EXCLUSIVE: Secuoya Studios is teaming with U.S. filmmaker Chris Moukarbel. Secuoya Content Group runs the huge Madrid Content Studios facility, and is also building out its original content plans under former Sony exec Brendan Fitzgerald, who is CEO of the Secuoya Studios division.
Moukarbel and his Permanent Wave banner are the latest to partner with Secuoya Studios, and Fitzgerald has told Deadline about its plans to ramps up.
The agreement with Moukarbel covers a first-look deal for the co-development of original projects for streamers and international broadcasters. Moukarbel, whose documentaries are known for blurring the line between the public and the intimate, has made films including Gaga: Five Foot Two, Banksy Does New York and Tribeca award-winner Cypher.
“I found a really special creative partner in Secuoya, they are visionary and singular in their commitment to making things that shift the conversation,” Moukarbel said.
The filmmaker came into the fold after meeting with James Costos, President of Secuoya Studios, who splits his time between the U.S. and Spain. “From the moment I met Chris at Secuoya Studios’ Los Angeles office, I knew he was a truly original voice, one that would strengthen our bridge between Hollywood and Spain,” Costos said.
Secuoya Studios Makes International Play
Secuoya Studios already has deals with partners including Sergio Pizzolante and his Miami-based Ctmobs, Guy Avshalom’s BlackBox Multimedia out of the UK, and Sydney Gallonde in France. There are also deals with Mónica Aguirre’s Black Sheep in LatAm, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson and Hörður Rúnarsson’s Act4 for the Nordics, as well as several Spain-focused pods spanning fiction and unscripted content.
Speaking to Deadline from the set of one of Secuoya’s upcoming original movies, Fitzgerald said that creating pod – or first-look – deals will yield a significant volume of content spanning movies, TV drama and docs. The domestic Spanish market is sizeable, but like any individual territory in Europe, it only contains a certain number of buyers, thus the plan to ramp up international.
“We’re bringing Chris in to up our game on the documentary side,” he said. “We’re looking for people who have projects under their belt and want to take their company to the next level. It may be French, German, Icelandic, Swedish, and there’ll be some English in there as well, but [Secuoya Studios’ output] won’t be all Spain for Spain.”
Secuoya Studios is already working with the local broadcasters, platforms and buyers in Spain, but bringing international producers into the fold is about going beyond domestic borders. Projects coming out of the pod deals will likely be produced in Spain and/or use Secuoya’s sizable infrastructure, but the movies, docs, and series will be destined for the international markets.
“A lot of our shows will not be directly relevant to Spain, because we need to grow and we need to grow beyond Spain. I’d like 30% of our revenues to come from non-Spanish-focused projects in three years,” Fitzgerald said.
This all chimes with the Spanish government’s stated intention, backed by billions of Euros, to make Spain the heart of film and TV production on the continent. In headline-grabbing terms, it wants to be the ‘Hollywood of Europe’.
Currently, Secuoya Studios lays off international sales to big distributors such as Beta Film and Mediawan. While it is not setting up a full-fledged global distribution unit any time soon, it is expected to begin handling more of pre-sales activity itself, which is the logical next step after setting up the international pods.
“It is the immediate second phase,” Fitzgerald says. “I would like to, if we have a total of 15 pods, for each of them to be delivering one product per year and being in development on the next one for the following year. That would mean 15 things coming online every year. There’s always going to be one or two that don’t deliver, and there’s always going to be some where there’s a global [streamer] deal. But those that are left over are going to need pre-sales.”
Fitzgerald signs off: “If we’re going to be doing 15 projects in various languages, we need to be geared up for this wave of production that’s coming.”
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