The UK's edgiest indie, Channel X, and the enfant terrible of French production companies Moi j'aime la television (I love television) are to launch a new joint venture - Nice One Studio - at MIP TV 2008.
Created by Channel X's Alan Marke and Jim Reid and Moi j'aime la television's Phil Ox, Nice One's aim is to produce long running scripted series -- both live action and animation -- for the 15 to 34 year old audience.
Jim Reid will take the position of Director of Business Development, Alan Marke will be Creative Director and Phil Ox will be Director of Programs. The company already has three projects in development.
"We want to produce fiction for teenagers and young adults across Europe, drawing on our experience of co-productions with a real multicultural touch. Nice One is lucky enough to start with offices in Paris, London and Madrid and a creative team who adore television and speak ten languages between them," said Ox.
"Nice One is our way to open the doors to the young generation of creative talent emerging in Europe. We want to compete with US imports by generating European TV series which are as tightly scripted and packed with ideas - it's the most exciting challenge in television," Reid added.
The two companies behind Nice One previously collaborated on the controversial animated sitcom POPETOWN. The show, which was banned by the BBC, has sold across Europe, Australasia and the Americas.
Both Channel X and Moi j'aime la television will continue to work independently on their own projects. Channel X is currently in development on a number of sitcoms and entertainment formats for all the major terrestrials and is just finishing a sitcom pilot for BBC3. Moi j'aime la television is delivering the second season of family sitcom GENIE IN THE HOUSE to Nickelodeon UK.
The first three projects on Nice One's slate are:
MODELING FOR BEGINNERS, a sharp, glossy comedy about friendship, rivalry and being in love, set in the sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll world of fashion. This project is being developed for Frances's digital terrestrial channel VIRGIN 17.
MED SCHOOL is a drama series about a group of medical students in London trying to survive tough academic days and exhausting nights as they learn the secrets of the body; their own as well as their patients'. Conceived as a young GREY'S ANATOMY, the show is being developed for the new Filles TV channel in France and has already interested several British broadcasters.
Nice One Studios (niceonestudios.com) will be going into production later this year with the second series of POPETOWN, the controversial cartoon show about a demented Pope with a mental age of 8, set in a fantasy Vatican. French cable channel MCM is already on board. The first season was picked up by a variety of young adult broadcasters, from MTV Germany to MCM France, from Fox Comedy Australia to MTV Latin America.
Alan Marke said, "POPETOWN has been incredibly successful considering it hasn't even been shown in the UK yet. Fortunately for us, most Catholic countries got the joke. We've had lovely reviews in Le Monde, a massive audience in Germany and our broadcasters have been enjoying SOUTH PARK-like audience reaction across a wide spectrum of markets from Russia to South America."
