own stories,” according to the exec, who described them as “the Holy Grail on any service at the moment.”

Human stories, meanwhile, should have a more personal tone. “We’re loosely calling them unscripted thrillers. What we mean by that is stories about people who are put in extraordinary circumstances or retelling their story of something unbelievable that happened to them. It could be in the business world, it could be in the medical world, it could be in the crime world. They’re jaw dropping stories that have rollercoaster moments,” Doyle said.

Finally, programmes that tackle issues should “resonate with real personal experience, whether it be about body image or societal or political issues,” the exec added. “We want to take those and be really innovative with form and storytelling in how we tell those stories.”

Speaking alongside Doyle, Johanna Devereaux, director of scripted content at The Walt Disney Company in EMEA, added that she is looking for local scripted programmes for Star with “a sense of scale with real ambition.”

“We are The Walt Disney Company – we don’t do small,” Devereaux said. “Things definitely have to speak loudly. We are looking for local voices, local talent and local storytelling – but local, not parochial. What we mean by that is we’re looking for themes, ideas, voices that will speak so loudly they will feel universal, even if the point of view is very local.”

Johanna Devereaux

For the main Disney brand on Disney+, Devereaux echoed the desire for shows with scale and ambition. “Anything we do under the Disney banner really has to stand up against Marvel and Lucas and all of that amazing content,” she said. “Everything has to be imbued with the Disney qualities of optimism and hope and joy and a sense of community. We’re better together than we are apart – that message is incredibly important for Disney. Inclusive storytelling is really, really important as well.”

Although Disney is often viewed as a brand just for kids, Devereaux stressed the need for shows to appeal to adults too. “Our shows have to be targeted at adults as much as they are to kids,” she said. “So what we’re looking for isn’t necessarily children’s television. Stories have to have a real sense of sophistication in the emotion and the storytelling of them.”

The exec also highlighted the importance of original ideas, noting: “We sometimes get pitched things that are a take on Disney IP. That’s really not of interest to us. We don’t want to reboot or rebrand or look to the Disney library. We’re looking for original ideas.”

Also speaking at the festival, Liam Keelan, VP of original productions for The Walt Disney Company in EMEA, announced the Disney+ commission of Nautilus – a sci-fi, adventure, live-action series based on Jules Verne’s classic novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.