Mediawan takes majority stake in McQueen prodco Misfits Entertainment
SUPER/MAN: The Christopher Reeve Story
European production and distribution group Mediawan has acquired a majority stake in London-based prodco Misfits Entertainment for an undisclosed fee.
Founded in 2016, Misfits Entertainment is run by Andee (Dee) Ryder and Ian Bonhôte, who have a strong track record in founding and running production companies as well as producing scripted feature film Alleycats.
Misfits specialises in documentary and is gearing up for the forthcoming Sundance 2024 Film Festival where it will be premiering feature documentary SUPER/MAN: The Christopher Reeve Story.
The company’s track record includes the double-BAFTA-nominated feature film McQueen, directed by Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui (2019), and Rising Phoenix about the Paralympic movement, winner of two Emmy Awards (2020).
More recently, Misfits produced Kingdom of Dreams, a four-part non-fiction series about the fashion industry which sold to 169 territories across the globe and The Contestant which premiered at TIFF (2023), then swiftly sold to Hulu and is due for release in 2024.
While Misfits will continue to produce high-end docs, Ryder and Bonhôte will also expand their fiction slate, which includes four forthcoming feature films.
Mediawan said the group’s ambition is to develop its network of production companies worldwide, across all genres and formats in all territories. The company is already present in the scripted market in the UK with Drama Republic (The English, The Lovers, One Day) and animation specialist Wildseed Studios (Dodo, Tuff Pom), now also becomes a key player in documentary production with Misfits.
“This new partnership represents a significant opportunity to strengthen Mediawan’s international footprint and grow our premium documentary slate,” said Elisabeth d’Arvieu, CEO of Mediawan Pictures.
Mediawan’s recent documentary slate includes The Stadium (a Black Dynamite production for Paramount +), Orelsan – Don’t ever show this to anyone (a Troisième Oeil production for Prime Video), and Gregory (an Imagissime production for Netflix).
Ryder and Bonhôte added: “We are thrilled to join the Mediawan group. It was apparent to us early on in our conversations that Mediawan shared our ambition and vision for the future of Misfits Entertainment. With our genre agnostic approach to filmmaking, we are proud of what we have achieved in the first few years of our company in the international marketplace. The partnership will help us to grow our documentary team and support us to make bigger strides in the scripted global marketplace to align with what we have achieved in documentary.”
