Programming Profile

Sonia Fleck, CEO of Singapore’s Bomanbridge Media, talks us through the shows on her new slate and discusses trends in the market, as part of the company’s showcase on C21’s Digital Screenings.

What can you tell us about your new series, The Great Wall With Ash Dykes?
This is probably one of the most difficult projects we have ever coproduced. It’s with great excitement and pride that production kicked off this week for The Great Wall with Ash Dykes (6×60’). As an accomplished world traveller and adventurer, Ash will take us on an authentic discovery as he explores hidden parts of the Great Wall of China in this epic six-part historical expedition.

From parasailing from extreme heights to scuba diving the deep waters near where the Great Wall lies, frozen in time, Ash offers intimate access to the monument, as well as its historical influence, breath-taking landscapes and rich cultural heritage. In each episode, viewers also enjoy the meaningful interactions with local people along the varied sections over stunning landscapes, reaching from the Gobi Desert to the Yellow Sea.

An ongoing debate has long taken place over whether the Great Wall of China can be seen from outer space. Nasa says no – it would be like seeing a human hair from two miles away – but the European Space Agency says yes. Chinese astronauts have photographed the Great Wall from orbit. Regardless, the fascination continues – all because a single brick was put down, and that brick multiplied to become the greatest wall built in the history of mankind. We are so happy to announce that now audiences will soon be able to join in this rare experience.

How did all the partners and talent involved in the show come together?
Bomanbridge coproduced another series, Walking the Yangtze with Ash Dykes, who is a triple world record breaker. This series aired on multiple platforms, including National Geographic Channel, and is coming soon to RTL Geo in Germany.

Ash is a young British adventurer who is pushing the envelope on his personal accomplishments. He almost died from dehydration crossing Mongolia unassisted, but not discouraged by that experience, he went on to cross Madagascar, then walked the entire length of the Yangtze River, setting his first Guinness World Record in the process. Once again, he is with us filming the exploration of the Great Wall. Ash’s easy-going demeanour allows viewers to connect and share with him these authentic attempts to reach extraordinary goals.

The project was developed originally between Bomanbridge Media and our good friends at ZigZag Productions. They had wanted to do something on the Great Wall for quite a while. Bomanbridge approached the China Intercontinental Communication Center about the project and they came onboard, becoming a critical and amazing supporter of the idea to reflect The Great Wall in a closer, more personal way, both from an adventure and historical perspective. Frankly, I don’t think we could have worked with anyone better in China.

We also brought in a company to create a very clever virtual reality product that will give incredible access to a mind-blowing experience with Ash on the Great Wall. It’s an integrated way to approach such a unique opportunity.

Insight TV has jumped at the opportunity to be part of such a unique series and joined as a coproduction partner. There are two other major broadcasters who we will announce in the weeks to come; it’s a high-priority title in discussion at Mipcom with other key buyers.

We can certainly say this project has its unique complexities, even with the hefty seven-digit production budget. Entering and taking on such a mammoth project, in China, during the global pandemic, was surely an audacious challenge. Nevertheless, the media world agrees that life needs to go on, just like the Great Wall, I suppose. Through excellent teamwork from all our partners, we are collectively achieving this.

How is international demand for talent-led factual series like this changing?
Flagship channels once required A-list presenters to get a show up in key markets, especially the US, but we have been told by the same channels that this is changing. With platforms and markets repositioning themselves in this time of immense change, there is also a real hunger for new talent and authentic storytelling from around the world.

In addition to our factual, we are focused on lifestyles and travel series. This presenter-led genre builds a targeted and loyal audience, creating constancy in viewership. For example, we are developing and fundraising for one of our new food series, Cooking with Joss Stone (10×60’), which we have brought to Mipcom.

Joss Stone is a soul singer, world traveller, winner of The Masked Singer and a passionate vegetarian cook. She has such a good presence on camera and pulling together the funding is looking good. We currently have some of the funding from a US partner and expect to finalise the remainder shortly. Our plans are to kick off production in March 2023. Stay tuned for more details!

Another twist on talent-led shows has been travel/food series Paul Goes to Hollywood (4×60’), which we sold recently to US channels Food Network and Cooking Channel. Paul Hollywood has already been on air in the US in other shows, but getting him on Food Network and Cooking Channel as a British chef wasn’t as easy as one would expect. The US market has been fickle about non-American presenters and we feel landing this deal shows that American tastes are also evolving.

How are things like the economy and eco-awareness impacting the market for factual programming?
Subjects such as eco-awareness, sustainability and unfiltered real-life stories are breaking into the platforms and linear schedules with a widespread audience demand for stories of impact and resilience told in innovative ways.

We were extremely happy to see the ground-breaking documentary My Childhood, My Country: 20 Years in Afghanistan (1×90’), produced by Phil Grabsky and Shoaib Sharifi, winning the Bafta TV Award for Best Single Documentary earlier this year. We have been close to the project for a long time and we took the production on for global distribution last year. As a company, we are committed to finding and supporting unique and meaningful stories like this one.

A case in point: we are now raising funds for a new documentary feature called Ric Freeing Flipper (1×90’), featuring adventurer, animal activist and unlikely celebrity Ric O’Barry, the man behind Oscar-winning documentary The Cove, in partnership with Ric’s son Lincoln (Bayrock Entertainment) and Two Wise Monkeys.

This riveting documentary takes an in-depth look at the remarkable life of the iconic dolphin warrior as he learned to protect the dolphins he once captured for the entertainment industry, starting a revolution that inspired people for generations to come. Ric is known as originally being the personal trainer to the dolphin who starred in the iconic TV series Flipper, and this doc features never-before-seen footage, as well as interviews with celebrity supporters, friends and family members. This intimate portrait chronicles the life and career of a man who has passionately fought for one of the most iconic animals in the world: the dolphin.

More recently, through his organisation Dolphin Project, Ric and his son worked with local partners in Indonesia on the rehabilitation and release of dolphins. Last month, we filmed the incredibly emotional release of the first three dolphins into open sea after three years of rehabilitation. This is just one of many other initiatives that Ric has built in his mission to save the dolphins. We look forward to finding new partners to help us tell Ric’s incredible story and reveal his work to the world.

Please tell us about some of the other shows on your factual slate and how the market is responding to them.
One of the key finished titles on the slate is sports investigative documentary A Game of Secrets (1×90’), the fascinating real-life story of Rui Pinto, a young Portuguese hacker whose anonymously authored Football Leaks site disclosed a whole network of dirty business dealings involving some of the biggest names in international football. There are, however, several allegations about Pinto’s past wrongdoing, adding another dimension to the story.

Pinto’s trial is currently underway in a Lisbon court and it will be the first time the man who shook the world of football business will speak before judges, making this documentary one to watch and highly relevant. It premiered recently on HBO Max.

On the natural history and wildlife fronts, we are launching Valley of the Bears (1×60’), an award-winning film capturing the challenges of bear/human co-habitation, with the dramatic increase in bear/human conflicts in British Columbia.

Also on the finished slate is tech documentary #KidsOnTech (1×60’), which looks at parents’ struggle with their children’s increased dependence on tech devices today. Filmed around the world, we hear from school children, parents and educators from the US, Germany, India, France, Mexico, China, the UK and Japan. It was recently picked up by AETN18 in India, RTVE in Spain and MBC’s Shahid.

We also have newly launched A+E Networks UK commission Secrets of the Interrogation Room (10×60’), a true crime investigative series that takes a unique look at the battle of wits between police and suspects in some of the most disturbing US and UK criminal cases of recent years.

What are the big trends in the factual sector right now, in particular the rise of ‘premium factual’?
Crime, blue-chip and historical docs/drama are in-demand and we are making efforts to meet the interest. Through our first-look deal with veteran factual producer Phil Fairclough’s Two Wise Monkeys, we are currently working on the development of a new doc, Reuniting Bonnie & Clyde (1×60’), which revisits this notorious couple.

The legendary outlaws and lovers were buried in separate graves because Bonnie’s angry mother said: “He had her in life but he won’t have her in death.” Now Bonnie Parker’s niece and Clyde Barrow’s nephew are going to exhume the body of Bonnie and re-bury her next to her sweetheart, so they can be together again. The production will follow Bonnie and Clyde’s closest relatives through this emotional process, revealing astounding new details about the intimate lives of the world’s most famous outlaw lovers.

Bomanbridge and Two Wise Monkeys are also in development on a scripted series about the life of Bonnie Parker, told from Bonnie’s first-person perspective. For the first time, we bring to life the story of the real Bonnie, a driven, intelligent and sensitive woman, starting before she met the infamous Clyde Barrow. Her story could be understood differently, more deeply and a lot more intensely. It’s a project to follow, and we look forward to providing more updates in the first quarter of 2023.

We are also pulling together historical drama-documentary The Real Mary (1×90’/ 2×45’), based on highly anticipated book The Lost Mary by Dr James Tabor. Portraying the revolutionary findings put forth in Tabor’s book, the production will re-write the story of Mary, the mother of Jesus and considered by many the most powerful woman who ever lived.

With mergers and takeovers galore, what new opportunities do you see in the factual market right now?
For Bomanbridge Media, it means we have many new spaces to fill, as mergers happen and the indies lose some of that freedom to organise and move quickly. On top of that, content coming from studios is now mostly locked within their own platforms, which allows independent companies like ourselves to invest more, experiment and bring our content to a larger distribution footprint.

Headquartered in Singapore, with offices in the UK and Mongolia/CIS, we are also deeply entrenched in the Asia Pacific market, which is going through a pioneering moment. Local content, regional storytelling and adaptation is at an all-time high. Although there seems to be a global economic recession around the corner, we see an explosion of opportunities in the region.

What kind of content is Bomanbridge now looking to invest in to better serve the global marketplace?
Bomanbridge’s catalogue is multi-genre, including factual, animation, lifestyle, formats and factual entertainment. It’s important to mention we carry Asian content from India, South-east Asia, China Korea and Japan. We are now making steps towards scripted content, both finished and scripted development. Scripted has always been a popular genre and with the explosion in the digital space, with both global and strong new local platforms, we see the demand for the genre reaching new heights.

Can you tell us about some recent programme sales or investments that Bomanbridge has made?
We deficit-financed and took an IP position in the new crime series Secrets of the Interrogation Room (10×60’), produced by Zig Zag Productions for A+E Networks UK, which recently premiered on Crime + Investigation. We are launching it global distribution, excluding the US and Caribbean, here at Mipcom.

Crime is a big seller and we are getting a lot of movement on this title. The series offers two versions: the A&E UK show, titled Rob Rinder’s Interrogation Secrets, is presented by the criminal barrister and television personality, while the US version, coproduced with Filmrise, is presented by Hollywood actress Vivica A Fox and titled The Interrogation Room.

Furthermore, through our first-look deal with Two Wise Monkeys, we are moving forward with invested development on the series below and pitching for commissions and/or presales:

• Music Made Me Do It (10×60’) is a unique true crime series that tells the stories of killers who found twisted inspiration from their favourite songs to commit murder. Each episode is a gripping, true crime story with interviews, re-enactments and archive, ultimately leading to a trial. But on trial, as well as the killer, is the music that they say motivated their crime. The acts that allegedly inspired the suspects include The Beatles, Metallica, Marilyn Manson, Eminem, AC/DC, Drowning Pool, Judas Priest, Guns N’ Roses, Pearl Jam and U2.

• Attack of the Killer Fungi (1×60’) looks at how, just as the world seems to have Covid-19 under control, a new deadly microbe is literally in the air, killing 1.6 million people every year. Brace yourself for the attack of the killer fungi. Around the world, driven by climate change, multiple strains of deadly fungi are attacking and killing humans, dogs and cats. Some of these fungi are so dangerous you only have a 50% chance of surviving an infection. This film follows scientists in the UK, Germany and America who are racing to find drugs to fight the fungi and save millions of people’s lives. We see how the first successful breakthroughs against the killer fungi are working to save the lives of dogs suffering from so-called Valley Fever.

• Expedition Little Foot (1×60’) is another science show. Led by primatologist and anthropologist Dr Mireya Mayor, an international team of scientists will attempt to excavate what’s thought to be a recent burial mound and find evidence that the ‘Hobbit’ people are still alive. For the first time, a scientific quest to Indonesia will attempt to find evidence of recent claims that a second, miniature species of humans could be alive and lurking in the dense jungle on the island of Flores. We know from recent cave excavations that bizarre, three-foot-tall humans, known as Hobbits, used to exist on this island, about 50,000 years ago. But recent claims and credible reports suggest they could still be alive.

• Carlos’ Shark Quest (8×60’) sees shark cinematographer and professional drone pilot Carlos Gauna take on a global quest to unlock the mysteries of sharks with his amazing aerial footage of never-before-seen action and behaviour. Carlos’ extraordinary drone footage of sharks has made him a social media sensation as The Malibu Artist, and now the world’s leading scientists are asking him to come and help answer their questions about different shark species around the world. Carlos, from El Salvador, travels and explores shark mysteries in California, Alaska, Florida and Massachusetts as well as Mexico, Nicaragua and Brazil.