Prime Focus is ramping up its plans to move beyond the traditional post business model by setting up a production company.
Former Mob Films partner and executive producer Rod Brown has been appointed managing director of Prime Focus Productions, which will focus on high-end drama.
Prime Focus UK recently set up an animation unit and a 3D conversion business, and managing director Simon Briggs said the company had been considering moving into production for “a few years”.
“No one has really done this before,” he told Broadcast.
“Some production companies have inhouse post-production facilities as a cost management exercise, but this is the first time it has happened in the opposite direction.
“If you ask the head of any post house, they are constantly looking to revitalise their business. [Post] is not a business model that lends itself to long-term prosperity if we continue to do things the way we have always done them.”
Prime Focus Productions has secured the rights to develop The Watch, a police procedural series based on characters from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series of fantasy novels.
The 13 x 60-minute series, which Brown estimates will require a budget of £13-15m, will be written by former Python Terry Jones and Small Soldiers writer Gavin Scott.
Brown said Prime Focus would invest “nigh on six figures” in developing the series.
Two of the other projects in development are co-productions with STV, including Good Omens, a 4 x 60-minute adaptation of a novel written by Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.
Department 13, a 3 x 60-minute cold-war spy thriller with David Jason, will be produced with STV and US production firm Shoreline Entertainment.
Brown said initial discussions had taken place with UK broadcasters about commissions for the three series, but more advanced talks had been held with channels in the US, where he is keen to capitalise on the popularity of Pratchett’s work.
Rebecca Fisher, formerly of Infinity Features Entertainment Vancouver, has taken on the role of creative executive at Prime Focus Productions.
A creative director, head of 3D and a head of factual will be recruited “in the next few months”.
Mob Films has previously made adaptations of Pratchett novels The Hogfather, The Colour Of Magic and Going Postal for Sky 1.
