Disney+ is eyeing more comedy series out of the UK, global originals chief Eric Schrier said this morning.
The President of Disney TV Studios and Global Original Television Strategy at Disney Entertainment said the move was in part a response to serious nature of global discourse right now, adding: “We think the world can use some comedy right now.”
Talking at Content London, Schrier said there were “a number of dramas in development in the UK – limited and not limited – and comedy, which has not been a trend as of late.”
During his talk, Schrier played a trailer for Disney+ comedy-drama Alice & Steve, which stars Jermaine Clement and Nicola Walker as a pair of platonic middle-aged friends whose relationship is tested when he begins dating her 26-year-old daughter. Baby Reindeer maker Clerkenwell Films is producing, with Tom Kingsley directing and Sophie Goodhart the writer and creator.
Schrier called the show a “super unique concept,” as he urged producers in the room to pitch his local execs ambitious ideas. “You have to build risk into the system,” he added. “You can’t just buy the ‘good’ stuff. If failure is not part of your business model, you are not going to succeed in a creative business.”
He pointed to Rivals, the comedy series adapted from the late Jilly Cooper’s Rutshire Chronicles novel series as a “huge hit” that had helped establish Disney+ in the UK “and beyond.”
The news also comes just hours after Deadline revealed Nicholas Hoult and Daisy Edgar-Jones were starring in Mosquito, a British comedy billed as a sardonic look at a young couple’s relationship.
Schrier’s words follow Disney CEO Bob Iger earlier this year signalling that the U.S. studio is set to significantly up the amount it produces in local markets, as it enters what Schrier called “phase two” of Disney+’s evolution. Iger had told investors Disney is “already starting to develop more aggressively in very, very targeted markets outside the United States.”
Disney+ has this year launched 100 series in more than 20 territories, with the UK, Spain, Germany, Italy, Korea, Turkey and Brazil among the priority territories. Schrier recently told us about Disney’s ambitious production plans in the Asia-Pacific region during an exclusive interview alongside Carol Choi.
Disney has been positioning Hulu as its international tile for more adult-skewing content after dropping the Star brand and replacing it with the U.S. streamer’s moniker. Schrier said Hulu allowed international commissions to be more “edgy” than the fare from the other Disney brands.
He told producers not to pitch kids and family content, which is primarily being developed in-house, and explained: “We’re really looking to do Hulu originals across the world to show adults” that Disney+ can “still do edgy things.”
Free-to-air partnerships
Elsewhere in the talk, Schrier addressed Disney+’s recent content swap pacts with ITV in the UK, Atresmedia in Spain and ZDF Studios in Germany, calling free-to-air broadcasters “really powerful entities in their markets.
He also noted that in the U.S., Hulu takes ABC and Fox broadcast content the day after linear premieres, he said: “We see that as very productive way to offer content to subscribers.”
For that reason, Disney+ has been “partnering with all and sundry around the world,” with each territory or co-production approached by letting the market “dictate on… project-by-project basis.”
Interestingly, he said that the content partnerships showed Disney does not always consider exclusivity as “the most important thing,” but said producers were still most interested in the large upfront fees offered for global rights. “Netflix changed the business model when it went out to buy global rights,” he added. “That seems to be the preferred way.”
Schrier also used his talk to announce The Devil in My DMs, a four-part Hulu true-crime series exploring the intersection of social media and crime by following four stories where an online interaction became the breeding ground for a real-life crime.
UK producer Lightbox, which is behind Disney+ original Camden, is making the show. Sean Doyle, Executive Director of Unscripted at Disney+ ordered the show, with Suzanne Lavery and Lightbox co-founders Simon Chinn and Jonathan Chinn the exec producers, and Camden‘s Toby Trackman serving as lead director.
