You have always worked closely with CAA. How does this move impact your relationship with the agency?CAA has been an historical partner and they allowed us to start the new company three years ago. Our relationship is probably one we are the most proud of because this goes beyond a simple business relationship.
The market and the environment had changed, which convinced us it was time to become a smaller and more flexible company capable of reacting quickly to everything that was happening in our industry. When the Wild Bunch and Senator merger was sealed in 2015, it was heralded as the first step in creating a pan-European production and distribution group with clout. This has not come to pass, and you lost Wild Bunch in the process.
Changes in the industry meant we had to reformat ourselves. We don’t have to sell the films produced by Getaway Films, Wild West or Le Collectif 64 because with those companies we’re wearing a co-producer hat with an active role. We need to find the best solution for each film, which won’t necessarily involve us selling it internationally on a territory basis.
I think the important thing to highlight is that international sales remain an important window for us and a fantastic way to access talent and finance films, but it’s no longer our only activity. We’ll never give-up on sales. We think it’s important to continue working with our distributor network and we also believe in its economy, but the business has changed, and we have too.