Explaining the Lure of Europe for Hollywood Talent

While Europe has always lured Hollywood filmmakers, there are more opportunities today for transatlantic collaborations due to a number of factors, according to leading European industry reps taking part in the Zurich Summit on Saturday.

Outlining the many advantages and unique opportunities Europe offers at the Zurich Film Festival‘s industry forum were Goodfellas’ Vincent Maraval, Mediawan CEO Elisabeth d’Arvieu, Constantin exec Martin Bachmann, Fremantle’s Christian Vesper and Karl Spoerri of Zurich Avenue.

While collaborations have always existed between the European industry and American filmmakers who wanted to do different kinds of films, the current situation has created more opportunities, Maraval said.

U.S. studios are becoming “more and more conservative,” he pointed out, adding that for creators today who feel frustrated or are looking for more freedom and more creativity, it’s easier to travel and work elsewhere.

It’s also becoming increasingly expensive to shoot Stateside, he noted. “It means a lot of independent producers from Hollywood are traveling and trying to find solutions for their films.” Many of them are now collaborating with companies like Mediawan, Federation, Fremantle and Constantin, he added.

“We can feel that there are more and more opportunities. As an independent, we were always somewhat depending on what the studios do, because we did what was left. Today there is more that is left than before. So we are a solution for people who feel that their dream or their creation cannot happen in the studio format, in the Hollywood industry.”

Goodfellas’ current hot title, Jacques Audiard’s Cannes award winner “Emilia Pérez,” may have initially seemed a tough sell, but not for Maraval.

It’s “a musical in Spanish with a French director and transgender hero. As an independent, we are obliged to go where people don’t go.”

Such films also attract top talent who don’t find such roles in Hollywood, Maraval said. “Emilia Pérez” stars Zoe Saldaña and Selena Gomez. Audrey Diwan’s erotic drama “Emmanuelle,” also sold by Goodfellas, features Naomi Watts.

“When Zoe Saldaña or Selena Gomez or Naomi Watts are joining that type of film, it’s mainly because of the director and mainly because they don’t have a proposition like that in the industry.”

While European films pay less than Hollywood productions, actors are artists who “want to push themselves further,” Maraval explained.

“I mean, Zoe Saldaña , she’s a great dancer and a great singer. And nobody proposed to her to do such a movie. Usually she’s blue or she’s green, but this time she was herself, and she could dance and she could sing. So it was a great proposition for her.”

With Hollywood studios averse to taking risks, “the scope is wider for us to do films,” he added.

The strategy of picking up projects that others passed on has paid off for Maraval over the years.

“When we did ‘March of the Penguins,’ people were saying, ‘It’s a wildlife documentary. It’s good for TV but not for cinema. When we did ‘Fahrenheit 9/11,’ people said documentaries were not for the big screen. When we did ‘Spirited Away,’ people said Japanese animation would never work.”

European companies are also offering great opportunities for American directors to make films in Europe by doing co-productions, harnessing each others’ strengths and bringing in soft money, he noted.

“We have a system in Europe which has no equivalent in the U.S. The U.S. is a very liberal system where you gamble, you play – it’s a pure market business – while in Europe it’s a mix. So we have to play with that mix and we have to find solutions that Hollywood cannot find internally.”

D’Arvieu echoed the sentiment. Mediawan’s 2022 acquisition of Brad Pitt’s shingle Plan B was in line with growing interest on the U.S. side to move into Europe just as Mediawan was eager to access the American market.

“They had a very strong appetite for working in the European model, working outside the traditional U.S. studio model,” she explained.

“They had a very smart vision of how Europe is very favorable in terms of creation. We have all the shooting locations. We have an amazing pool of talents. And we also have an amazing regulatory system that allows creation and allows producers to retain ownership of what they create and what they produce. They had the same strategic vision as us.”

The agreement, she added, was driven by a common goal – of putting Mediawan on the map in the U.S. and Plan B getting into European production.

Plan B is now set to produce the family film “Weekend Warriors,” based on the German hit “Weekend Rebels,” from Mediawan’s Munich-based subsidiary Leonine. It is also developing a movie in Spain with one of Mediawan’s other companies and working with a French sister company to produce a series in France and the U.K., d’Arvieu added.

For its part, Constantin has long been active in the U.S., not only acquiring rights but also producing works like the long-running “Resident Evil” franchise, Bachmann noted.

The Munich-based company co-produced Swiss helmer Tim Fehlbaum’s acclaimed English-language news crew thriller “September 5,” which is playing in Zurich after unspooling in Venice and Telluride.

The company is likewise producing Gore Verbinski’s forthcoming sci-fi adventure “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die,” starring Sam Rockwell, and recently teamed with Roland Emmerich on his ancient Rome series “Those About to Die” via its High End Productions joint venture.

Constantin recently acquired the rights to Colleen Hoover’s latest bestseller, “Regretting You,” and is producing the adaption with Josh Boone (“The Fault in Our Stars”) set to direct.

“There’s some great talents at the moment,” Bachmann added. “Edward Berger, who we all know from ‘All Quiet on the Western Front,’ just did ‘Conclave,’ which also [plays in Zurich].”

Because of the streamers, talents often don’t even have to go to Hollywood to be discovered, he added.  

Bachmann recounted how Emmerich had to leave Germany because nobody wanted to make his films. He ended up launching his career in Los Angeles with 1992’s “Universal Soldier.”

“You had to move to L.A. That doesn’t have to be the case anymore. Now they really discover films and filmmakers based on their body of work.”

Zurich Avenue, meanwhile, is carving out its niche as an ideal Swiss partner for international co-productions.

The company is currently in pre-production on Anton Corbijn’s “Switzerland,” starring Helen Mirren as famed novelist Patricia Highsmith.

“It’s a story that plays here and Switzerland is a very challenging place to shoot because it’s very expensive,” said Spoerri. “And you don’t have great incentives.”

Despite the challenges, productions can be made to work economically. “We love to do that because we think Zurich especially is an underserved location.”