French media veterans Jerome Levy and Nicolas Brigaud-Robert are making European indie film history with the new launch of their studio Vuelta Group. Partially funded by an unknown U.S. equity, Vuelta has started to merge with other film companies to strengthen its position in European cinema.
According to an interview by Deadline with the co-founders, both are looking to provide opportunities for the “European industry [to] create its own stories and distribute them internationally.” Newly appointed Chief Content Officer and Backup Media partner David Atlan-Jackson adds that their company’s goals are to become a European one-stop shop for mostly European talents. “Vuelta Group is the only group to merge unique local distribution expertise with international production capabilities,” she explains. From the U.S. equity funds to Scanbox to SquareOne, the new production company will be able to expand its influence internationally “while growing our distribution business locally,” as stated by Scanbox CEO Thor Sigurjonsson.
Both Levy and Brigaud-Robert are excited to start providing rich stories based on their culture, but at the same time, they don’t want to overplay their hand. Currently, they do not have any U.K. talent on deck due to the latter having a very challenging distribution market to truly break into. Because of this, they plan to “consolidate in western Europe” and later try to make a break into “Eastern Europe, Latin America and/or UK.” With all of this in mind, they hope to have properly grown their company in about 12 months. Even though they could face some trouble with distribution in the U.S. due to the Hollywood strikes, they believe that “[there] may in fact be non-English language projects that travel better during a U.S. strike.”
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