Banijay Rights – the international distribution division of Banijay Group – has inked a firs look development deal with Touchdown Films, the factual specialist indie that was set up by filmmaker and producer John Osborne (Hillsborough Remembered, The Story of Skinhead).
Under the deal, the two companies will work together to develop and produce returnable factual series in the history, crime and celebrity genres, which Banijay will the exploit on the international market. The first series to emanate from this deal is a documentary on Apollo 8. They already already have several other projects in development with UK and US networks
Apollo 8: The Mission That Changed the World is an archive-driven documentary directed by John Osborne, that relives the first ever manned mission to the moon. The Apollo 8 journey captured the first ever colour image of the Earth from space and reshaped how we viewed ourselves forever. The documentary contains interviews with key people directly involved in the Apollo 8 mission and the environmental campaigns that followed.
“Working with Touchdown Films has given us a really exciting opportunity to develop programmes which we believe will have broad international appeal – especially those linked to landmark events and anniversaries. Touchdown’s John Osborne has renowned expertise in unearthing previously unseen archive”, said Emily Elisha, Head of Factual for Banijay Rights. “Add to that his ability to secure strong contributors who can speak personally about the events featured and we believe we have a winning formula.”
While John Osborne, Founder and Managing Director of Touchdown Films, added: “’I’m excited to be working with Emily and the Banijay Rights team. Our goal at Touchdown Films is to create factual television with global appeal and Banijay shares that ambition. Apollo 8: The Mission That Changed the World epitomizes the kind of project that we’re looking forward to working on together.”
