Paramount Plus, which is the global streaming service of recently rebranded Paramount — formerly ViacomCBS — has forged a three-year partnership with Gaumont, the storied French studio behind Netflix’s “Lupin” and “Narcos,” to jointly produce a slate of high-end original shows for its growing subscribers around the world.
Under the partnership Gaumont will produce these series in association with Paramount’s international studio, VIS.
The shows will be part of Paramount Plus’s stated plans to green light 50 new non-U.S. scripted originals in 2022, as it expands its reach from Latin America, Australia, Canada and the Nordics –– where the service has already launched –– to the U.K., South Korea, France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy where it will launch this year.
VIS will gain access to Gaumont’s vast network of top talent and creatives in key Paramount Plus markets, including Latin America and Europe, the two companies said in a joint statement.
The first greenlit Paramount Plus/Gaumont project is “The Signal” (“Le Signal”) a horror thriller based on the best-selling novel by Maxime Chattam. “The Signal” is creatively led by hot shot French showrunner François Uzan (“Lupin”).
In “The Signal,” famous radio host Olivia Dormeuil, after losing her beloved sister in a car accident, moves to an old house on a far away island with her family. This change of scenery soon proves more challenging than expected when the family’s unspoken fears begin to take ghostly form and some of the island’s inhabitants start dying off in strange circumstances. Their mysterious deaths prompt the family to wrestle with dark demons.
Additionally, three high-profile titles have been jointly greenlit for development:
–– “Futuro Desierto” (“Desolate Future”). A dystopian thriller set in a near-future Argentina that turns on a robotics engineer who moves with his family to an isolated town in Patagonia. There he is ordered to secretly test the first humanoid robots.
Argentina’s preeminent writer-director Lucia Puenzo –– whose film credits include the Cannes-selected “XXY” and “The German Doctor” –– will co-showrun and direct multiple episodes with her brother, Nicolas Puenzo, with whom she has co-directed “Cromo” and “La Jauría.”
–– “Anywhere.” This is a supernatural dramedy from prominent German screenwriter Jana Burbach (“Bad Banks,” “Tribes of Europa”). In the show Toni Falk’s chameleon-like skills help her in her career, but leave her lonely and lost, unable to form healthy relationships. After a casual lover declares his love for her, Toni is struck by a curse that transports her to different versions of her life. She finds herself stranded in a predicament where she has to find a way home, “wherever that may be,” says the provided synopsis.
–– “Impact.” This is a French eco-thriller based on the eponymous best-selling novel by Olivier Norek that explores one man’s initially single-handed battle against the catastrophic ecological situation of our planet. After pollution killed his newborn daughter, Virgil Solal goes to war, alone, against giants. But his message soon reverberates all over the planet in the form of a herd of masked supporters. The timely show is co-created by Jean-Xavier de Lestrade (“Murder on a Sunday Morning,” “The Staircase”), Antoine Lacomblez (“Laetitia”) and Severine Werba (“Spiral”).
Raffaele Annecchino, Paramount’s international CEO (pictured), called the partnership with Gaumont “another example of our commitment to producing high-quality content that crosses borders and resonates with audiences worldwide.”
“Our strong, multi-faceted and creative global content strategy, combined with strategic investments and deep-rooted history of bringing compelling global and local hits to our audience, sets Paramount Plus up for continued success,” he added in a statement.
“We are excited to start a global relationship with Paramount Plus and contribute to its international rollout with four new shows in Europe and Latin America,” commented Sidonie Dumas, CEO of Gaumont.
For Gaumont, these Paramount Plus originals complement the 40 projects already in the pipeline across its six international offices in Paris, Los Angeles, London, Berlin, Koln and Rome. These include new instalments of “Narcos,” season six; “Barbarian,” season 2; and “Lupin,” season 2. In terms of new commissions, they are making U.K. show “Damage” for Netflix; U.S. skein “El Presidente” and French series “Totem” for Amazon; French show “Kaiser Karl” for Disney; and U.S series “Stillwater” for Apple.
Previously announced Paramount Plus international originals comprise “Sexy Beast,” “A Gentleman in Moscow”; Simon Beckett’s “Chemistry of Death”; “Los Enviados (“The Envoys”); and “Miss Fallaci.”
The Paramount/Gaumont partnership will be officially announced during Annecchino’s Lille Dialogue keynote at Series Mania.
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