EXCLUSIVE: In her first interview since becoming head of content at Disney+ EMEA, Angela Jain has said the message to writers and producers is simple, the streamer is going to greenlight more originals from the region and will be backing that effort with extra funds for local fare.
“A meticulous approach to judging what are the right projects for us will still remain, but we want to do more.” Jain told Deadline. “And I don’t think we can do more without spending more.”
As this interview lands, Jain will be walking off the stage at Series Mania, where she will have delivered a similar message to the massed ranks of drama producers, executives and press at the confab in Lille, Northern France. The streamer announced new shows at Series Mania including a Hulu murder mystery out of Italy, a vampire comedy from Turkey and a Spanish doc series about abandoned children (more on those below). “I’m not going to sit here making false promises,” she said during her Series Mania panel session, which was moderated by Deadline. “You can already see we are ramping up.”
With many legacy broadcasters feeling the pinch and the impact of the latest wave of consolidation still unknown, it is a challenging time in the international drama biz, so talk of expanding the slate of local shows will be a tonic for Euro producers.
Former ITV Studios exec Jain was announced in the Disney+ role last June, succeeding Liam Keelan in an expanded role. The growth story appealed to her too. “The level of ambition is enormous,” Jain says. “I was attracted to the fact that Disney+ is in growth mode. It’s very hard to find those opportunities in this business, and also the opportunity to work with European businesses to grow in Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland… there’s a clear message to the creative community that we want to do more with them.”
The plan to further boost local commissioning will mean more drama, but in terms of local originals, Disney+ has skewed more in favor of scripted than unscripted in most of its European markets. “Part of what I’m going to do is rebalance that,” Jain, whose experience is mainly drawn from big unscripted beasts like Love Island, said. “I’m definitely going to be commissioning more unscripted; returning series hopefully, and reality, observational docs and factual entertainment. And the joy of doing unscripted is that you can hopefully, in success, commission in volume, and the shows can return quicker.”
She is at pains to say this doesn’t mean a reduction in the amount of drama, but more of a balancing out where needed.
Here at Series Mania, Disney+ unveiled a handful of new shows. From Italy there is Murder on Lake Garda (WT) based on Tom Hindle’s eponymous Sunday Times bestseller. Per the synopsis: In the quiet of Lake Garda, a private island hosts the most exclusive wedding of the year between Leopoldo Vigevani, heir to one of the country’s richest and most powerful families, and influencer Eva Bianchi. When a lifeless body is found on the beach, the island turns into a trap from which no one can escape. This one will be a Hulu original series for Disney+ produced by Fremantle label The Apartment.
In the UK, Disney+ is making a documentary about “Mercy” singer Duffy. Rare TV and Stellify Media’s doc will tell the story of how one of the most popular British singers disappeared for 10 years. Then, in 2020, she published a harrowing post on social media. She revealed that a decade earlier, she had been drugged, before being kidnapped and taken to another country, where she was violently and sexually abused over a period of weeks. It had a devastating ripple effect across her entire life.
Out of Spain, there is Abandoned. The doc series delves into a real-life story of three children aged two, four and six who were found abandoned at a city train station. They were unable to explain who they were, who their parents were, or why they were there, but 40 years later they set out to uncover the truth. Luminol Media is producing.
The Strange Story of Gustav Maier, meanwhile, is a different kind of Turkish drama. The country is renowned for its long-running soapy dramas, but this one is billed as “a hilarious love story between a 350-year-old virgin vampire and a perfectly normal woman.” We’ve got the first pic from the eight-episode show, which is produced by MGX. Umut Aral directs from Giray Altınok’s script.
In terms of the commitment to doing a greater number of local shows, the idea is subscribers will be seeing more from their home countries, and more often. “What we want, which is why we’re doing more, is greater frequency of our local originals, so they’re not so spread out. That’s definitely part of the Disney+ growth strategy,” Jain says.
First-look picture of The Strange Story of Gustav Maier
Disney+
Disney+ has had its share of locally originated successes. Bref 2 has been big in France, Rivals has created a lot of buzz in the UK, France-originated show The Lost Station Girls did really well in Latin America, and soapy Turkish dramas have travelled. But Disney+ is yet to have a local original that goes on to be a global smash hit. Is finding those shows part of Jain’s mission?
“What will define a show’s success is how well it performs in the local market; talkability, capture, cultural impact, those kinds of measures of success.
“It’s no surprise to hear that in second or third series, and possibly more so for English-language shows, there will be an expectation that if something is really good, we want lots of people to see it, so we would like it to travel. But first and foremost, local originals need to work in the market in which they were commissioned. That’s our primary objective.”
Disney+ local originals are vying for attention with some of the biggest series and films on the planet. Jain’s task is to create a pipeline of shows that can live in that company. ”We’ve got Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars, FX… it’s an incredible universe that we’re in, but then it also that sets a really high quality bar, which we’re not frightened to get close to,” she says. “It also gives us very specific space that we can occupy, where local originals do something that complements our global slate. It’s very important for us to find that space.
“This is where we’re at now. This is our opportunity to really find local, original content that complements that premium, global slate. The quality threshold remains super high, and that’s great company for us to keep.”
The Disney exec says she is working closely with her U.S. counterparts but has autonomy on programming decisions. “There’s lots of people whose opinions really matter, but ultimately, the greenlight authority sits with me.”
She stressed that “sometimes an element of surprise is required” when taking pitches and therefore does not want to be overly prescriptive with her “shopping list” for producers. “This isn’t a science, it’s art meets science,” added Jain. “There’s a bit of guesswork but we rely on our creative collaborators to help us get there.”
Disney+ has been working with legacy broadcasters, signing branding and content-sharing agreements with the UK’s ITV, Germany’s ZDF Studios and Spain’s Atresmedia.
“If the relationship and partnership works for both of us, we’re completely open to that,” Jain says. “We can already point to places where we’re trying out our partnership with free-to-air broadcasters to see what that will deliver for both of us. We’re still at the beginning and are absolutely exploring more ways of doing that.”
Max Goldbart contributed reporting.