Buying Brad Pitt‘s Plan B Entertainment was the ticket into the U.S. that France’s Mediawan Group craved, delegates heard today at MIPCOM.
During an on-stage interview, Elisabeth d’Arvieu, CEO of Mediawan’s film arm, Mediawan Pictures, said the 2023 deal for 60% of Plan B played a big part in the company going from complete unknown in the U.S. to a rolling stone.
“After growing in Europe, which is in our DNA and is our competitive advantage, we felt the need to be put on the map in the U.S.,” she said. “We wanted to be identified by commissioners and clients, and follow up on a promise made to talent in Europe to properly give international exposure to their art.”
Not just that, but there was a growing frustration with the independent production group that its IP was being exploited in the U.S. – just not by Mediawan, said d’Arvieu.
Mediawan, which turns ten this year, had initially built reputation as a supplier to French networks such as TF1 and France Télévisions, but following deals for the likes of Riot Women maker Drama Republic in the UK began to develop its English-language business. It has since acquire Slow Horses maker See-Saw Films, but Plan B remains its highest profile acquisition, with the Hollywood company successfully launching F1: The Movie at the box office and part-financing Netflix hit Adolescence among other projects this year.
As for Plan B, the deal to sell to Mediawan was “the right moment for them,” said d’Arvieu. “They had been working brilliantly in the U.S. studio system – we’re just out of the summer of F1 – but they had big international ambitions,” she said. They had the appetite for the European system as well.”
Furthermore, having Plan B partners Pitt, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner allows Mediawan a more direct route into the U.S., while bringing studios existing can bootstraps deals that might not happen otherwise
She was speaking on the first afternoon of MIPCOM in Cannes today, where leaders from the likes of the BBC, Banijay and Sony Pictures Television will speak in coming days.
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