Spellbound poaches Endemol exec

MIP NEWS – For his new children's outfit Spellbound Entertainment, Peter Curtis has poached an Endemol UK exec and outlined to C21 his plans for his two-week-old company.

The former Hit Entertainment vp of copros and acquisitions has roped in Nick Barrington from Endemol Entertainment UK, where he was head of advertiser-funded programming. Barrington's expertise in this area will be key for Spellbound, said Curtis.

{We'll be working with a variety of advertisers, commercial partners, publishers and broadcasters on our upcoming portfolio of titles,{ he said. Curtis has already optioned several properties – some book adaptations, some original concepts – but was reluctant to give details. {We'll launch our properties at Mipcom.{

Instead he told C21 what Spellbound wouldn't be: {We won't be a catalogue company, we won't be deficit funding projects, we won't be a production company and we won't be a distributor. We're an executive production company.{

Spellbound's relatively small portfolio – {two or three projects a year,{ he estimates – will not be produced inhouse but will be made by the producer that generated the original concept or farmed out to a suitable studio or facility.

{For the titles we're developing I have certain studios in mind, but we'll be matching projects with studios on a project-by-project basis,{ he said.

He added that he wouldn't necessarily be looking to tie up with a distributor to shop Spellbound product around the world. {With my background at Hit and Nick's background at Endemol, we're well used to pitching to international networks,{ he said. {Further down the track we'll probably select distributors, also on a project-by-project basis.{