Orange takes on Unpunished

SERIES MANIA: The coproduction arm of French telco Orange is backing an eight-part AI-focused drama from French firms APC Studios and Make It Happen Studio and Denmark’s Sweet Chili Entertainment.

Orange has boarded Unpunished as it expands its film coproduction unit into television and aims to co-develop and coproduce high-end content. Joining the series as a coproducer and commissioner, Orange will air Unpunished on its pay TV service, OCS, in France.

APC Studios (recently rebranded from About Premium Content) is developing the 8×60’ drama with French indie Make It Happen Studio and Nordic firm Sweet Chili Entertainment. APC will handle global sales in partnership with Orange Studio.

The coproducers say they are already engaged in several advanced conversations with other potential backers in Europe and in the US with a view to completing financing.

Filming primarily in the English language, Unpunished is a sci-fi thriller set across Europe that follows the evolution of an artificial intelligence from a man-made virus into an ever-evolving, ever-learning ‘super intelligence’ with the capacity to take away humanity’s control of its own destiny.

Álex García López (Misfits, Daredevil), who is currently directing The Witcher for Netflix, is attached as showrunner, while Coline Abert (The Returned, The Bureau) is on board as the main writer. The series will start production in November this year.

APC Studios is headed by Emmanuelle Guilbart and Laurent Boissel. An independent production and distribution company, it partners with global content creators to develop and finance projects from inception to international distribution.

Sweet Chili Entertainment is a Copenhagen-based producer and distributor. Founded in 2014, it is co-owned by Ole Søndberg (founder of Yellow Bird and producer of Wallander and Millennium), Sofie Wanting Hassing, Line Winther Skyum Funch (The Truth Will Out, Hidden) and Rasmus Ramstad.

Make It Happen Studio is a Paris-based independent prodco founded by French producer Sydney Gallonde (Harlan Coben’s No Second Chance) in 2017.