Plan B Launches Joint Venture To Make Unscripted Film & TV With Oscar Winner Kevin Macdonald

Andreas Wiseman
·3 min read
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EXCLUSIVE: Plan B Entertainment has set a joint venture with Oscar-winning documentarian and filmmaker Kevin Macdonald, known for movies including Touching The Void, One Day In September, Whitney, The Last King Of Scotland and State Of Play.

Per the JV, the two parties will co-develop and co-produce unscripted films and series with both established and emerging directors.

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Among Plan B’s current unscripted work is the ongoing Lego Masters series for Fox and the recent Wayne Shorter documentary Zero Gravity for Amazon. French media company Mediawan took a majority stake in the company late last year.

Macdonald’s previous work in documentary also includes Life In A Day, Marley and High & Low — John Galliano. He won a Best Documentary Oscar for One Day in September about the 1972 murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the Summer Olympics In Munich, Germany. His most recent narrative feature was The Mauritanian, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Jodie Foster, and Tahar Rahim, and he is in pre-production on thriller A Spy By Nature starring Paul Mescal.

His previous producing work also includes films such as Asif Kapadia’s Senna, Jimmy Chin’s The Rescue, and Ben Nicholas and David Tryhorn’s Pele.

Said Plan B’s Entertainment’s Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, and Jeremy Kleiner: “Kevin is an incredible artist who exemplifies the best in storytelling and is among the most formidable voices working today. Throughout his career he has produced some of the most compelling stories being told in the unscripted medium and we are looking forward to this collaboration as together we have the opportunity to work with a host of directors looking to share their stories across the U.S., U.K., and Europe landscape.”

12 Years A Slave and Moonlight outfit Plan B’s upcoming movies include RaMell Ross’s The Nickel Boys and Nia DaCosta’s Hedda Gabler for MGM’s Orion Pictures, Bong Joon-Ho’s Mickey 17 and Tim Burton’s sequel to Beetlejuice for Warner Brothers Motion Pictures, David Michod’s Wizards for A24, Reinaldo Marcus Green’s Bob Marley: One Love for Paramount, as well as an untitled thriller from writer/director Jon Watts starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt, and Joseph Kosinski’s Formula One racing film starring Pitt for Apple Studios.

The company has TV projects in the works including a second season of Outer Range and a series order of Wytches for Amazon, a second season of Feud in partnership with Ryan Murphy for FX, and the upcoming Three Body Problem, from David Benioff and D.B. Weiss and Alex Woo, for Netflix.

MacDonald commented: “I’ve known Plan B for more than 15 years and seen them produce some of the most diverse, innovative, daring and personal films and TV shows out there. I couldn’t be more excited to work with them to bring those same qualities to the world of non-fiction.”

Pierre-Antoine Capton, founder and CEO of Mediawan, added: “Kevin MacDonald is an incredible director whose talent has given shape to the most impactful stories. Mediawan is proud to be associated with Plan B in this joint venture, in line with our ambition to bring together the best talents from around the world and to develop an ambitious unscripted films and series line up.”

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