SquareOne Boss Al Munteanu On The Vuelta Deal: “The Idea Is To Have Distributors Who Morph Into Producers”

Andreas Wiseman
·2 min read

EXCLUSIVE: SquareOne Entertainment CEO Al Munteanu says new European studio Vuelta Group is about “distributors who morph into producers — that’s our DNA, believing in film as a theatrical proposition, but also in TV production.”

As Deadline revealed this morning, Munich-based SquareOne has become part of Vuelta Group, a union of European film companies also including France’s Playtime and Scandinavia’s Scanbox, with more companies set to join this year.

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SquareOne, founded by Munteanu in 2002, is well known as a distributor of movies including The Imitation Game, Book Club and The Wife. Recent Cannes market pre-buys include Breakout starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nic Cage’s sequel to Lords of War, and Daisy Ridley starrer Cleaner.

Munteanu, the former MTV and RTL presenter, has been growing SquareOne’s TV (and podcasting) production footprint in recent years with the German adaptation of Your Honor, starring Sebastian Koch and Paula Beer, and Italian mafia series L’Ora.

“We believe in the theatrical market and its ability to come back but we’re also keen to produce more high-end non English-language series,” he tells us.

“International co-production collaboration is key. The core of the message is for European content that can travel around the world. We’re very well funded to create multiple hubs. We’re well capitalised by our U.S. partner but the company is majority European.”

He continues: “We’re the architects of what we’re building. Each company remains distinct but part of the Vuelta group. Each of our brands will continue, so going forward we’ll be ‘Square One, a Vuelta Group company’.”

How will SquareOne — which has a headcount of around 25 — acquire content and greenlight productions going forward? “It’s very collaborative. Within the group we decide who, where, what,” he said. “We want to collaborate but we also have a slate of projects we’re pursuing as Square One that are local to Germany. They can happen within the group or outside of it.”

Munteanu continues: “We have a process of P&L per project per territory and we’ll see if an acquisition makes sense in one territory or in more than that. In terms of productions, we’ll decide on an anchor broadcaster and how much equity we put in. It’s a multi-layered and bespoke approach per project.”

Vuelta, which hasn’t disclosed the identity of its U.S. private equity backer, is in talks with companies in Italy, Spain and Benelux, and another firm in France.

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