ITV Studios acquires stake in Gomorrah producer Cattleya

ITV Studios acquires stake in Gomorrah producer Cattleya

ITV Studios has acquired a majority stake in leading Italian independent producer Cattleya, the company behind international hit TV dramas Gomorrah and Romanzo Criminale.

The Rome-based company has produced over 70 films, including Best Foreign Language Academy Award nominee Don't Tell, Suburra, Siberian Education, I'm Not Scared and domestic box office hits Benvenuti al Sud, Benvenuti al Nord and Il Principe Abusivo. In recent years Cattleya has focused more on TV drama production, which is forecast to contribute around two-thirds of revenue by 2019.

As well as the forthcoming third season of the award-winning Gomorrah, which has been sold to over 70 countries and will be broadcast on Sky Italy starting in November, Cattleya has also produced Netflix's first Italian original series Suburra, which focuses on politics, the Vatican and organized crime in present-day Rome.

Cattleya also recently garnered an English-language series commission and has several more in the immediate pipeline. Canal+ and SKY have ordered Zero Zero Zero, which focuses on the global cocaine trade and comes from the creative team behind Gomorrah, including writers Leonardo Fasoli and Roberto Saviano, together with director Stefano Sollima.

Cattleya was launched in 1997 by Founder Riccardo Tozzi who was joined by President & co-CEO Giovanni Stabilini and co-CEO Marco Chimenz. Producers and partners Francesca Longardi and Gina Gardini joined in 1999 and 2005, respectively. In 2010, it created subsidiary think|cattleya with partner Monica Riccioni to produce commercials, and the new venture quickly became one of the top producers in Italy

This is the latest step in further building ITV Studios international drama business to meet the growing demand for European drama, particularly amongst SVOD platforms. This acquisition, along with ITV Studios investment in Tetra Media Studios in France and existing scripted businesses in the Nordics and Germany, place ITV Studios in a strong position to take advantage of the many opportunities for locally produced content with global appeal.

As part of the deal, Cattleya will retain full creative and production autonomy, and ITV Studios' distribution arm, ITV Global Entertainment, will distribute Cattleya TV series, where rights are available.

Maria Kyriacou, President of ITV Studios International, said: Cattleya has built on its feature film experience and expertise to achieve fantastic television production series with the international hits Gomorrah and Romanzo Criminale, and now Suburra. Riccardo, Giovanni, Marco, Gina and Francesca have established an enviable reputation as first-class drama producers by building brilliant relationships across the globe to develop ambitious projects which appeal to audiences everywhere. This coupled with our confidence that the demand for high-end European drama will continue to grow, make Cattleya a perfect partner for ITV Studios as we continue with our strategy to build an international scripted business.

Riccardo Tozzi, Cattleya's founder and co-CEO, said: We are thrilled to join ITV Studios. Its strategy of investing in European and international high-profile production companies and TV content is perfectly in line with the ever-growing demand for high-end drama series. It also corresponds to the direction in which Cattleya has been headed over the last several years, to create scripted drama that will present the best of Italian and European talent to the world. We could not be happier to team up with such a formidable company, led by such expert executives as Julian Bellamy and Maria Kyriacou.

LINK:	http://www.itv.com/presscentre/press-releases/itv-studios-acquires-sta...
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