Former NBC Entertainment Chair Paul Telegdy Launches New Shingle, Developing Falkland War Drama

Michael Schneider
·3 min read

Former NBC Entertainment chairman Paul Telegdy has launched a new shingle with his cousin, Berlin-based advertising exec Stefan Telegdy, and they are pitching their first TV project, a 10-episode series about the Falklands/Malvinas War of 1982.

The Telegdys’ The Whole Spiel production company has partnered with Lone Wolf Pictures and Infinity Hill to produce “The Islands,” which tells the story of that 1982 war, from the perspective of the soldiers and civilians on both sides of the 74-day conflict.

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Argentine writer Sebastian Rotstein (“El Presidente” Season 2, “Morir de Amor”) is writing the screenplay for the show, which will employ writers and directors from both the U.K. and Argentina to tell the full story.

Lone Wolf Prods. has secured rights to several published works about the war to use as source material, and is also working with military and civilian consultants including war correspondent Sir Max Hastings and Sir Simon Jenkins (“The Battle for the Falklands”); Cdr Sharkey Ward DSC, AFC (“Sea Harrier Over The Falklands”); Cpl. Mark Ashton (SAS) and Stuart Tootal (“SAS: Sea King Down”); Lt Cmdr. David Morgan DSC (“Hostile Skies: Battle for the Falklands”); Pte. James O’Connell (“Three Days In June: 3 Para’s Battle for Mount Longdon”); Major Phil Neame (“Penal Company on the Falklands: A Memoir of the Parachute Regiment at War”); nature filmmakers Cindy Buxton FRGS and Annie Price (“Survival: South Atlantic”) and Rear Admiral Chris Parry CBE (“Down South: A Falklands War Diary”).

According to Lone Wolf’s logline, the story “will depict firsthand personal experiences of those who fought in the war, ranging from professional soldiers to teenagers, some sent against their will and without any understanding of the dangers ahead. The civilian stories include stranded French sailors confronting a real-life monster of the war, two intrepid female natural history filmmakers and the people who call these islands home trapped in the crossfire of war.”

British independent producer Lone Wolf Pictures was founded by former BBC Worldwide exec Stephen McDonogh (“Walking With Dinosaurs: The 3D Movie,” “My Scientology Movie”).

“Backed by a vast amount of research and a rich variety of sources, we have brought together an intricately weaved ensemble of inspiring, emotional and thrilling stories of those caught in an intense conflict of another age,” McDonogh said. “Forty years on, those events seem terrifyingly relevant to world affairs today.”

Infinity Hill, based in the UK, Los Angeles and Buenos Aires, is headed by Axel Kuschevatzky, Phin Glynn and Cindy Teperman.

“This war had an everlasting impact on my homeland, Argentina, in social and political terms,” Kuschevatzky said. “We feel the need to tell this properly through the view of the people who faced an unthinkable and unparalleled experience.”

Paul Telegdy left NBC Entertainment in August 2020 after allegations that he had made inappropriate comments inside the company, leading to an internal probe. But at the same time, parent company NBCUniversal had been engineering a sprawling corporate overhaul meant to streamline its network and direct-to-consumer businesses, which ultimately led to his dismissal. After taking a sabbatical, he and Stefan Telegdy founded The Whole Spiel, with focused on film, television, gaming and music and with offices in Los Angeles, London and Berlin.

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