Warrior Nun prodco RDF eyes European expansion, unveils development slate

RDF has shot two seasons of Warrior Nun in Spain

Reality Distortion Field (RDF), the Vancouver-based production company behind Netflix fantasy-drama Warrior Nun, is looking to expand both its geographical footprint and its content offering in the year ahead.

After shooting two seasons of Warrior Nun in Spain, RDF president Stephen Hegyes told C21 the company is in discussions to expand into Europe, either by opening an office on the continent or via a partnership.

“Through the experience of working in Spain and building relationships with talent, buyers and directors, we’ve found tremendous talent that we want to continue to work with. We will probably be planting a flag somewhere in Europe – we’re not sure where exactly, possibly Madrid,” he said, adding that RDF is holding discussions and hopes to have a strategy in place by the second quarter of 2023.

Stephen Hegyes

Hegyes runs the prodco alongside co-founder Simon Barry, who has been one of Canada’s most in-demand showrunners and creators for more than a decade. In addition to creating Warrior Nun, which returned earlier this month for a second season, Barry’s creator credits also include the sci-fi drama Continuum and crime drama Bad Blood.

While genre content has been RDF’s core focus in the past, it has started to branch out into new areas, including drama and young-adult drama, over the past 12 months.

The company’s first young-adult series, Fakes (10×30’), a co-commission from Canadian pubcaster CBC and Netflix, launched in September. The series follows two teenage best friends who accidentally build one of the largest fake ID empires in North America.

The prodco is now seeking to further broaden its development slate, having recently acquired the rights to Canadian book Mindful of Murder: A Novel by Susan Juby. Hegyes described the adaptation as “in the vein of Knives Out meets The White Lotus.”

The company is also developing an adaptation of author Lori Goldstein’s Screen Queens, about women in the tech industry. RDF is in the process of taking the project to market.

In addition, it is working on an adaptation of Roshani Chokshi’s bestselling novel series The Gilded Wolves. The project, set in Paris in the late 19th century, follows a treasure hunter who assembles a team of unlikely allies to aid him in his quest to obtain powerful objects by any means necessary.

As previously announced, RDF is working with Connect 3 Media, which sits under Cineflix Media, on The Arsonist, an English-language version of the French-language crime and mystery drama Feux (Fire). The series follows a woman who seemingly has it all, with a career as a high-flying lawyer and a loving family. However, she puts all that on the line for an affair with a younger man she used to babysit more than 30 years earlier.

RDF is also working with Jon Kramer-led Aftershock Media, although no projects have been formally announced.

Hegyes will be at C21’s Content London next week to discuss some of these projects and others with prospective partners.

A key focus in the year ahead is to continue to forge partnerships with international players, he added, while simultaneously retaining the company’s focus on Canadian stories and creatives.

“We see a lot of opportunities in the European marketplace,” said Hegyes. “We’ve partnered with a French company, we’re looking to go back to Spain with a new series and we’re going to be shooting something in Scandinavia early next year, so it’s a busy time for us.”