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Newen Connect agrees first-look pact with Jude Law’s Riff Raff Entertainment

Jude Law (left, photo Marco Grob) and Ben Jackson

LONDON SCREENINGS: TF1-owned French distributor Newen Connect (NC) has signed a first-look TV development deal with actor Jude Law’s prodco Riff Raff Entertainment (Black Rabbit).

The partnership, unveiled at Newen’s London TV Screenings event on Tuesday night, is part of NC’s strategy to grow its offering of English-language content and collaborate with big-name talent.

Under the agreement, NC will provide “significant” funding to allow Law’s outfit to expand its production slate. It also gives NC first refusal on any titles produced by Riff Raff in the future.

The two companies have already started work on a slate of projects, including political thriller The Foreign Desk, with Law attached to star.

Also under development are a female-led show based on a true story with writer Kirstie Swain (Pure) and a talent-led project with playwright Chris Urch.

The partnership was negotiated by NC’s Josephine Fontaine, VP of acquisition and coproduction, Pia Valentie, head of legal at NC, and Stephen Fuss, CEO of Riff Raff Entertainment.

The deal is underwritten by global production and financing studio Anton.

Law co-founded Riff Raff Entertainment with creative partner Ben Jackson in 2017. The outfit has benefitted from investment by fund management company Calculus Capital.

Riff Raff expanded with the appointment of former Ingenious Media executive Stephen Fuss as CEO, Blueprint Pictures alum Katie Sinclair as head of development and ex-StudioCanal executive Lionelle Galloppa as development coordinator.

The prodco is currently in pre-production on the Netflix show Black Rabbit, as well as developing projects with Jonathan Glatzer (Succession) and Temi Wilkey (Sex Education).

Rodolphe Buet, chief business officer at NC, said: “This partnership with Riff Raff Entertainment marks a significant step forward in Newen Connect’s English-language growth strategy, building on our existing relationships in the UK, including six production companies, to give us even greater access to high-quality IP that enhances our existing catalogue.

“Our investment and distribution expertise will offer Riff Raff an important route to market and the ability to quickly take its projects from the page to the screen.”

Fuss said: “This partnership will help us further our goal of making Riff Raff Entertainment the ultimate home for high-end talent to build their TV projects.

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