Fiction
Lionsgate India partners Azure Entertainment to remake shows
MUMBAI: Newly launched Lionsgate India is stitching together plans to remake two high-concept international properties in collaboration with Azure Entertainment and Lionsgate affiliate Globalgate. The two remakes, the first titles under the new partnership, are of hit Mexican comedy Instructions Not Included and South Korean action thriller The Terror Live for India.
Headed by former Reliance MediaWorks executive Sunir Kheterpal, Azure is backed by The Three Sisters: Institutional Office. It positions itself as a content development and production company with a mix of remakes and adaptations as well as in-house development of large-scale projects.
Instructions Not Included (2013) was produced by Lionsgate’s Pantelion Films and became the highest-grossing Spanish-language film in North America. It has already been remade in France by Vendome/Mars Films as Demain Tout Commence and is being developed in other territories.
Azure and Globalgate will also produce an Indian version of The Terror Live, which was a hit for Lotte Entertainment in 2013 and is under discussion for multiple other remake deals. Azure and Lionsgate India are currently finalising the writers and directors for the two projects.
“We’re pleased to partner with the world-class creative team at Azure on our first major local-language film production initiative in India. Instructions Not Included and The Terror Live are two great story-driven properties from the Globalgate library that have already demonstrated their appeal worldwide,” said Lionsgate India managing director Rohit Jain.
Azure has a two-picture deal with Warner Bros, including a reworking of Hong Kong crime classic Infernal Affairs”; a three-film deal with France’s Gaumont; and deals in Spain to remake mystery thriller The Body with Rodar y Rodar and The Invisible Guest with Atres. Azure is also working on an adaptation of Sophie Kinsella’s global bestseller Can You Keep a Secret? and Sushant Singh’s Mission Overseas.
Globalgate is a consortium led by Lionsgate and involving 10 other content companies. Operated by William Pfeiffer, it will be at the Cannes Film Festival scouting for further content.
Fiction
Banijay merges with All3Media in $6.65 billion deal
Marco Bassetti will lead the combined company as CEO
PARIS: Six years after acquiring Endemol Shine at the height of the pandemic, Banijay has struck again. The European production heavyweight is merging with All3Media in a deal that will create a television titan with $6.65 billion in revenue and redraw the contours of a fast-consolidating market.
The combined company will trade under the Banijay name and be owned 50 per cent each by Banijay Group and RedBird IMI, which acquired All3Media in 2024. The transaction is expected to close by autumn, subject to regulatory approvals.
Banijay Entertainment CEO Marco Bassetti, will take the top job at the enlarged group. All3Media CEO Jane Turton becomes deputy CEO. RedBird IMI CEO Jeff Zucker will serve as chairman.
The logic is scale. Broadcasters are commissioning less, streamers are tightening budgets and global buyers are fewer but bigger. Against that backdrop, heft matters. The merged entity will generate roughly $6.65 billion in revenues based on 2024 figures, giving it sharper elbows in rights negotiations and deeper pockets for franchise-building.
“Entrepreneurialism, ambition and creativity” remain core to Banijay’s DNA, Bassetti said, flagging plans to invest more heavily in new intellectual property, live events and emerging platforms. Turton struck a similarly bullish note, pointing to All3Media’s journey from a 2003 start-up to a global supplier of hit formats and high-end drama.
Between them, the two groups control a formidable slate. Banijay’s catalogue spans MasterChef, Big Brother, Survivor, Black Mirror, Peaky Blinders and Deal or No Deal. All3Media’s labels include Studio Lambert, producer of The Traitors and Squid Game: The Challenge; Two Brothers, behind The Tourist; and Neal Street, currently producing the forthcoming Beatles biopics directed by Sam Mendes for Sony.
The back catalogue is equally muscular. Banijay Rights holds some 220,000 hours, while All3Media International adds around 35,000 hours, forming one of the industry’s largest libraries.
Banijay, controlled by French entrepreneur Stéphane Courbit and listed in Amsterdam, counts more than 130 production companies across 25 territories. All3Media operates over 40 labels, with strong positions in the UK, US and Germany. The enlarged group will also lean into live entertainment, building on Banijay’s Balich Wonder Studio, which produced the opening ceremony of the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, and the Independents.
The deal marks a shift in tone. As recently as October, Bassetti suggested that mergers and acquisitions were not a priority. But the drumbeat of consolidation has grown louder. Mediawan has moved for Peter Chernin’s North Road. David Ellison’s Paramount has agreed to a $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros, with plans to combine HBO Max and Paramount plus. ITV has explored selling its media and entertainment arm to Comcast-owned Sky, though talks have reportedly slowed.
