Sydney Gallonde: Last News

Christopher Vourlias Alex Berger of “The Bureau” producer TOP (The Oligarchs Productions), prolific Nigerian filmmaker Kunle Afolayan (“Aníkúlápó”) and Sydney Gallonde of Paris-based outfit Make it Happens Studios are among the headliners of the Salon International du Contenu Audiovisuel d’Abidjan (SICA), a three-day industry event that takes place Nov. 5 – 7 in Ivory Coast.

EXCLUSIVE: Former RX France execs Liliane da Cruz and Samira Haddi have launched Indicium Consulting, an events management biz for the entertainment industry.

Ben Croll Without a market component, the Monte-Carlo Television Festival has nevertheless built out and bulked up its industry section with each passing edition. More than anything, the move came out of sheer practicality, says executive director Cécile Menoni. “We realized that the professionals who were already present could benefit from certain professional content,” Menoni explains. “The idea was to involve the many people who were already in attendance. To federate the juries, nominees and journalists, and to convey their overall vision of cotemporary industry concerns.” This year’s festival business program runs from June 17 – 19, beginning with a conversation moderated by Variety’s Leo Barraclough that will find Amazon Studio’s Rola Bauer and executive producer Edward Ornelas discussing the challenges and opportunities, casting choices and artistic ambitions of the festival’s opening series, “Harlan Corben’s Shelter.”

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Sydney Gallonde, the French producer of Make It Happen Studio, is set to re-team with MGM TV Intl. Productions on a biopic of Eugene Bullard, one of the first Black American military pilots who was also a boxer and a jazz musician. Gallonde has acquired the book rights to Claude Ribbe’s biography of Bullard, which shed light on the man’s heroic life and drew headlines on French media across the country when it was published in 2012. Like many Black American entertainers such as Josephine Baker, Bullard left America for Europe and France in 1914 to escape racial segregation, lynchings and prejudice. The young and adventurous man, who was born in Georgia, eventually settled in Paris looking for a better life and worked at a music hall. When WWI erupted, Bullard enlisted in France’s Foreign Legion along with other foreign volunteers, becoming one of the few Black combat pilots during the war. He then volunteered for the French Air Service and later became a flight fighter for the French Army. 

EXCLUSIVE: Joanne Froggatt is staying in business with MGM.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorThe action in upcoming mystery thriller “The Reunion,” starring “Harrow’s” Ioan Gruffudd, centers on three characters in two time-zones, 25 years apart, but the emotions and personalities of the characters are consistent, the show’s British director Bill Eagles explained at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival Sunday.The English-language show, produced by Sydney Gallonde at Make It Happen Studio and co-produced by MGM Intl. TV Productions and broadcaster France Televisions, is based on Guillaume Musso’s bestselling novel “La Jeune fille et la nuit.”The story opens in the present day, at a reunion at an international school in the south of France where three former friends reconnect.