EXCLUSIVE: A Toxic Love Story producer Curious Films is moving into the live space with a new Boyzone concert film following the smash success of its Sky doc.

Last year, Boyzone: No Matter What became Sky’s most-watched unscripted series of all time and was the catalyst for the Irish superstars getting back together. Curious Films has subsequently produced a fourth and fifth episode showing Ronan Keating and co reforming and we can reveal has also recorded the band’s live concert from the Emirates Stadium, London, which took place over the summer and will air later this year on Sky.

The Boyzone: One for the Road live one-off is a first for a UK documentaries indie that has spent the past few years nurturing a reputation for making big true crime and pop culture hits for the streamers including Netflix’s A Toxic Love Story, and Hulu’s Welcome to the Family and Caroline Flack: Search for the Truth.

Curious boss Dov Freedman said the decision to make the live show “came quite late in the day” and involved a much faster turnaround than the London-headquartered outfit is used to.

“[The live show] was a refreshing addition to the retrospective work we do,” said Freedman. “We can spend 18 months or two years making crime documentaries, whereas the concert film had a much faster turnaround. It involved a different dynamic, different producers and different skills. We had around 40 staff working on it and shot it with about 25 cameras. It looked fantastic, and we’re definitely looking to do more in that space.”

Curious’ timing is good as the streamers double down on live content mainly in areas like music and sport. Netflix UK recently forged a commissioning team dedicated to live.

Curious’ “knew we had something” when it started filming the first Boyzone doc and the “pain close to the surface” from the band members became clear, Freedman said.

Things got even clearer when the band’s former manager Louis Walsh was interviewed and “they all had different perspectives on the same story.” Walsh has described claims made by band members in the doc as “fiction rather than fact.”

“The first time we got in a room with the band, we sensed that we were onto something,” said Freedman. “They were all going to be very honest, which felt refreshing.”

“Outsider perspective”

Curious is keen to do more live but will continue to mainly do what it does best, Freedman said, focusing on true crime and popular culture. It recently entered a new era following the departure of Freedman’s co-founder Charlie Russell, who has been replaced by the promoted MD Nicky Varley, someone who Freedman said has “played an important role in building our relationships with Hulu, Netflix and National Geographic.”

Curious’ approach in part over recent years has been to examine “big American ‘ripped from the headlines’ stories” and deliver them with “craft,” Freedman said. He reckons British docmakers have a particular sensibility, which suits this approach.

“We always saw America as a good opportunity,” he added. “This isn’t new – companies that came before Curious have been doing it much longer – but we believed our Britishness and outsider status could help us get access to stories that U.S. producers might not be able to access in quite the same way. That outsider perspective can also give us a different approach to telling the stories.”

Shows may have aired in the past about the subjects of Welcome to the Family or A Toxic Love Story, but Freedman questioned whether they were “made too quickly or reacted to events too soon.” “When we take on a story, we try to tell the definitive version,” he added. “That’s often about timing.”

In the case of these two shows it paid off.

Following a jaw-dropping revenge plot involving a newly-married U.S. Marshal and his ex-girlfriend, A Toxic Love Story has hit numerous Netflix top 10s since launching over the summer. Welcome to the Family, which tells of the brutal murder of law professor Dan Markel, has spent days as Disney+’s no. 1 show in both the U.S. and UK.

“If you look across Curious’s slate over the last couple of years we’ve been able to deliver large audiences at a time when audiences are fragmented and competition for viewers has never been higher,” said Freedman.

He said Welcome to the Family has kept the “very good” Hulu scripted series Furious off the top spot for a while now. “If you compare the cost of Welcome to the Family with the cost of a scripted series such as Furious, I think streamers and buyers are looking closely at the audiences that true-crime stories can bring,” he added.

Curious wants to double down in America and Freedman speaks with Deadline from L.A., which he will visit three to four times per year and says is “really starting to pay off.”

In the offing is another Netflix true crime series for early next year, which Freedman is keeping mum about, and a show about a “story I’ve always liked that people know, but they only know one side of it,” he added, intriguingly.

Freedman’s view on the docs commissioning landscape more generally is “mixed.”

On the one hand, “it’s harder than ever to get greenlights, competition is intense for stories that everyone knows are working, and buyers are making fewer bets each year.”

On the other, “documentaries have never been more popular or attracted such large audiences.”

EXCLUSIVE: The shape of distributor Banijay Rights is beginning to form.

One of the big distribution winners of the Banijay-All3Media mega-merger has emerged as Rachel Job, who we hear is in line for a senior content role, with long-serving execs such as Simon Cox, Claire Jago and Maartje Horchner exiting.

We also have news of of the Banijay international scripted division slimming down, where Denis Leroy has left his post.

Deadline understands Job, who was All3Media International‘s SVP, Unscripted, will take up an EVP-level post that covers both scripted and unscripted rights at the merged Banijay and All3Media group.

Banijay has been overseeing a consultancy process for staff in recent weeks, which is nearing completion. Various execs are exiting, with a full announcement on the shape of the business likely soon, possibly before MIPCOM.

We understand that Banijay Rights EVP Content Acquisitions Cox, EVP EMEA, Sales & Acquisitions Jago and Horchner, who was Executive VP Content at All3Media International, all took voluntary redundancy. We hear that Chris Stewart, Senior Vice President Of Sales UK & Eire, has also taken the voluntary redundancy package. Broadcast was first with the news of Cox and Jago’s departures.

Cox has been with Banijay since 2021 when it acquired Endemol Shine Group, where he had been Head of Acquisitions since 2015. Jago was also a long-serving Endemol Shine sales exec, while Horchner has been with All3Media since its very early days, joining back in 2004.

Today’s update comes after we revealed that long-serving All3Media International CEO Louise Pedersen was exiting following the Banijay merger’s completion. Cathy Payne is leading the new-look Banijay Rights. Banijay has previously said it will prioritize “eliminating duplication” in distribution and sales as it seeks €50M ($56.8M) in synergies within 12 months of the deal closing.

Job, a former History UK programming chief, has been with All3 since 2019. Her role has included working on All3 content and third-party acquisitions. Given the merged Banijay and All3Media business has more than 170 production labels, sources are speculating the focus going forward will be far more on in-house content.

At All3, Job has worked on shows such as The Traitors, Gogglebox and Cash Cab, while also being a key buyer of third-party shows. She has been across titles such as Michael Jackson: The Trial and Taylor Swift: A Love Story this year, along with Toronto breakout 2.6 Seconds: Death in the Outback, which Netflix acquired, as we revealed last month.

With a catalog of more than 265,000 hours, the new-look Banijay Rights team will be at MIPCOM next month with a slate including Channel 4 drama Maya and BBC legal series Reputation, entertainment format Last One Standing and a return for long-running factual series One Born Every Minute. It will also house The Traitors, Big Brother, Survivor, Fear Factor and Deal or No Deal under one roof. The company will operate out of a newly named ‘Banijay House’ opposite the Palais des Festivals.

Scripted Changes

Elsewhere, Banijay’s international scripted team, which makes co-productions between labels and sources IP, has been shrunk following the exit of Denis Leroy, and following Johannes Jensen shifting to a role within the Banijay Nordics team.

Leroy was Senior Director of the Banijay group scripted team, leading on the scripted format and literary IP strategy. He had been with the company for around a decade, and was with Zodiak Media before that, working across numerous projects.

We understand his exit came in the past few weeks. Jensen, who was Head of Scripted, Business within the same team, has shifted to a director of scripted role within Banijay Nordics.

This, we understand, leaves Steve Matthews, Banijay’s Head of Scripted, Creative as the sole senior member of this team.

When big beasts like Banijay are seeking synergies, one source suggested that roles like Leroy’s and Jensen’s, which tie labels together, tend to be under grave threat.

Having less executives bringing the labels together may make it harder to fund European, non-English language co-productions, which often rely on numerous producers, a different source speculated.

Banijay declined to comment when approached today. A spokesperson has previously said: “Since the merger has only just closed, we are not yet in a position to confirm Banijay Entertainment’s combined leadership team or organisational structure.”

Italy’s Fandango Distribution has acquired Sine Plambech’s Rescue for all rights, including theatrical release, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

Radio Télévision Suisse (RTS) has come on board as a broadcaster, joining pre-sale partners DR, VPRO, SVT and NRK, in deals negotiated by Vienna-based Autlook Filmsales, which handles worldwide sales on the film.

The agreements land as Plambech, serving as president of the documentary competition jury at the 22nd Zurich Film Festival, presents the European premiere of Rescue in the festival’s Now/Future section this week.

Rescue tells the story of Roro, a Yemeni mother of young children fighting to reunite her family after a Mediterranean rescue operation left her separated from her husband and held in captivity in Libya. Filmed with rare access aboard Doctors Without Borders’ Geo Barents, the documentary examines the fallout of Europe’s “externalization” of migration control to North African countries, tracing one woman’s fight for justice, dignity and the right to be seen amid a broken system.

The film is written by Plambech and Janus Metz, and produced by Elk Film’s Andreas Dalsgaard, Sofie Husum Johannesen, and Tereza Šimíková. Troels N’koya Jensen is the cinematographer, with editing by Per K. Kirkegaard and Marion Tuor and music by Uno Helmersson. Running 80 minutes, the film is in Arabic, English and French with English subtitles.

Rescue had its world premiere at TIFF and screens in Zurich’s Now/Future section, which this year features nine films exploring human rights, social conflict and sustainable development. Presented in collaboration with the EurAsia Heart Foundation and Dementia Research Switzerland, the section highlights figures committed to equality and social justice alongside perspectives on ecological, social and economic questions for the future.

Plambech is currently heading up the doc competition jury in Zurich. She is an award-winning director, anthropologist and senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS). Among other things, she directed Mission Trafficking (2010, in collaboration with Judith Lansade) and Becky’s Journey (2014), and provided the research foundation for From Thailand to Thy (2008) and From Thy to Thailand (2008), both directed by Janus Metz.

Her major breakthrough, Heartbound (2018), which built upon the two films from 2008, had its world premiere at TIFF, was selected for IDFA, and won the Golden Eye Award for best international documentary at the Zurich Film Festival that year.