Leading independent studio Entertainment One (eOne) and Viasat Broadcasting, have entered into a distribution financing co-venture for 10 Viasat Broadcasting free TV territories on the highly-anticipated television series, “The Firm,” based on John Grisham’s best-selling novel of the same name.
The deal marks Viasat Broadcasting’s first foray into the distribution financing arena providing them the television broadcast rights in Denmark, Norway, Sweden (both pay-TV and free-TV rights) and Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Czech and Ghana (free-TV rights) as well as on demand rights for its Viaplay services. The one-hour series will be simulcast on Sunday nights at 22.00 on Global in Canada and NBC in the US and will air on Sony’s AXN networks in more than 125 territories around the globe.
“We’re thrilled to embark on this joint venture with Viasat Broadcasting. They have the largest geographical broadcast footprint in Europe so we see this as a no-brainer as we plan to expand and build our relationship with them,” said Peter Emerson, President Entertainment One Television International. “As part of our unique non-traditional approach to getting projects greenlit by circumventing the pilot process and boldly order straight-to-series, we look for great partners like Viasat who commit to investing in properties in the early stages which demonstrates tremendous support for the creative vision and direction of the series.”
Laurence Miall-d’Août, Chief of Staff, Free-TV, commented: “We seek to innovate in all areas of our business, and this is the latest example of thinking outside of the usual TV boxes. The Grisham novels are great properties that have enjoyed tremendous success in print and on the big screen, so we are very excited about teaming up with a leading studio with a proven track record to develop “The Firm” for the small screen in Europe. This is a new way of doing business which not only secures us the broadcasting rights for our linear channels, as well as online streaming rights in our territories, but also creates an ongoing revenue stream as we share the revenues for the worldwide sales.”
Produced by eOne Television in association with Sony Pictures Television Networks and Paramount Pictures, the series stars Josh Lucas (“The Lincoln Lawyer,” “Sweet Home Alabama”) as Mitch McDeere, Callum Keith Rennie (“The Killing,” “Californication”) as Ray McDeere, Molly Parker (“Deadwood,” “Swingtown”) as Abby McDeere and Juliette Lewis (“Natural Born Killers,” “Cape Fear”) as Tammy Hemphill with recurring guest stars Tricia Helfer (“Battlestar Galactica”) as Alex Clark and Shaun Majumder (“Detroit 1-8-7”) as Andrew Palmer.
“The Firm” continues the story of attorney Mitch McDeere who, as a young associate, brought down the prestigious Memphis law firm of Bendini, Lambert & Locke, which operated as a front for the Chicago mob. After a difficult decade, McDeere and his family now emerge from isolation to reclaim their lives and their future — only to find that past dangers are still lurking and new threats are everywhere.
The executive producers include John Grisham (“The Pelican Brief,” “The Client”), Lukas Reiter (“Law & Order,” “Boston Legal”), John Morayniss (“Haven,” “Hung”), Michael Rosenberg (“Hung,” “The Riches”) and Noreen Halpern (“Rookie Blue,” “Call Me Fitz”). David Straiton (“House,” “Fringe”) is confirmed to direct the two-hour premiere episode and Helen Shaver (“Judging Amy,” “Law & Order: SVU”) will serve as a co- executive producer and will direct multiple episodes.
