Idris Elba and Diene Petterle set up 22 Summers to focus on factual projects

Idris Elba has partnered with Diene Petterle to set up 22 Summers

Luther and Hijack star Idris Elba has partnered with former BBC and Pulse Films exec Diene Petterle to set up a new production company focusing on premium factual content.

The fledgling label, named 22 Summers, has subsumed Elba’s existing UK prodco, Green Door Pictures, whose credits include Hijack for Apple TV+, Sky One comedy In the Long Run, Netflix comedy series Turn Up Charlie and four-part BBC documentary series Idris Elba’s Fight School.

Diene Petterle

Petterle’s Drumroll Films, meanwhile, has also been folded into 22 Summers, news of which was first reported by Deadline.

Elba and Petterle, who is the former global creative director at Vice-backed UK production company Pulse Films, are working on a slate of unscripted projects following the launch of their first title, Erased: WWII Heroes of Colour (4×60′) on Nat Geo and Disney+.

Petterle has previously held roles at Banijay-owned Darlow Smithson Productions (DSP), UK prodco Icon and the BBC, where Petterle was responsible for commissions including Do You Think You Are?, Fifteen Billion Pound Railway and The Doctor Who Gave Up Drugs.

22 Summers has also tapped Jess Watts as head of development for unscripted from Dorothy St. Pictures, where she developed projects including Coleen Rooney: The Real Wagatha Story at Disney+.