New European Super-Indie Vuelta Group Acquires ‘Lubo’ Outfit Indiana, ‘Largo Winch’ Producer, Distributor Pan (EXCLUSIVE)

Elsa Keslassy
·7 min read
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Vuelta Group, the rising European film studio which recently launched with the high profile acquisitions of France’s Playtime, Germany’s SquareOne and Scandinavia’s Scanbox, is expanding its footprint in Italy and France.

Spearheaded by media finance veterans (and childhood friends) Jerome Levy and David Atlan-Jackson, Vuelta has bought Indiana Production, a leading Italian company founded by Fabrizio Donvito and Marco Cohen, which had Giorgio Diritti’s “Lubo” playing in competition at Venice and just teased its big-budget Netflix series project “The Leopard” and Sky’s “Unwanted.”

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Vuelta has also taken a stake in France’s Pan (formerly called Pan-Europeenne), the well-established production and distribution banner headed by Nathalie Gastaldo, Philippe Godeau and Camille Gentet, whose credits include the hit franchises “Largo Winch” and “Legendaries.”

Vuelta bowed last year with more $100 million provided by a U.S. private equity firm and has now diversified its backing through its European partners. The banner is currently in discussions with potential partners in Spain and in Ireland, where Vuelta is headquartered.

At a time of massive consolidation throughout the European film and TV industries, Vuelta isn’t looking to follow the acquisition model of other French media groups such as Banijay, Newen, Mediawan and Federation. Instead of buying out multiple production companies across many territories, Vuelta Group will operate as an integrated studio boasting production, distribution and international units through its several companies. European production and/or distribution will be handled by Pan in France, Scanbox in Scandinavia, SquareOne in Germany and Indiana Production in Italy; while international sales will be handled by Playtime. The flexible approach will allow each banner to work autonomously with partners within the group or third-party companies, while becoming shareholders of Vuelta.

“Our idea is to build a multi-territory indie company with entrepreneurs who have similar ambitions, values and a vision,” said Levy, Vuelta Group chair, who spent most of his adult life in New York and headed Archie Comics Publications (“Riverdale,””Sabrina”) after working at Houlihan Lokey and Goldman Sachs.

Atlan-Jackson, who previously co-founded Backup Media, said “It was especially important to find the right people because when we buy a company, we pay a part of it in cash and 50% in stakes.” That means “the management of each company that joins Vuelta becomes a full member of the family,” added Atlan-Jackson, whose production credits include “Still Alice,” which earned Julianne Moore an Oscar.

The Vuelta family now comprises Indiana’s Donvito and Cohen, as well as Benedetto Habib, Karim Bartoletti and Daniel Campos Pavoncelli; Pan’s Godeau, Gastaldo and Gentet; Playtime’s Nicolas Brigaud-Robert, Sebastien Beffa and Francois Yon; SquareOne’s Al Munteanu, and Square’s Thor Sigurjonsson. The leadership team of Vuelta Group is completed by Allen Duffy, Fremantle’s former finance director as Chief Finance Officer, while Beffa, Munteanu and Sigurjonsson serve on the Management Board.

Levy said the common denominator between all these companies that are now part of Vuelta is the profile of entrepreneurs behind them. “They have been running these businesses for more than 20 years and are willing to reinvest a big part of their work into our company. That was a big sign of trust in our vision.”

Levy said being part of Vuelta will allow its partners to be more competitive in sourcing projects at an earlier stage and being able to co-produce and handle distribution, instead of “going to each market and being face-to-face with other companies in the same market.”

Playtime will not sell every single film developed within Vuelta but will package and deliver estimates on projects, based on their expertise, and discussions with Vuelta partners. Playtime, whose credits include Laszlo Nemes’ Oscar-winning “Son of Saul,” is a major film group in Europe, boasting international sales operations in France, as well as in Germany with Films Boutique (“Green Border”), Belgium with Be for Films, and the U.K. with Films Constellation.

One of France’s longest running production companies, Pan was created decades ago by Godeau, a distribution veteran who notably released iconic movies such as “Four Weddings and a Funeral” and “Les nuits fauves” in France. Gastaldo joined the banner in 2003 and spearheaded the production of internationally-driven movies, such as the action-adventure franchise “Largo Winch,” based on a Belgian comicbook series, and “The Odyssey,” a biopic of Jacques Cousteau, a celebrated explorer and ecologist.

Pan’s production roster includes the third opus of “Largo Winch” which stars  Tomer Sisley and James Franco and an animated adaptation of Guillaume Ivernel’s “The Legendaries.”

On top of its busy production activities, Pan expanded its scope in 2022 with the relaunch of its distribution business and a new division dedicated to animation.

Gastaldo said Vuelta was the right fit for Pan because they share “common values” and “understand the importance of independence.” Pan previously had corporate ties with Polygram in the 1990’s and Wild Bunch in the 2000’s. “With Vuelta on board, we will maintain our DNA and we’ll be able to consolidate our activities, while nurturing long-term relationships with talents and producing a diverse range of European movies for the global market,” said Godeau. Going forward, Pan will look to distribute approximately 10 movies in France per year. Some of these films will be third-party pickups, such as “The Consent,” a feature film produced by Marc Missonnier and based on Vanessa Springora’s bombshell book by the same name.

Gentet, joint CEO of Pan, said Playtime will represent internationally certain films such as “Sous le vent des marquises,” while others, like “Largo Winch” or “Legendaries” will be sold by Goodfellas.

“We’re interested in Pan’s approach is their expertise with IP’s, through titles like ‘Legendaries’ and ‘Largo Winch,’ which is rare in Europe and obviously appeals to me due to my background atArchie Comics Publications where I worked on properties like ‘Sabrina’ and ‘Riverdale,'” said Levy.

Atlan-Jackson said Vuelta was also lured by Pan’s eclectic slate. “France is a market where all the big indie distributors have fairly rigid editorial lines and what we like with Pan is that they’re doing a variety of projects, from auteur films to franchise movies and animation; they’re not locked on a certain kind of movies.”

Indiana Production, meanwhile, currently ranks as one of Italy’s most prolific purveyor of festival friendly, prestige arthouse movies such as “Lubo,” and upscale series for streamers such as “The Leopard” which was teased earlier this week by Netflix.

“Italy is a highly concentrated market with very few independent companies, and despite this highly competitive environment, Indiana has been able to thrive,” said Atlan-Jackson, who worked with Indiana previously on several movies at Backup Media, including Paolo Virzi’s “Human Capital.” “They’ve got a bullish year ahead with four or five movies coming out in theaters, they had two films at Berlin and Venice film festivals, and a pair of series with Sky and Netflix, and one with RAI that will start shooting next year,” Altan-Jackson said.

Levy said Italy, like Scandinavia, aren’t big territories in terms of size but remain attractive because of their rich talent pools.

Donvito said Indiana has achieved its “long-standing goal” with Vuelta, “to establish a European production and distribution network, collaboratively nurturing its growth from the outset alongside the partners that have been a part of Indiana from the very beginning.”

Cohen said Indiana has found in Vuelta some “European producers and companies with the same DNA and dreams.”

Playtime, like Indiana, Pan, Scanbox and SquareOne, also has relationships with renowned auteurs such as Francois Ozon.

“At Vuelta, we’re all interested in each other’s success and that’s the difference with another group with a top-down structure where you may not care so much if other subsidiaries are successful,” said Brigaud-Robert. “The idea of creating a European group of experts in their local markets under the same roof makes sense because we can be a ‘one-stop-shop’ for talents, and we can also choose to work autonomously,” he continued.

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