TF-1/Telema partnership plans $30 million films
Gassot to produce 3 to 4 films
TF-1 announced last week that it was taking a 49% stake in Telema.
The much sought-after Gassot, whose past successes include “Life is a Long Slow River” and “Happiness is in the Field,” told the daily Figaro: “We have decided to make three or four big budget films, costing around 200 million francs. It is an investment that up until now only Claude Berri was capable of making.”
All of Telema’s future films will be handled by TF-1 Intl., the sales and production arm of the TV network. Gassot said that from TF-1’s point of view, the partnership would help raise the profile of TF-1 Intl., “which passes all too often in the eyes of industry people as a company specializing in the buying of films or the exploitation of video rights.”
Egos bruised
The teaming up of Gassot with TF-1 has rattled a few egos in France. Gassot was formerly in bed with StudioCanal, but a deal the two sides had been negotiating in recent months failed to materialize. StudioCanal does have distribution rights over Telema’s old films, although not the recent hit film “Le Gout des Autres” by Agnes Jaoui.
Meanwhile pubcasters France and France 3 probably won’t have access to Telema’s future output.
Despite snapping up Gassot, TF-1, which has no film distribution arm, is still behind Canal Plus in the contest to create a European major.
The pay TV channel’s production and distribution arm, formerly Canal Plus Images, renamed itself StudioCanal last week and announced plans to raise $188 million on the Paris stockmarket and double its investment in film.
