Former HBO Europe execs Johnathan Young and Ioanina Pavel have resurfaced with their own indie.
The pair have launched May One, which will be based in Bucharest, Romania — one of the former homes of HBO Europe. They are out of the gate with Subteran, a Netflix series announced last October that is produced alongside Tudor Rue from Mobra Films and now filming.
May One will seek to develop, produce and provide creative partnership for quality series shot in Romania, working with established and new talent from both within and outside the country. The company will look to open up Romanian resources and talent to the international industry to create collaborations in Europe and beyond.
In that sense, it harks back to HBO Europe’s ethos, which sought to bring together Central Eastern European talent with others from Western Europe and the U.S. It was considered one of the key international producers in the region,...
The pair have launched May One, which will be based in Bucharest, Romania — one of the former homes of HBO Europe. They are out of the gate with Subteran, a Netflix series announced last October that is produced alongside Tudor Rue from Mobra Films and now filming.
May One will seek to develop, produce and provide creative partnership for quality series shot in Romania, working with established and new talent from both within and outside the country. The company will look to open up Romanian resources and talent to the international industry to create collaborations in Europe and beyond.
In that sense, it harks back to HBO Europe’s ethos, which sought to bring together Central Eastern European talent with others from Western Europe and the U.S. It was considered one of the key international producers in the region,...
- 2/29/2024
- by Jesse Whittock
- Deadline Film + TV
Former HBO Europe executives Jonathan Young and Ioannina Pavel have launched a new production company, May One, aiming to develop and produce high-end TV drama in Romania for local and international audiences.
The veteran TV execs have been involved in several high-profile HBO productions shot in Eastern Europe, including the award-winning Polish series Wataha (The Pack), the Romanian-German
thriller Hackerville and HBO Max’s Cold War espionage drama Spy/Master, which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival last year.
Spy/Master
As vp original production at HBO Europe, Young oversaw HBO’s slate of original local language series in the region. Pavel began as a development executive at HBO Romania, working on such series as the gangster drama Umbre and Hackerville, before going on to produce a variety of shows, from the romantic drama Ruxx to Spy/Master.
May One will be based in Bucharest and plans to develop, produce and co-produce high-end series to shoot in Romania,...
The veteran TV execs have been involved in several high-profile HBO productions shot in Eastern Europe, including the award-winning Polish series Wataha (The Pack), the Romanian-German
thriller Hackerville and HBO Max’s Cold War espionage drama Spy/Master, which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival last year.
Spy/Master
As vp original production at HBO Europe, Young oversaw HBO’s slate of original local language series in the region. Pavel began as a development executive at HBO Romania, working on such series as the gangster drama Umbre and Hackerville, before going on to produce a variety of shows, from the romantic drama Ruxx to Spy/Master.
May One will be based in Bucharest and plans to develop, produce and co-produce high-end series to shoot in Romania,...
- 2/29/2024
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Joerg Winger, producer and co-creator of the hit three-season “Deutschland” Cold War spy series, has launched a new outfit aimed at developing, producing and distributing high-end drama formats, including English-language and international productions.
Berlin-based Big Window Productions, set up between original “Deutschland” producer UFA Fiction and parent group Fremantle, will focus “on a small portfolio of extraordinary stories with high entertainment value, often inspired by real events,” Winger said.
Projects currently in development include a limited series about a scandalous Covid-19 outbreak and an English-language thriller set in Berlin.
“Because our focus is so much on international and English-language productions, the relationship with Fremantle makes a lot of sense,” Winger told Variety.
Winger will head Big Window with UFA execs Sebastian Werninger and Philipp Driessen, who, among other duties, oversee UFA Distribution.
A longtime UFA producer, Winger will now be doing less managing and more storytelling and showrunning. While he...
Berlin-based Big Window Productions, set up between original “Deutschland” producer UFA Fiction and parent group Fremantle, will focus “on a small portfolio of extraordinary stories with high entertainment value, often inspired by real events,” Winger said.
Projects currently in development include a limited series about a scandalous Covid-19 outbreak and an English-language thriller set in Berlin.
“Because our focus is so much on international and English-language productions, the relationship with Fremantle makes a lot of sense,” Winger told Variety.
Winger will head Big Window with UFA execs Sebastian Werninger and Philipp Driessen, who, among other duties, oversee UFA Distribution.
A longtime UFA producer, Winger will now be doing less managing and more storytelling and showrunning. While he...
- 7/27/2020
- by Ed Meza
- Variety Film + TV
HBO Europe has greenlit original series “Tuff Money” (“Bani Negri”), a six-part crime caper from Cristian Mungiu’s Mobra Films, the company behind Mungiu’s Palme d’Or winner “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days,” and HBO Europe’s “Hackerville.”
“Tuff Money” has been written and will be directed by Daniel Sandu, the writer and director of the film “One Step Behind the Seraphim” and a writer on “Hackerville.”
The Romanian series follows two lovable losers, who joke about being able to commit the perfect crime. The joke backfires when their words are misconstrued, and they find themselves forced into actually having to commit the robbery. They are totally unprepared, both for the crime and its bizarre aftermath.
“’Tuff Money’ is a funny and smart caper that is absolutely Romanian at heart, with a sensibility and charm giving it an appeal beyond local audiences,” Antony Root, exec VP, original programming and production,...
“Tuff Money” has been written and will be directed by Daniel Sandu, the writer and director of the film “One Step Behind the Seraphim” and a writer on “Hackerville.”
The Romanian series follows two lovable losers, who joke about being able to commit the perfect crime. The joke backfires when their words are misconstrued, and they find themselves forced into actually having to commit the robbery. They are totally unprepared, both for the crime and its bizarre aftermath.
“’Tuff Money’ is a funny and smart caper that is absolutely Romanian at heart, with a sensibility and charm giving it an appeal beyond local audiences,” Antony Root, exec VP, original programming and production,...
- 7/23/2019
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Frictionless international film and series production is at the top of agendas in Central and Eastern Europe these days, with increasingly competitive territories adopting policy tweaks and launching new film promotion bodies.
The freshly minted Slovak Film Commission is looking to catch up quick to its longstanding Czech counterpart, the Czech Film Commission, with a high profile at major fests, partnerships with Western European counterparts and streamlined services for foreign producers now on the table, says Zuzana Bielikova, who heads the org.
“We would like to make obtaining shooting permits in locations easier and eventually handle the formalities,” says Bielikova, who has spent years at one of Prague’s topline production companies, Negativ. In that capacity she has been part of the team behind critical successes such as “Alois Nebel” and the recent work of Czech docu legend Helena Trestikova.
Now, says Bielikova, helping her native country to win more...
The freshly minted Slovak Film Commission is looking to catch up quick to its longstanding Czech counterpart, the Czech Film Commission, with a high profile at major fests, partnerships with Western European counterparts and streamlined services for foreign producers now on the table, says Zuzana Bielikova, who heads the org.
“We would like to make obtaining shooting permits in locations easier and eventually handle the formalities,” says Bielikova, who has spent years at one of Prague’s topline production companies, Negativ. In that capacity she has been part of the team behind critical successes such as “Alois Nebel” and the recent work of Czech docu legend Helena Trestikova.
Now, says Bielikova, helping her native country to win more...
- 2/9/2019
- by Will Tizard
- Variety Film + TV
Building on the attention and opportunities that arrived following his 2007 Palme d’Or for “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days,” Cristian Mungiu has transformed himself into a quiet force in the European film industry.
A ubiquitous presence on the festival circuit, the Romanian director has won prizes for his follow-up films “Beyond the Hills” and “Graduation,” served on juries at the Cannes and Marrakech film festivals, and acted as guest director for the TorinoFilmLab earlier this year.
Back in Marrakech for a career spanning masterclass, the filmmaker sat down with Variety to discuss his recent career developments and his upcoming projects.
What could you tell about your next feature film?
It’s the story of my grandmother, and it will be a larger-scale film than anything I’ve done so far. It’s a war film set in the past, so the production needs a bit more time. I originally had written it as a book,...
A ubiquitous presence on the festival circuit, the Romanian director has won prizes for his follow-up films “Beyond the Hills” and “Graduation,” served on juries at the Cannes and Marrakech film festivals, and acted as guest director for the TorinoFilmLab earlier this year.
Back in Marrakech for a career spanning masterclass, the filmmaker sat down with Variety to discuss his recent career developments and his upcoming projects.
What could you tell about your next feature film?
It’s the story of my grandmother, and it will be a larger-scale film than anything I’ve done so far. It’s a war film set in the past, so the production needs a bit more time. I originally had written it as a book,...
- 12/8/2018
- by Ben Croll
- Variety Film + TV
The sun is just beginning to slip behind the horizon and a golden light streams in from all sides of the glass-encased office building up top one of the bank towers that dominate the Frankfurt skyline. The office is bustling, but not with bankers, suits and hedge-fund managers. Instead a motley group of gaffers, second-unit crews, sound technicians and the occasional actor mull about.
German star Ronald Zehrfeld, his husky frame straining against the confines of a well-tailored suit, paces back and forth, taking an occasional vape from an e-cigarette, waiting for his cue. As the crew set up, director ...
German star Ronald Zehrfeld, his husky frame straining against the confines of a well-tailored suit, paces back and forth, taking an occasional vape from an e-cigarette, waiting for his cue. As the crew set up, director ...
- 10/26/2018
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
HBO Europe has greenlit “Patria,” its first original series out of Spain, to be written and produced by Aitor Gabilondo (“El Príncipe”) and directed by award-winning helmers Pablo Trapero and Félix Viscarret (“Under the Stars”).
The eight-part series adapts author Fernando Aramburu’s 2016 novel of the same name, one of the most acclaimed of recent Spanish bestsellers. Variety reported on the development of the project last year.
Trapero, a leading light of New Argentine Cinema who won a best director plaudit in Venice for “The Clan” in 2016, will serve as lead director. Trapero has made movies that deal with weighty social and political issues but appeal far beyond art-house audiences, such as Cannes competition contender “Lion’s Den” and Ricardo Darin-starrer “Carancho.” Viscarret, a Goya award winner who helmed the Caribbean noir series “Four Seasons in Havana” for Tornasol, will direct some of “Patria’s” episodes.
The 646-page novel looks...
The eight-part series adapts author Fernando Aramburu’s 2016 novel of the same name, one of the most acclaimed of recent Spanish bestsellers. Variety reported on the development of the project last year.
Trapero, a leading light of New Argentine Cinema who won a best director plaudit in Venice for “The Clan” in 2016, will serve as lead director. Trapero has made movies that deal with weighty social and political issues but appeal far beyond art-house audiences, such as Cannes competition contender “Lion’s Den” and Ricardo Darin-starrer “Carancho.” Viscarret, a Goya award winner who helmed the Caribbean noir series “Four Seasons in Havana” for Tornasol, will direct some of “Patria’s” episodes.
The 646-page novel looks...
- 10/22/2018
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
A trio of new dramas and two returning originals are in HBO Europe’s fall-winter lineup as it continues to increase its original programming efforts outside the U.S.
When the European arm of HBO officially unveils its new fall-winter plans later Friday, it is expected to announce a Dec. 26 launch for “Success,” the highly anticipated Croatian drama helmed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Danis Tanovic (“No Man’s Land”). The show is HBO Europe’s first original from the Adriatic region, and tells the story of four strangers bound together by a violent event. HBO has committed to making at least one original drama per year from Adriatic countries.
HBO will also release the first trailer for upcoming Polish crime drama “Blinded by the Lights.” The action-packed curtain raiser for the Warsaw-set drama underscores its key settings and themes: high-level cocaine trafficking, gangsters, and nightclubs. Based on the book by Jakub Zulczyk,...
When the European arm of HBO officially unveils its new fall-winter plans later Friday, it is expected to announce a Dec. 26 launch for “Success,” the highly anticipated Croatian drama helmed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Danis Tanovic (“No Man’s Land”). The show is HBO Europe’s first original from the Adriatic region, and tells the story of four strangers bound together by a violent event. HBO has committed to making at least one original drama per year from Adriatic countries.
HBO will also release the first trailer for upcoming Polish crime drama “Blinded by the Lights.” The action-packed curtain raiser for the Warsaw-set drama underscores its key settings and themes: high-level cocaine trafficking, gangsters, and nightclubs. Based on the book by Jakub Zulczyk,...
- 10/5/2018
- by Stewart Clarke
- Variety Film + TV
Four years ago, Zurich was one of the first film festivals to embrace the small screen, launching the TVision sidebar to showcase innovative TV productions. So it should come as no surprise that, for its 2018 edition, Zurich has elevated TV to star status, creating a stand-alone competition section for series.
"We wanted to focus more attention on television and also, with a competition, give the producers an opportunity to use the festival for promotion," says festival co-founder Karl Spoerri, explaining the move.
The Zff Series section will include six international world premieres, including Hackerville, a crime drama from ...
"We wanted to focus more attention on television and also, with a competition, give the producers an opportunity to use the festival for promotion," says festival co-founder Karl Spoerri, explaining the move.
The Zff Series section will include six international world premieres, including Hackerville, a crime drama from ...
- 9/26/2018
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
Four years ago, Zurich was one of the first film festivals to embrace the small screen, launching the TVision sidebar to showcase innovative TV productions. So it should come as no surprise that, for its 2018 edition, Zurich has elevated TV to star status, creating a stand-alone competition section for series.
"We wanted to focus more attention on television and also, with a competition, give the producers an opportunity to use the festival for promotion," says festival co-founder Karl Spoerri, explaining the move.
The Zff Series section will include six international world premieres, including Hackerville, a crime drama from ...
"We wanted to focus more attention on television and also, with a competition, give the producers an opportunity to use the festival for promotion," says festival co-founder Karl Spoerri, explaining the move.
The Zff Series section will include six international world premieres, including Hackerville, a crime drama from ...
- 9/26/2018
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
HBO Europe and German broadcaster TNT Serie have released the first trailer for their six-part cyber drama Hackerville, which will also be available in the U.S.
The two broadcasters are launching the show, produced by Deutschland 83 producer Ufa Fiction and Mobra Films in November with HBO Europe airing the show in Central Europe, Scandinavia and Spain on Sunday 4 November and TNT Serie premiering the series in Germany, Austria and Switzerland on Thursday 8 November. It will also be available to U.S. HBO subscribers across HBO Go, HBO Now and HBO On Demand, although a premiere date has not been set.
Hackerville follows a network of hackers and the investigators tasked with tracking them down. It is both broadcasters’ first moves into co-productions.
It was created by Ralph Martin and Joerg Winger from Ufa Fiction and will be produced by Cristian Mungiu and Tudor Reu and exec produced by Winger and Johnathan Young.
The two broadcasters are launching the show, produced by Deutschland 83 producer Ufa Fiction and Mobra Films in November with HBO Europe airing the show in Central Europe, Scandinavia and Spain on Sunday 4 November and TNT Serie premiering the series in Germany, Austria and Switzerland on Thursday 8 November. It will also be available to U.S. HBO subscribers across HBO Go, HBO Now and HBO On Demand, although a premiere date has not been set.
Hackerville follows a network of hackers and the investigators tasked with tracking them down. It is both broadcasters’ first moves into co-productions.
It was created by Ralph Martin and Joerg Winger from Ufa Fiction and will be produced by Cristian Mungiu and Tudor Reu and exec produced by Winger and Johnathan Young.
- 9/20/2018
- by Peter White
- Deadline Film + TV
Adding to its line-up of original productions from Central and Eastern Europe, HBO Europe announced Sunday at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival that it has greenlit an original Czech series, “Oblivious.”
The espionage drama set in Czechoslovakia during the 1980s will be helmed by Ivan Zacharias, whose HBO Europe series “Wasteland” is now set for streaming distribution in the U.S.
The six-part spy story is being written by television screenwriter Ondrej Gabriel, which the company has said illustrates its commitment to developing new talent from the region.
Zacharias created a bleak, menacing world in his past series for HBO Europe, “Wasteland,” which followed the trail of a child-napping in the Czech Republic’s northern coal region amid power intrigues and corporate secrets.
That series, which released two seasons, premiered at Karlovy Vary in 2016 amid warm audience and critical responses.
The “Oblivious” announcement capped a panel at the festival that...
The espionage drama set in Czechoslovakia during the 1980s will be helmed by Ivan Zacharias, whose HBO Europe series “Wasteland” is now set for streaming distribution in the U.S.
The six-part spy story is being written by television screenwriter Ondrej Gabriel, which the company has said illustrates its commitment to developing new talent from the region.
Zacharias created a bleak, menacing world in his past series for HBO Europe, “Wasteland,” which followed the trail of a child-napping in the Czech Republic’s northern coal region amid power intrigues and corporate secrets.
That series, which released two seasons, premiered at Karlovy Vary in 2016 amid warm audience and critical responses.
The “Oblivious” announcement capped a panel at the festival that...
- 7/1/2018
- by Will Tizard
- Variety Film + TV
As U.S. viewers discover among their VOD options HBO Europe’s original production series “Wasteland,” the thriller set in the bleak coal fields of north Bohemia and filmed in 2016 in the Czech Republic, the company says more shows are on their way.
The eight-part thriller, directed by Ivan Zacharias and Alice Nellis and scripted by Stepan Hulik, screened at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival before becoming one of the first European series produced by the premium cable company to reach U.S. audiences. It was followed more recently by Hungarian and Czech versions of the romantic comedy “When Shall We Kiss,” the latter starring Anna Geislerova.
“If we own the property, why would we not make it available to people?” posits Antony Root, HBO Europe’s head of original production.
While he confesses about the programming’s potential success across the Atlantic “I don’t know how it’s going to do,...
The eight-part thriller, directed by Ivan Zacharias and Alice Nellis and scripted by Stepan Hulik, screened at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival before becoming one of the first European series produced by the premium cable company to reach U.S. audiences. It was followed more recently by Hungarian and Czech versions of the romantic comedy “When Shall We Kiss,” the latter starring Anna Geislerova.
“If we own the property, why would we not make it available to people?” posits Antony Root, HBO Europe’s head of original production.
While he confesses about the programming’s potential success across the Atlantic “I don’t know how it’s going to do,...
- 6/28/2018
- by Will Tizard
- Variety Film + TV
Cable company HBO Europe has started to shoot cyber-crime thriller series “Hackerville” in Transilvania, a region of Romania, as its first international co-production, building on a string of locally shot productions, including Romania-set detective series “Umbre” (pictured).
“It will put Romania on the map of the international TV drama scene,” says co-creator and executive producer Joerg Winger (“Deutschland 83”), adding he was won over by the location “as a dynamic and colorful place with a vastly unexplored history and present.”
The project was “created in a truly multi-cultural process, with great Romanian talent attached,” Winger adds, with music a key component, as it was in “Deutschland 83,” the Cold War-set spy series for AMC Networks’ SundanceTV and Rtl Television.
The original six-part “Hackerville,” about a network of hackers and the investigators tasked with tracking them down, co-produced with TNT Serie, was created by Ralph Martin and Winger for Ufa Fiction,...
“It will put Romania on the map of the international TV drama scene,” says co-creator and executive producer Joerg Winger (“Deutschland 83”), adding he was won over by the location “as a dynamic and colorful place with a vastly unexplored history and present.”
The project was “created in a truly multi-cultural process, with great Romanian talent attached,” Winger adds, with music a key component, as it was in “Deutschland 83,” the Cold War-set spy series for AMC Networks’ SundanceTV and Rtl Television.
The original six-part “Hackerville,” about a network of hackers and the investigators tasked with tracking them down, co-produced with TNT Serie, was created by Ralph Martin and Winger for Ufa Fiction,...
- 6/2/2018
- by Will Tizard
- Variety Film + TV
While an American showrunner is like the duke of a small fiefdom, with a hand in everything from casting to editing to decisions made in the writers room, the same role hasn’t exactly been exported to TV industries overseas.
But at “Behind the Curtain: Meet the Showrunners!”, a panel discussion held Wednesday afternoon as part of the In Development program organized by MipTV and Canneseries, three top European writers and showrunners described an evolution in the relationship between broadcasters, producers, and series creators.
When he first cut his teeth as a writer-producer, Jörg Winger, managing director of Ufa Fiction, and executive producer-showrunner-creator of “Deutschland 83/86” and “Hackerville,” said, “I had to hide it from the broadcaster, because they thought producer and writer was a conflict of interest.”
He added, “It was not just that writers weren’t in charge. They weren’t even allowed to participate.”
Ludovica Rampoldi, screenwriter of “1992” and “Gomorra,...
But at “Behind the Curtain: Meet the Showrunners!”, a panel discussion held Wednesday afternoon as part of the In Development program organized by MipTV and Canneseries, three top European writers and showrunners described an evolution in the relationship between broadcasters, producers, and series creators.
When he first cut his teeth as a writer-producer, Jörg Winger, managing director of Ufa Fiction, and executive producer-showrunner-creator of “Deutschland 83/86” and “Hackerville,” said, “I had to hide it from the broadcaster, because they thought producer and writer was a conflict of interest.”
He added, “It was not just that writers weren’t in charge. They weren’t even allowed to participate.”
Ludovica Rampoldi, screenwriter of “1992” and “Gomorra,...
- 4/12/2018
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
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