Film and television producer, management and sales company 5X Media has hired Madrid-based producer-manager Michael Kaufman to build and run its first European outpost.
Kaufman brings more than 20 years of experience working in Spain, the United States, China, Ireland, Argentina and Israel and will operate out of Madrid.
He recently had a first-look deal with Moonrise Pictures working on a range of US projects with writers-directors like Tessa Blake, Liz Benjamins, J. Todd Harris, and The Lehrer Boys with companies such as MMC Studios, Creativity Capital, and Paramount Pictures/Jerry Bruckheimer.
The executive brings a client roster that includes Spain-based Argentinian writer-showrunner Juan Carballo, whose credits include Hulu’s The Roar Of The Butterflies, producer-showrunner Anne Clements, a producer on Quinceañera and The Kill Room starring Uma Thurman, writers The Lehrer Boys, producer-writer-director Paul Kampf, and 2Team Productions.
Clements and Kampf are in production on Undercard, which stars Wanda Sykes and is shooting in Puerto Rico, as well as Harvest, starring Matthew McNulty and Angus Macfadyen which is filming in Serbia.
They are also in pre-production on Diario: Mujer Y Café, which is directed by Roselyn Sanchez in Puerto Rico. Kampf recently structured a $20m film fund to produce films directed, produced by and starring women.
Kaufman recently closed a first-look writing and producing deal for Carballo at Madrid’s Secoya Studios.
5X co-CEOs Alon Shtruzman and Gil Goldschein, who work alongside executive chairman and company founder Scott Einbinder, said, “Michael will play a key role as we continue our rapid global expansion to become a truly borderless production studio, sales and management company.”
Kaufman added, “The boom in international platforms has created strong demand for the high calibre of creative talent we represent, all of which have established proven track records in these critical markets.”
Kaufman has also produced multitude non-fiction series and projects covering a wide range of genres.
As an executive he created and sold television shows to the US, China, UK and mainland Europe as vice president of development at Vision Independent Productions with a first-look deal at Warner Brothers International Television; developed and produced lifestyle programming and investigative series as vice president of programming at Al Roker Entertainment; and served as director of current programming at ABC.
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