Banijay Group is the world's largest independent content creation Group for television and multimedia platforms. Banijay Group is present in 16 territories.
Banijay Group is the world's largest independent content creation Group for television and multimedia platforms. Banijay Group is present in 16 territories.

Tag Archive: Workerbee

  1. Banijay Unveils Compelling Slate Ahead of London TV Screenings

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    Media and entertainment powerhouse, Banijay, today announces a compelling offering for its dedicated London TV Screenings event – Banijay @ BAFTA.

    Hitting the 2024 line-up is the highly-anticipated high-end scripted series Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light; and premium documentary Front Row. Elsewhere, the powerhouse will also be celebrating travelling formats with adventure reality, The Summit; and spin-off, Deal or No Deal Island. Packed with distinct, high-quality programming across all genres, the group’s event will span three sessions on Wednesday 28 February.

    On the scripted front, Banijay’s premium offering includes UK dramas Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light for the BBC and Masterpiece PBS, based on the final novel of Hilary Mantel’s multi award-winning trilogy; The Hardacres for Channel 5; Steven Knight’s This Town for the BBC; Welsh drama The One That Got Away (Cleddau) for S4C; and Invisible Boys for Stan. Buyers can also expect a preview of eagerly-awaited second seasons of Marie Antoinette for Canal+ and the BBC, and Rogue Heroes for the BBC and MGM+.

    Supercharging its documentary offering, Front Row takes centre stage with Anatomy of a Murder and Four Kings for Prime Video.

    To complement the scripted and documentary offering, Banijay will showcase a blend of fresh and highly-entertaining formats including adrenaline-fuelled travelling success The Summit for Nine Network; new spin-off, Deal or No Deal Island created for NBC; adventure reality format and ratings winner Shaolin Heroes for TV2; recent Channel 4 factual reality VOD hit Banged Up; innovative game show Upside Down for RTL4 and The Fortune Hotel for ITV1 and ITVX. A light will also be shone on global superbrands and prized returning formats like Survivor, Big Brother, Star Academy, and reality formats Love Triangle and The Fifty.

    Cathy Payne, CEO at Banijay Rights says: “This year’s line-up for Banijay @ BAFTA truly illuminates the breadth of our catalogue and ability to showcase outstanding content across multiple genres. From high-end dramas to acclaimed factual series, we look forward to coming together later this month to celebrate great talent, captivating storytelling and stand-out IP. We really do have something for everyone…”

    James Townley, Chief Content Officer, Development and Lucas Green, Chief Content Officer, Operations at Banijay comment: “The London TV Screenings provides an incredible opportunity for Banijay to demonstrate its commitment to delivering exciting emerging IP as well as tried and tested formats and reboots, which continue to compel audiences globally. From Shaolin Heroes to The Summit, and iconic format Deal or No Deal, we are sure to enthral buyers seeking fresh, innovative, and proven formats.”

    For its scripted slate, Banijay Rights is highlighting Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light, a Playground and Company Pictures co-production directed by Peter Kosminsky, and adapted for television by Peter Straughan, which follows Thomas Cromwell as he navigates the moral complexities of the Tudor court following the execution of Anne Boleyn. Another period drama from Playground in association with Screen Ireland, Red Berry Productions and Newgrange Pictures is new returnable six-part series –The Hardacres- based on CL Skelton’s novel series, The Hardacre Saga.

    Meanwhile, from Kudos and Nebulastar, and co-produced with Mercury Studios, in association with Kudos North, Stigma Films, and Nick Angel for the BBC, the much-anticipated This Town tells the story of an extended family and four young people who are drawn into the world of the ska movement and two-tone music.

    BlackLight Television (a Banijay UK company), in collaboration with Banijay Rights and Creative Wales for S4C, are delving into Welsh drama with The One That Got Away (Cleddau), which combines a gripping murder mystery with an electrifying love story.

    Crossing over to Australia, Invisible Boys from Feisty Dame Productions, Screenwest and Lotterywest, WA Regional Film Fund, Screen Australia, and Banijay Rights for Stan Originals, is a powerful drama created for television by director Nicholas Verso on the challenges faced by a group of gay teens in the remote coastal town of Geraldton.

    In factual, the feature-length premium documentary from Scenery and Pretty Matches, Front Row, Executive Produced by award-winning actor and producer Sarah Jessica Parker, and directed by Miriam Guttmann (Sundance Film Festival selection Seeds of Deceit), highlights the resilience of Ukrainian ballet dancers during wartime, where an unlikely friendship forms between a dancer and a front-line soldier.

    From Workerbee comes two gripping documentaries, Anatomy of a Murder, a feature length true-crime story centring around the daughter of an Iranian family, who has spent over thirty years and millions of her fortune to try and find her mother’s killer; and Four Kings for Prime Video, exploring the history of British boxing through four men coming from the same London neighbourhood who heralded a golden era and changed the way Britain viewed its black athletes.

    Meanwhile, on the reality competition front, The Summit, a 9Network and Endemol Shine Australia original series, produced by Endemol Shine Australia, continues to climb through the ranks with a second season in the works, and a first international adaptation for CBS by Endemol Shine North America with more to come soon.

    From Endemol Shine North America, Deal or No Deal Island completely reimagines the iconic game show as an epic adventure. This new spin-off series for NBC is set on the Banker’s private island as he searches for his ultimate opponent in a high stakes competition with over $200,000,000 up for grabs.

    From Metronome is Shaolin Heroes for TV2 Denmark, where celebrities undertake the ultimate test by embarking on a transformational journey alongside world-class Shaolin Masters.

    Joining Banijay’s factual offering is Banged Up, created by Shine TV for Channel 4. In this fact-ent format social experiment, which veers into the documentary space, six male celebrity inmates are incarcerated in a UK prison environment alongside their reformed criminal cellmates. The series explores the question, ‘does prison work’?

    From EndemolShine Nederland, Upside Down sees two celebrity teams undertake all kinds of topsy turvy challenges and Q&A games unlike anything they have seen before, because everything in this innovative format, is upside down.

    Highly-anticipated reality series The Fortune Hotel from Tuesday’s Child for ITV1 and ITVX invites viewers into a luxury Caribbean resort filled with glamour, opulence and deception. Contestants are paired up and compete to win a briefcase, one holding the ultimate cash prize and another an Early Checkout Card.

  2. E4 commissions ‘Love Triangle’, exciting, new dating show with unique, shock twists and turns

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    In a brand-new relationship format, E4 is turning everything you know about dating on its head, as it asks six courageous singles to reject all the conventions and pitfalls of modern, app-based dating, in favour of a radical new approach.

    Turning their backs on the overwhelming stream of choice, the singles’ options will be shrunk to just two to choose between. One match embodies each single’s usual wants, type and desires; the other reflects their deeper, more fulfilling romantic needs.

    Love Triangle (10×60’), produced by Workerbee (a Banijay UK company), follows the singles as they spend 48 hours getting to know their two matches via text only.  In its efforts to offer an antidote to the worst aspects of modern dating, this experience demands that the singles make their decision without setting eyes on their suitors; no pictures or selfies allowed.

    After just two days of trying to build a connection, they must make the potentially life-changing choice between their two matches, before they meet them on a blind date.  Just 24 hours later, the picker and their chosen match will take the extraordinary step of moving in together, to explore what their future might look like.  But around the corner are a series of gripping plot-twists that neither the singles, nor their suitors, see coming.

    BOMBSHELL #1: Just as the new couples are settling into their love nests, the rejected love matches will make a shocking, surprise return; the “pickers” must meet their alternative option on a second blind date.

    BOMBSHELL #2: On this blind date, the new love interest will reveal they are also moving in to the shared house to form a love triangle.

    BOMBSHELL #3: After the six singles have spent time dating and getting to know both their matches, all three will move in together to form a LOVE TRIANGLE.

    BOMBSHELL #4: At the end of the experience, each single must make a momentous, gut-wrenching decision as they have to choose which of their two matches to continue dating in pursuit of long-term love.

    Over the course of the experience, as the six singles face this string of explosive twists, they’ll be forced to question themselves, their choices and everything they think they know about love.  Will heads be turned?  Will hearts be broken?  And, when faced with their final dilemma, which of their two matches will they choose?

    Based on an Australian format, originally developed by the producers of Married at First Sight Australia, this U.K. version supersizes its predecessor, adding in new format points and fresh elements for British audiences.

    Channel 4 Commissioning Editor, Factual Entertainment, and Commissioning Editor for Married at First Sight UK, Lee McMurray said: “When it comes to romance, most of us have a type we want, who often disappoints; we fail to spot the match we need, who could make us truly happy.  Love Triangle puts this modern dating dilemma front and centre, with a trademark E4 twist.  I’m confident British audiences will be gripped by this radical rejection of our current looks-based, swipe right dating culture, as they share the joy, love, heartache and off-the-scale drama of the six brave singles taking part in this unique, distinctive quest for love.”

    Ben Mitchell, Workerbee Creative Director, said: “In the superficial world of modern dating, it’s all too easy to swipe away matches who could have been the love of our lives, if only we’d given them a chance.  In this explosive new format, we’re asking six singles to try a very different approach to finding ‘the one’.  The results are surprising, emotional and dramatic. In Love Triangle, there are three sides to every story!”

    Love Triangle was developed by the producers of Married at First Sight Australia, Endemol Shine Australia (a Banijay company) in conjunction with 9Network.  This U.K. production is produced by Workerbee and exec produced by Charlie Faux and Ben Mitchell.  It was commissioned for E4 by Channel 4 Factual Entertainment Commissioning Editor, Lee McMurray and Head of Youth and Digital, Karl Warner.

  3. NBC Revs Up to Launch Hot Wheels: Ultimate Challenge

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    NBC gets the show on the road with a series order of “Hot Wheels: Ultimate Challenge,” an epic car makeover competition series based on one of the world’s most popular toys.

    Hosted by Rutledge Wood (“Top Gear US,” “Floor Is Lava”), who will also serve as one of the show’s judges, the 10-episode series will give Hot Wheels® superfans the opportunity of a lifetime – turning a nostalgic car from their past into the life-sized Hot Wheels of their dreams. The season-finale winning creation will spin its wheels by launching as an official Hot Wheels die-cast car.

    “Hot Wheels: Ultimate Challenge” is an original format developed and produced by Endemol Shine North America in association with Workerbee under license from Mattel Inc. Executive producers are showrunner Tim Warren, along with Andy Thomas, Sharon Levy, DJ Nurre and Michael Heyerman from Endemol Shine North America; Rick Murray and Chris Hale from Workerbee (a Banijay UK Company); and Fred Soulie and Phil Breman from Mattel Television.

    “Everyone remembers their first car, the life experiences they had and the friends who came along for the ride. Hot Wheels is a legendary brand that has created a space for imaginations to run free,” said Corie Henson, EVP, Unscripted Programming, NBCUniversal Television and Streaming. “Our prolific partners at Endemol Shine North America and Mattel have created larger-than-life family viewing with edge and humor all led by car enthusiast Rutledge Wood, whose creativity, credibility and passion for Hot Wheels makes him the perfect person to drive this wild competition.”

    Each episode will invite two passionate car fans and Hot Wheels lovers into the Chrome Zone, where they will each face off in transforming an ordinary vehicle into an extraordinary Hot Wheels showstopper, inspired by personal stories and pop culture touchstones. Working alongside a team of automotive magicians known as “The Car Pool,” the two Superfans will create their designs in high-tech, decked-out garages. Raising the stakes of the competition is the Inspirationator 5000, a larger-than-life vending machine that will rev up in each episode to present the Superfans with a twist in the road.

    Riding shotgun will be a rotating panel of celebrity guest judges joining resident experts Hertrech (“Hert”) Eugene Jr., an influencer in car culture and the drift scene, and Dalal Elsheikh, designer for the Ford Motor Company and Hot Wheels Brand Ambassador. Wood, Eugene and Elsheikh, along with the celebrity guests, will review the transformations and crown a winner. The winner of each episode will take home $25,000 and the chance to get into the finale, where three lucky finalists will transform another car in hopes of winning a legendary prize – an additional $50,000 and the honor of having their design made into an official Hot Wheels die-cast car.

    More than 16 Hot Wheels cars are sold per second across the globe, and this all-new “Hot Wheels: Ultimate Challenge” die-cast car will join the ranks of the 8 billion+ Hot Wheels that have been produced to date.

  4. Human Playground Narrated by Idris Elba Launches on Netflix

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    Human Playground, the six-part Netflix docu-series about the origins and evolution of the most unique sports around the world, will launch internationally in 193 countries on Friday, September 30, 2022. Dutch label Scenery and Manchester- based company, both Banijay companies, have joined forces to co-produce the high-end series, which is narrated by Idris Elba, who also serves as an Executive Producer. The series also brings together editor of BBC Earth & Our Planet, director Tomas Kaan and photographer and creator Hannelore Vandenbussche.

    The high-end docu-series is about the origin and evolution of exceptional sports around the world. From centuries-old rituals to billion-dollar businesses. In six episodes, narrator Idris Elba takes viewers around the world to discover: Why We Play.  The visual spectacle Human Playground dives into the world of, among others, the unique robot camel races in the United Arab Emirates, Big Wave surfing in Nazaré Portugal and Eagle Hunting in Kyrgyzstan.

    Tomas Kaan, Director of Human Playground says: “I knew we had something to grab when we decided to use play as a lens to examine ourselves – the playing human being. However, I could not have imagined in advance how many sides this story has to it. All those smells and colors, emotions, and cultures. Blood and sweat splashing against the lens. Human Playground was an unforgettable adventure in every way.”

    Isidoor Roebers, Producer Human Playground and founder of Scenery says: “After four years of shooting under all kinds of conditions in 25 countries during a pandemic, we are extremely proud of the end result of this Netflix docu-series. The thought that this series will soon be shown all over the world still feels unreal.”

    Rick Murray, Executive Producer and Managing Director of Workerbee says: “When Scenery introduced us to this project it felt like a perfect fit for Idris as narrator, and for Netflix. We are delighted to have helped get the project off the ground, the team in Amsterdam are world class and we hope to work with them again in the not-too-distant future”

    The idea for the series started originally in the form of a book by creator Hannelore Vandenbussche, who was inspired during her work as the assistant photographer on the highly successful photobook: Before they pass away. She has made it her mission to portray the most special sports in the world. “Human Playground takes a look at the most impressive playing fields in the world and shows how far people are willing to go when it comes to playing a game. Human Playground is not just about sports, it’s about what makes us human,” says Hannelore Vandenbussche.

    Thanks to Scenery’s partner in China, Content Connected, Human Playground will also launch on the largest Chinese streamer Youku later this year, bringing the docu-series to more than 1 billion people. It is the first Dutch-produced documentary series to launch worldwide on Netflix. In line with the series, there will also be an exclusive coffee table photo book (published by TeNeues), various art prints, and several art exhibitions will be organized. Among others during UNSEEN, the international photography fair.

  5. Banijay Rights boards Lifetime and A&E documentary event JANET.

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    Banijay Rights today announces it has acquired global distribution rights to JANET., Lifetime and A&E’s two-night, four-hour documentary event celebrating the 40th anniversary of Janet Jackson’s first album.

     

    With full unprecedented access to the music icon and no subject off limits, JANET. is an intimate, honest and unfiltered look at the singer’s untold story.

     

    Banijay-owned, UK-based Workerbee has been filming the incredible documentary for five years and has been granted exclusive access to archival footage and Janet’s never-before-seen home videos, along with star-studded interviews.

     

    Executive produced by Janet Jackson, Randy Jackson and Academy Award-winner Kevin MacDonald (The Last King of Scotland, Whitney), JANET. will air in early 2022 on Lifetime and A&E, two of the flagship channels of the A+E Networks portfolio, with Banijay Rights securing international distribution rights to the series.

     

    Cathy Payne, CEO, Banijay Rights, said: “It’s easy to run out of superlatives to describe Janet Jackson – a truly global superstar with a startling career and fascinating life. This ground-breaking documentary series gives a deep insight into her world, and we are excited to take this project out to the international market.”

     

    JANET. is produced for Lifetime and A&E by Workerbee and AEC (Associated Entertainment Corporation). Executive Producer for Workerbee is Rick Murray, with Ben Hirsch as Director. Brie Miranda Bryant serves as Executive Producer for A+E networks.

     

    With no stone left unturned, JANET. lifts the lid on her private life for the very first time and reveals the most intimate moments of the star ever caught on camera, charting her immense successes but also incredibly tragedies.

     

    The event series joins Janet as her family is going through another extremely difficult time, mourning the loss of her father Joseph, the pivotal figure in the Jackson dynasty. The documentary details Janet’s return to the world stage following a sudden break from music. Speaking like never before, Janet also discusses everything including her Superbowl appearance with Justin Timberlake in 2004, the death of her brother Michael and becoming a mother later in life. And with her own romantic relationship having broken down, she starts to look back at her own life and reflect on her fight to the top.