French Studio Magical Society Launches UK Arm Helmed By ‘Saving Mr Banks’ Producer Paul Trijbits

Aton Soumache and Joann Sfar’s French studio Magical Society has launched a UK arm helmed by Saving Mr Banks producer Paul Trijbits, whose drama indie FilmWave has shuttered after a decade.

Magical Society UK has landed a debut commission – the BBC’s AA Dhand adaptation Virdee, which was announced at last month’s Edinburgh TV Festival and will be produced by crime sub-label Magical North. Trijbits is running Magical Society UK with JJ Lousberg, a former Focus and Universal exec.

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Magical Society UK is operating as a JV with Paris-based Magical Society and will forge kids, animation and drama projects both TV and film. The French operation was opened in 2020 by comic book artist and filmmaker Sfar (Le Chat du Rabin, Monster’s Shrink, Mr Crocodile), and French animation producer Soumache, who was behind Netflix’s current most-watched animation feature, Miraculous: Ladybug & Cat Noir, and is the honorary chairman and a shareholder of Mediawan Kids & Family.

Magical North is also developing an adaptation of M.W. Craven’s detective novel The Botanist, which is being penned by Virdee’s Dhand, while Magical Society UK is working on a returnable series titled Monsters’ Shrink based on Sfar’s work, which is being written and adapted by Jeremy Dyson (Killing Eve). More Sfar projects are in the offing, according to the company.

Virdee, which led the BBC’s slate at Edinburgh alongside a Sally Wainwright project, follows a Bradford cop, played by Sacha Dhawan, who is hunting down a killer targeting the Asian community.

FilmWave closes

Trijbits’ past credits include Saving Mr Banks, Fish Tank and Jane Eyre. He founded FilmWave a decade ago and was behind Netflix animation series The Letter for the King. The company appointed administrators in May, according to Companies House documents, which cited “significant losses” incurred following The Letter for the King’s cancelation and “significant challenges” presented by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Trijbits is joined at Magical Society UK by MD Lousberg and former FilmWave execs Callum Dodgson and Laura Douras, who have become Head of Development, and Director of Finance and Production Finance respectively.

Dodgson joined FilmWave after script editing three seasons of the BBC’s Silent Witness. Before that he was a development executive at The Ink Factory, having joined the company at its inception, working on projects including The Night Manager and A Most Wanted Man. Douras’ past employers include Avalon and Fremantle.

Magical Society’s UK launch comes off the back of renewed interest from French players in the UK production world. Federation Entertainment bought its first UK company, Bulletproof producer Vertigo Films, last year, a few months after Newen acquired a majority stake in Icarus maker Rise Films.

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