MIPTV 2023 STUDIOCANAL KEYNOTE BY ANNA MARSH

Cannes, Monday 17 April 2023, 3.00pm CET STUDIOCANAL today announce HOW TO STOP TIME & their investment in STRONG Film & Television live in Cannes and during a MIPTV keynote appearance from STUDIOCANAL CEO & CANAL+ DEPUTY CEO Anna Marsh.

ANNOUNCED TODAY A STUDIOCANAL & SUNNYMARCH PRODUCTION HOW TO STOP TIME BASED ON MATT HAIG’S BESTSELLING NOVEL BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH TO STAR IN THE TV SERIES DC MOORE SHOWRUNNING & TOMAS ALFREDSON TO DIRECT

STUDIOCANAL & SUNNYMARCH today announce HOW TO STOP TIME. The 6-part TV series based on Matt Haig’s bestselling novel will star Benedict Cumberbatch (The Power of the Dog, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, The Imitation Game) in the lead role as Tom Hazard.

DC Moore (UPCOMING : SKY/AMC's Mary & George starring Julianne Moore) is attached to write with Tomas Alfredson (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Let The Right One In) attached to direct the STUDIOCANAL & SUNNYMARCH production. HOW TO STOP TIME will shoot in London and Europe next year, 2024.

Based on the book by NY Times bestselling author Matt Haig, HOW TO STOP TIME is a genre-bending, globe-trotting thriller, high stakes romance and superhero narrative about, well: time. It explores the lives of men and women who live for hundreds and hundreds of years, suffering from a very rare condition called anageria...

And suffer is the operative word, because living for so long, and never appearing to age, is its own curse. Throughout history they have been feared, misunderstood, and persecuted and had to live entirely in the shadows in order to survive. As our hero, Tom Hazard (Cumberbatch) has. Born in 15th Century France time and time again he has lost everything because of his condition. His family. Friends. His wife. Daughter. His existence is one of perpetual loss...

But he hasn't entirely given up. He's still alive today, nearly 600 years later. And as much as our story explores pain, and suffering, it's also a story about love. About Tom re-discovering love. And learning to really accept who he is, and his condition. However, this isn't just a personal journey for Tom...

He is caught in the middle of a secret war, which has been fought by those with anageria for centuries. They have formed underground groups to survive. Somewhere between intelligence networks, and a mafia clan, to protect themselves from the outside world. And from each other. Tom is an operative in one of these networks, who recruits others like him to their cause. And so as much as HOW TO STOP TIME is a love story, it is also a spy thriller. A humane, kinetic story that dances between genres, and will be a spectacular ride across every continent, every century since Tom was born and all the boundless possibilities of love.

HOW TO STOP TIME reunites STUDIOCANAL with their regular collaborators Adam Ackland, Benedict Cumberbatch, Claire Marshall and Leah Clarke at SUNNYMARCH, and with Cumberbatch, Tomas Alfredson and Robyn Slovo, having worked together on 2011's BAFTA winning and Academy Award-nominated 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 in active development on Haig’s beloved and critically acclaimed novel The Midnight Library which has sold over 7 million copies and has sat in the top ten of the NY Times bestseller list for weeks. His work has been translated into 50 languages.

Benedict Cumberbatch comments “When I 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, humour, drama and inspiration. I am so thrilled to be reuniting with Tomas Alfredson who is the perfect person to capture the scale, tension, and sense of humour alive in DC Moore’s adaptation.”

Tomas Alfredson expands “We all know that time is something absolute, like silence or darkness or the speed of light. But describing or witnessing it seems as flexible as taste, beauty or politics. I guess this is why Matt Haig’s HOW TO STOP TIME is so compelling. It’s a fantastic essential condition for a TV-series to have a main character that doesn’t age and all the possibilities that offers. DC Moore has written a fantastic script and to have the forever young Benedict Cumberbatch to play Tom Hazard is nothing less than congenial.”

DC Moore notes “Matt Haig’s brilliant book was a joy to adapt for the screen, as it is such an epic, unpredictable, and deeply humane story. It’s beyond exciting to be working with artists of the incredible calibre of Benedict Cumberbatch and Tomas Alfredson to bring this story to the screen, and give it all the ambition, craft and heart it so richly deserves.”

Matt Haig adds “Benedict Cumberbatch is the dream person to play Tom Hazard and was always who I pictured in my mind. And Tomas Alfredson is the ideal director for this story. The whole team is incredible, and it is so great to feel a story is in the best possible hands.”

SunnyMarch remark “We have been huge fans of Matt's for a long time and always admired his wonderfully playful and deeply honest work. HOW TO STOP TIME delivers all of this and much much more...we are truly excited to be taking this on with such a talented team.”

STUDIOCANAL CEO Anna Marsh concludes “We are delighted to be reuniting with our friends and long term collaborators, Tomas, Benedict, Matt, Robyn and the team at SunnyMarch, and to now also be working with DC Moore on this hugely exciting and ambitious new series. We were immediately captivated when we read Matt’s novel, which DC Moore has adapted masterfully, and to now have Benedict starring as Tom Hazard and Tomas directing the show is a wonderful combination. We can’t get wait to get started.”

STUDIOCANAL EVP Global Production Ron Halpern and SVP Global Production Joe Naftalin executive produce and are overseeing for STUDIOCANAL.

Robyn Slovo (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) is series producer alongside Benedict Cumberbatch, Adam Ackland, Claire Marshall and Leah Clarke for SunnyMarch (Patrick Melrose, The Child in Time). DC Moore, Tomas Alfredson, Matt Haig, & Jamie Byng executive produce.

SUNNYMARCH is an independent TV and Film production company founded by Adam Ackland and Benedict Cumberbatch. Since launching the banner, SunnyMarch TV have co-produced the Golden Globe, Emmy nominated and BAFTA winning limited series Patrick Melrose for Showtime and Sky, and an adaptation of Ian McEwan’s The Child in Time for BBC One and PBS Masterpiece. On the Film side, SunnyMarch have released the Golden Globe winning, BAFTA nominated The Mauritanian, The Electrical Life of Louis Wain, and The Courier, and are currently in production on Mahalia Belo’s The End We Start From starring Jodie Comer, and John Crowley’s We Live in Time starring Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield. STUDIOCANAL is an associate of SUNNYMARCH TV.

STUDIOCANAL produces its series directly (such as Paddington which won two Daytime Emmy Awards) and through its network of award- winning European production companies, including STUDIOCANAL Series GmbH (Shadowplay) and Lailaps Films (Shadows of the Past) in Germany, the UK’s RED Production Company (Stay Close, It’s a Sin, Years and Years) and Urban Myth Films (War of the Worlds, Extinction), Spain’s Bambú Producciones (Two Lives, Jaguar, Cable Girls) and France’s STUDIOCANAL Original (Nine Women, About Last Night, Mouche) and Danish- based SAM Productions founded by Søren Sveistrup and Adam Price (The Chestnut Man, Ride Upon The Storm).

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STUDIOCANAL INVESTS IN UK SCRIPTED INDIE STRONG FILM & TELEVISION LED BY AWARD-WINNING BROADCHURCH, LIAR AND VIGIL CREATIVE ANNOUNCES NEW COMMISSION

STUDIOCANAL has invested in UK scripted indie STRONG FILM & TELEVISION led by Broadchurch director James Strong as co-founder and joint creative director, along with executive producer Loretta Preece and leading UK executive Matt Tombs.

As well as helming award-winning and ratings-hit Broadchurch, James 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, and in the US the pilot of Fire Country, CBS’ breakout hit of the 2022-23 season which has recently been picked up for a second series. Additionally Strong has directed the forthcoming feature Anna starring Maxine Peake and Ciaran Hinds.

A long-time member of the key creative team behind BBC’s long-running series Doctors, joint creative director Loretta Preece produced the BBC’s flagship medical drama Casualty, in 2021 notably leading the show to win an unprecedented hat-trick of best series awards in a single year - BAFTA, RTS and Broadcast. She has just completed production on the second series of The Sister Boniface Mysteries, made by BBCS for BritBox International. Veteran channel executive Matt Tombs is co-founder and managing director of the indie. Tombs has held management, commissioning positions at the BBC, UKTV and Viacom CBS as well as drama and entertainment roles at a number of leading companies.

Based in both Bristol and London, and with an exciting line-up of film and tv projects in various stages of development, Strong Film & Television has secured a new development commission following the deal. The Out (w/t), a social thriller set against the original and volatile backdrop of a juvenile prison, will be the first production greenlit to be jointly developed by Strong Film & Television and STUDIOCANAL. The Out is the debut project written by promising young author George Kellock, a graduate of 2022 Talent Unlimited, and marks the first funded development project to emerge from Vivendi’s writers’ residence run by Amandine Maudet in partnership with STUDIOCANAL.

STUDIOCANAL CEO Anna Marsh & Executive Managing Director TV Series Francoise Guyonnet comment: “As we continue to build our carefully curated portfolio of production companies throughout Europe we are extremely pleased to be working with James, Loretta and Matt whose experience is second to none. Each of them has long-lasting relationships with UK commissioners and understand our European DNA. We are committed to aligning ourselves with the very best creatives who embrace our mission to bring prestige drama to our many clients across all platforms and are delighted to kick off our new relationship with the joint development of The Out by young writer George Kellock.”

James Strong adds, “Loretta, Matt and I want to create contemporary, emotional and bold pieces that connect with international viewers as well as in the UK. We believe that partnering with STUDIOCANAL will give us an even deeper grasp of what global film and tv audiences are looking for and, with their talented teams across financing and sales, we will be able to make programming that will engage with audiences and travel throughout the world. We’re extremely excited to launch this new era of Strong Film & Television by adding a remarkable series such as The Out to our existing slate of brilliant ideas.”

About STUDIOCANAL (a CANAL+ Company)

STUDIOCANAL, a 100% affiliate of CANAL+ Group held by Vivendi, is Europe’s leader in production, distribution and international sales of feature films and series, operating in all nine major European markets - France, United Kingdom, Germany, Poland, Spain, Denmark and Benelux - as well as in Australia and New Zealand. It finances and produces around 30 films per year, distributes around 80 films per year. It owns the largest library in Europe and one of the most prestigious libraries in the world, boasting more than 8 000 titles from 60 countries, spanning 100 years of film history. 20 million euros has been invested into the restoration of 750 classic films over the past 5 years. In addition, STUDIOCANAL also produces almost 20 series each year and operates at an international level by globally distributing its scripted productions and CANAL+ Originals (2,000 hours of current and library content in distribution). All productions take place directly through STUDIOCANAL entities or with its award-winning network of European production companies (STUDIOCANAL Series, LAILAPS FILMS, RED PRODUCTION COMPANY, URBAN MYTH FILMS, BAMBÚ PRODUCCIONES, STUDIOCANAL ORIGINAL, 2e BUREAU, SUNNYMARCH TV, SAM Productions, DINGIE/DUTCH FILMWORKS, KINO SWIAT, BIRDIE PICTURES).