Studiocanal Preps Benedict Cumberbatch’s ‘How to Stop Time,’ Invests in ‘Broadchurch’ Director’s U.K. Banner (EXCLUSIVE)
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“Paddington” producer-distributor Studiocanal is gearing up to shoot “How To Stop Time,” starring Benedict Cumberbatch and with D.C. Moore (“Mary & George”) and Tomas Alfredson (“Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”) on board as key creative talent.
Production on the title by Studiocanal and SunnyMarch will be announced by CEO Anna Marsh on Monday at her keynote at Cannes’ MipTV trade fair.
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In it, she also looks set to confirm that Studiocanal has acquired an equity stake in London-based Strong Film & Television, co-founded in late 2020 by “Broadchurch” director James Strong and Matt Tombs, a former executive at the BBC and Paramount.
Both moves come as Studiocanal parent, Vivendi’s Canal+ Group, is ramping up its own international ambitions, operating throughout Africa, in six territories in Eastern Europe and two in Asia with 16 million of its 25.5 million subscribers now outside France. It also holds a leading 30.3% stake in Africa’s MultiChoice Group, the biggest pay-TV operator in English and Portuguese-speaking Africa, present in more than 50 countries.
Celebrating tonight the world premiere at this week’s Canneseries of “Spinners,” co-produced by the Multichoice-owned Showmax, Studiocanal looks set to target ever more global packages such as “How To Stop Time” or talent capable of producing international hits such as Strong.
Based on Matt Haig’s bestselling novel, “How To Stop Time” is written by Moore with Alfredson set to direct. Filming will take place in London and other parts of Europe in 2024, said Marsh.
Published in 2017, “How To Stop Time” turns on Tom Hazard, a London high-school history teacher, apparently 41, but suffering from anageria, or a very slow ageing process, which means he has lived since the 1500s. Affected by a life of perpetual loss, Tom is part of a like-conditioned secret power elite whose only rule is: Never fall in love.Then he meets a captivating French teacher at his school who seems equally fascinated by him.
Robyn Slovo (“Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”) is series producer alongside Cumberbatch, Adam Ackland, Claire Marshall and Leah Clarke for SunnyMarch (“Patrick Melrose,” “The Child in Time”). Moore, Alfredson, Haig and Jamie Byng executive produce. Ron Halpern, Studiocanal EVP global production and SVP global production Joe Naftalin executive produce and are overseeing for Studiocanal.
“Losing his loved ones, his existence is in many senses one of perpetual loss. So you can imagine Benedict being absolutely perfect for the role,” Marsh told Variety in the run-up to her keynote.
“How to Stop Time” will also key in on a love story that, for reasons beyond its lovers’ control, seemingly cannot last. “There are many themes that hit home,” she added.
Cumberbatch said that when he first read “How to Stop Time,” “the potential of this story was immediately obvious.” “In his inimitable style, Matt once again explores what it is to be human and what it is to live a life – a very long one in this case – with pathos, insight, humor, drama and inspiration,” the actor-producer continued.
He also praised Alfredson for being “the perfect person to capture the scale, tension, and sense of humour alive in DC Moore’s adaptation.”
Canal+ will air “How to Stop Time” in France, throughout Africa and in its six territories in Eastern Europe. Beyond the Canal+ footprint, Studiocanal will look to take the series onto the open market.
As it looks to build an even larger presence in the English-language scripted space and address international audiences, Marsh confirmed to Variety that Studiocanal has acquired an equity stake in London-based Strong Film & Television, co-founded in late 2020 by “Broadchurch” director James Strong and Matt Tombs, a former executive at the BBC and Paramount.
“We have the appetite to make more globally-reaching shows, and a lot of the talent for those kinds of international shows is definitely in London. There’s a lot of great talent there,” March said.
Along with “Broadchurch,” Strong was also lead director and executive producer of the highly acclaimed ITV thriller “Liar,” starring Joanne Froggatt and Ioan Gruffudd and the award-winning BBC series “Vigil” starring Suranne Jones for which Strong recently won BAFTA Scotland’s best director award. Additionally, Strong has most recently directed “The Suspect” for ITV, “Crime” for BritBox, as well as as the pilot for “Fire Country,” a CBS’ breakout hit.
Studiocanal and Strong Film & Televisions are kicking off their alliance with “The Out” (a working title), a social thriller set in a juvenile prison which is being jointly developed by the two companies. “The Out” marks the debut project of promising young author George Kellock, a graduate of 2022’s Talent Unlimited. It’s the first project to emerge from the Vivendi writers’ residence run by Amandine Maudet in partnership with Studiocanal.
Marsh said Studiocanal’s new 2023-24 slate is coming together as the fortunes of the world’s film and TV industries seem in some ways to have flipped.
Film “appears to varying degrees to be coming out of COVID crisis and, in some instances, is positively rocking.”
In contrast, “the TV bubble is somewhat burst. Businesses are taking a step back reassessing and figuring out the future, profits replacing subscriber growth as key performance indicators,” said Marsh.
“There’s a lot less volume being greenlit at the moment by everybody,” she added.
How will Studiocanal grow in the face of such headwinds? “I haven’t any kind of crystal ball,” Marsh told Variety. That said, Studiocanal answers look in part to turn on three key axes: Talent, IP and franchises.
IP comes naturally to Studiocanal. Financing and producing around 30 films and more than 200 hours of TV series every year, it is home to Europe’s largest film library with more than 7,500 titles.
“Being part of a global entertainment company like Vivendi is obviously something that adds more strength to our strategy and having such a strong movie catalog provides us with an absolute wealth of content and ideas to reboot or revisit,” said Marsh, who mentioned IPs such as “Pippi Longstocking” and “The Wicker Man,” which Studiocanal is developing into a film and a TV series, respectively.
Marsh said “How to Stop Time” illustrates the company’s “desire to tell the best stories with the best talents and enabling them to create and grow with us over time. It’s definitely part of our longterm strategy.”
The series reteams Studiocanal with Cumberbatch, Alfredson and Slovo who previously worked on the BAFTA winning and Oscar-nominated film “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.” The project also reunites Studiocanal with Haig following the global rollout of Gil Kenan’s feature film “A Boy Called Christmas” in 2021.
Studiocanal is now in active development on Haig’s critically acclaimed “The Midnight Library” which has sold over seven million copies and sat in the Top 10 of the NY Times bestseller list for weeks.
Studiocanal will also world premiere at Canneseries on April 17 “The Brigade,” an ultra-contemporary police special unit thriller which again has been acquired by Canal+ for the whole of its international footprint.
Turning on the challenge of modernizing forces of order, leadership in a contemporary world and Europe’s ethnic mix, “The Brigade” is designed as Canal+/Studiocanal’s next big crime franchise, in line with “Spiral” and “Braquo.”
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