The synergies between the film and TV industries were alive and well at this year’s MIPTV.

Film finance powerhouses including StudioCanal and The Weinstein Company were among companies at the market to discuss TV opportunities.

During his keynote Studiocanal CEO Courson announced that the company wants to back at least seven international TV co-productions per year through acquisitions Red and Tandem and third parties.

StudioCanal is well placed to harness its film talent connections for its TV dramas. Heartbreaker director Pascal Chaumeil, for example, was announced as director on new series Spotless.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world shoot was getting underway in Australia on The King’s Speech producer See-Saw’s exciting BBC TV drama series Banished, written by Jimmy McGovern.

Talent

Talent traditionally reserved for the big-screen continues to flow to TV projects.

The Dark Knight and Crazy Heart star Maggie Gyllenhaal was in town to discuss new BBC-Sundance TV series The Honourable Woman and Oscar-winning film director Paolo Sorrentino was announced to direct his first TV series, Young Pope.

On the eve of the market it was announced that The Dark Knight Rises star Tom Hardy, already aboard BBC2 drama Peaky Blinders, would be reuniting with his Locke director and screenwriter Steven Knight and Child 44 producer Ridley Scott on BBC series Taboo.

Robocop and Elite Squad director Jose Padilla is also getting in on the act, as he was announced as director of new Netflix series Narcos, about infamous Colombian cartel boss Pablo Escobar.

“There’s no talent now saying I wouldn’t do TV,” Lookout Point’s Simon Vaughan told me.

TV to film

But with all the movement towards TV, now could be an ideal time for some traditional TV companies to seize an opportunity in the theatrical landscape.

“We’re looking at the feature film space,” Vaughan confirmed. “There’s a big brain drain from film to TV, with everyone running towards TV. There’s never been a better time for us to harness those relationships and look at film opportunities. That’s something we’re considering as part of the evolution of the company.”

Lookout Point’s TV movie Stan and Ollie, a project with the BBC and TWC, written by acclaimed film and TV writer Jeff Pope, is part of the evolution, but Vaughan is also an exec-producer and writer on feature script Goodnight Christopher Robin about Winnie The Pooh creator AA Milne.

Vaughan is not alone. Screen and Broadcast announced this week that Misfits producer Clerkenwell Films is readying its first feature, The Dig, a prestige theatrical drama that unites the TV company with film writer Moira Buffini, producer Gaby Tana and BBC Films.

Digital opportunities

As ever, MIPTV continues to throw up a host of innovative digital platforms.

Yesterday I sat down with Rene Rechtman, President of International at Maker Studios, the buzzed-about worldwide online video network aimed at millenials, which was recently snapped up by Disney for $500m.

Rechtman was in town meeting a number of the big TV companies who want to better understand the Maker model and how they can tap into its vast youth audience.

The platform garners more than 4.5 billion monthly views and has 340 million subscribers.

In recent months Rechtman has also met with established US film producers keen to get content on the booming online platform.

As film and TV finance and talent continues to merge, talent-driven tech savvy online platforms like Maker Studios should be the next space for the industries to mine.

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