Germany’s BriskPace Studios targets local originals after confirming leadership team

Munich- and London-based BriskPace Studios is looking to grow its slate of German originals under the leadership of Michael Bütow.

Michael Bütow

Munich-based Bütow joined BriskPace Studios as head of German originals in September, having worked as an independent producer and consultant since 2024, when he left his role as head of fiction and executive producer at Central European Media Enterprises.

He joined the television group in 2016 and went on to launch several dramas in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria.

Many of these were adaptations of shows such as German crime series Soko Leipzig, Belgian crime series Professor T, German romcom Der Lehrer, Finnish medical drama Nurses, Turkish series Ezel and Argentinian telenovela Daddies.

Bütow previously gained international experience as head of production for RTL Group in Croatia and Russia. Before that, he managed production companies and worked as an executive producer in Germany.

At the start of his career, Bütow was chief commissioning editor for German private networks RTL II and later ProSieben.

Bütow said: “Producing abroad taught me one thing: audiences are local, but the way a good series is built is not. German originals are rarely developed with international ambition and the rights kept at home. I am happy to join my colleagues at BriskPace to prove it can be done.”

BriskPace was founded last year by former Vuelta Germany CEO Al Munteanu and has now confirmed its senior leadership team.

André Druskeit, who joined last year from DZ Bank, is the company’s chief financial officer. He spent 15 years at Munich-based distributor and producer Telepool, serving as deputy MD and CFO, then MD.

Rob Van Norden is head of production, having held the same role at Millennium Media in LA from 2018 to 2023, overseeing a slate that included Rambo: Last Blood, The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard and Angel Has Fallen.

Before that, Van Norden spent more than a decade as a producer and line producer on films across the US, Europe and Asia.

All three report to Munteanu, with BriskPace Studios’ core slate comprising English-language features and TV series made in Europe for the US and international markets.

The outfit’s first original series, The Light & Hard Times of Lucky Briscoe, was launched in October. Its new unscripted and formats arm, BriskPace Unlimited, is developing a local-language adaptation of Turkish competition format The Greatest Duo.

Munteanu said: “We are building a studio for how audiences watch now: we originate the IP, we finance and produce it, we keep it and we take it to every screen it belongs on.

“André, Rob and Michael have each spent their careers on a different side of that equation: the bank, the set and the broadcaster. We spent a year building quietly. We are done being quiet.”

Druskeit said: “For years I helped decide which films a bank would finance, and the pattern was always the same: the film gets made, the bank gets repaid and too little stays with the producer to fund the next one.

“BriskPace keeps the rights, runs the numbers the way a lender would and finds more than one way to earn from each project. I wanted to build that from the inside, not watch it from across the table.”

Van Norden added: “Al built BriskPace to emphasise quality. My job is to make sure we get that quality at the right cost. Being based in Europe, where I have been working for years, gives us a stable place to make theatrical projects using strong incentives, seasoned crews and great locations.

“After 20 years making other people’s slates work, I wanted to build one from scratch, in a place where we can succeed creatively and financially.”