‘Drive To Survive’ Producer Box To Box Races Into New Genres Following Sports Success, Eyes Scripted Push & Investment

deadline.com:

Box to Box, the production company behind Netflix’s Formula 1: Drive To Survive, has cornered the sports docuseries market with its breakout docuseries and similar projects in the world of golf, tennis, cycling and rugby.

The company, founded by Amy and Senna producer James Gay-Rees and Paul Martin, who produced HBO’s Maradona, has also made a number of music documentaries including Apple’s 1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything.

But it has also been dabbling in new areas including corporate true-crime series with Apple’s Wanted: The Escape of Carlos Ghosn and is looking at other weird and wonderful stories for its documentary slate as well as a new push into scripted and a potential investment drive. “We looked at sport as an area, particularly in the premium space, that felt underserved,” Martin told Deadline. “You had ESPN, which did 30 for 30 and HBO doing Hard Knocks once a year.

But we felt there was a ton of opportunity for really well done, premium storytelling in the sports space. I don’t think we expected Drive to Survive to suddenly become this thing that was bigger than just a just a TV show.