Studiocanal Links with Paul Laverty, Iciar Bollain as TV and Film Become a Two-Way Street (EXCLUSIVE)

variety.com:

Studiocanal is collaborating with Sixteen Films’ Rebecca O’Brien and Morena Film’s Juan Gordon to develop a series created by longtime Ken Loach scribe Paul Laverty and to be directed by Spain’s Iciar Bollaín.The drama series will be the first for both Laverty and Bollaín after writing and directing respectively 19 and nine feature films, including collaborations on Bollaín’s multi-prized “Yuli,” “The Olive Tree” and “Even the Rain,” movies that established her as one of Spain’s top film directors.Over the last few years, Cannes’ MipTV trade fair, once a strict TV silo, is now ever more MipFilm.

Signs of an ever-building crossover between the two sectors look indeed to make up one of the hallmarks of this year’s event.

In multiple different moves, iconic film talent is plunging ever more into series.Conceived for TV, content can sell to film distributors, such as has been the case this year with Global Screen’s “The Conference,” which was originally produced for ZDF in Germany.Traditional film companies are increasingly attending TV markets, London’s 101 Films International and parent company Amcomri Entertainment making their MipTV debut this week, for instance.Ever more frequently, outfits are announcing movies at TV events and not waiting for big film festivals.

Abacus Media Rights, for example, is launching at MipTV “The Fire Within: A Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft,” a feature documentary from legendary filmmaker Werner Herzog.Multiple factors are at work, turbo-charging traffic both ways on the film-TV two-way street.