StudioCanal rides off with Tandem

French film studio StudioCanal this week bought a majority stake in German miniseries specialist Tandem Communications. Michael Pickard reports.

Rola Bauer

StudioCanal this week became the second French film studio in the past six months to move into television.

The Canal+ Group-owned film producer/distributor paid an undisclosed sum for a majority stake in Tandem Communications, the German prodco behind miniseries The Pillars of the Earth.

It follows in the footsteps of Gaumont, which launched Los Angeles-based Gaumont International Television (GIT) in September last year. GIT is drawing on its extensive film library to create new properties for television, such as the two projects it has already announced.

Hannibal, a one-hour miniseries, will explore the relationship between Thomas Harris’s iconic character Dr Hannibal Lector and a young FBI criminal profiler, while Madame Tussaud is a six-hour miniseries about the famous artist and businesswoman who survived the French revolution.

GIT has also acquired rights to Devil’s Kiss, a set of mythical adventure novels by UK author Sarwat Chadda. At the time of the company’s launch, Gaumont CEO Sidonie Dumas said GIT was “the next logical step” as the film studio looked to expand its presence in the television market.

Labyrinth

It’s that same philosophy that led StudioCanal to acquire a 51% share in Tandem, whose forthcoming projects include World Without End, a follow-up to Pillars also based on a book by Ken Follett. Tandem is also producing Labyrinth, adapted from the book by Kate Fosse.

“It was a logical move,” Olivier Courson, CEO of StudioCanal, tells C21. “We’ve built a movie studio in Europe, operating in the UK through Optimum Releasing; in Germany, through Kinowelt; we’ve developed international coproductions; and we are also very strong in distribution.

“So the next step was to have a TV arm. We have been trying to find the best partner for this move, someone who shares the same philosophy.”

Courson says StudioCanal was looking for a partner with a fairly specific profile. “We were looking for a company with high quality, international products and a European base,” he says. “We’ve been looking for a partner for some time but we took the time we needed. We’ve found the perfect partner.”

StudioCanal will not have any involvement in the day-to-day running of Tandem, which will continue to produce and distribute its own content and acquire content for international distribution.

“Our strategy is unique,” says Courson. “Like on the movie side, we decided not to look for a US partner. We have a European base and first of all we have to make sure our projects are successful in our domestic market, which is Europe. If you don’t first make sure it works in your home market, it’s a dangerous strategy.

“I hope Tandem will produce original programming for [French pay-TV channel] Canal+ in the coming years. Tandem is a well-regarded sales company and this is also key.”

Tandem was founded in 1999 and was previously privately owned by CEO Rola Bauer, MD Tim Halkin and fellow partner Jonas Bauer (no relation to Rola). They will continue in their current roles at Tandem and remain shareholders in the company.

This was not the first time Tandem has been approached regarding a buy-out. Talks between the two parties had taken place for about six months before the deal was completed. For Rola Bauer, it was the chance to work with a like-minded company that drew her to StudioCanal and ultimately become part of the Canal+ group.

“We stayed independent for almost 13 years but we wanted to do this for a number of reasons,” she says. “The most interesting strategic part of it was this is a group that is very like-minded, had started off strong in their home territory, protected their home territory and has a quality check, which is so key to us. You’re only as good as your last production.

“The infrastructure is very appealing. It means we can connect with Canal+, whether it’s in production, or Canal+ as a potential home for us as a broadcaster, or from a distribution point of view. These are all the elements that made sense for us compared to all the other suitors that were courting us.”

Tandem has already built a reputation for epic miniseries alongside a strong partnership with Ridley and Tony Scott’s Scott Free Films, its coproducer on Pillars, World Without End and Labyrinth.

Future Tandem productions include Pompeii, a miniseries based on Robert Harris’s novel and a coproduction with Sony Pictures Television and Scott Free. It will also distribute Titanic: Blood & Steel, a coproduction with Italian prodco De Angelis Group, Rai (Italy), 3 Arts (US), Artists Studio (UK), Marathon Group (France), Epos Films (Ireland) and Antena 3 (Spain).

With StudioCanal’s backing, Bauer says Tandem is now ready to go to “the next level,” with ambitions to develop one-hour series. “We’ve established ourselves on many levels as a vertically integrated company. We can develop; we can buy rights, as we did with Ken Follett’s books; we can get things financed and produced; and we distribute,” she says.

“We’ve been doing that in limited series and we have started to develop one-hour series. Having our back covered and having the strength of a bigger corporation like StudioCanal will allow us to go after that series strategy a little bit faster.”