Universal International Studios has been leaning into local language productions over the last six months, reveals president Beatrice Springborn at the Series Mania Forum 2022 on Tuesday. The studio has partnered with French-Vietnamese writer and showrunner Quoc Dang Tran who is behind the series “Call My Agent!” and “Parallèles.”
In a session moderated by Deadline international TV editor Max Goldbart, Springborn outlines Universal Studios’ ambitions as well as the company’s ability to meet global demand. Springborn has been an influential figure in TV for over two decades. She took over the reins at Universal International Studios in October 2020 after the exit of Jeff Wachtel. Before joining Universal, she was associated with Hulu and led the comedy and drama development, co-productions, and casting across Hulu’s acclaimed and award-winning slate of originals.
Edited Excerpts:
How has your past at Hulu shaped your experience at Universal so far?
I was at Hulu for almost seven years. I don’t think I would have been able to do this job without having been a buyer. When I was a buyer, what was appealing to me about the studios that came to us was that they had a point of view and weren’t necessarily dictating to our mandate. I think it is important as a seller to have confidence in what you want to sell. Network mandates change all the time and our executives need to have a very strong vision of what they want to do and stand behind that. I think that’s appealing to a buyer. My experience at Hulu very much helped how I saw creativity.
What are Universal International Studios’ ambitions to meet global demand in a world that is replete with content?
Universal is in a unique place because we have a wide library, lots of IP and while that’s an overused word, when you look at the films we’ve made, the shows that we’ve scripted, our distributor networks, we’ve got amazing deals from executives around the world. We’ve been able to take advantage of that.
We always talk about how we’re Universal and while that sounds like a catchphrase, it applies to everything we do. I think about how as a studio you can add value. Our deals are the same as anyone else but we need to be great executives where we’re a partner, creative collaborator to talent. We don’t just want to have a business, we want to offer our point of view, our experience and our connections. A lot of the time we’ve arranged marriages across studios outside the studio based on our relationships as well. My experience has been very much based on book-based development. I love getting ahead of the book market and bringing a really special book to a piece of talent.
What are the big projects coming down the track and something that you’re particularly excited about?
After having developed nine exciting series for Hulu, I’m excited for us to be doing “Apples Never Fall” for Peacock (streaming service) with Melanie Marnich. She is producing the series with David Heyman.
We’re also doing “While Justice Sleeps” with Stacy Abrams and she’s been a joy to collaborate with. It is an honour to be talking to someone who’s such a prolific creator and has been able to create a career for herself in novel writing.
We have some projects coming down the pipe which are our local language deals. We just did this deal with Quoc (Dang Tran) who did “Parallèles” for Disney+ and “Marianne” for Netflix. He’s also done “Call My Agent!” He’s got an incredibly wide range of genre experience from family TV to Netflix comedy and we’re excited to be working with him. He heads the projects that we’re already starting to talk about.
Last year you struck a deal with Buendía Estudios in Spain, is this where you see the future, striking deals with top European talent in such a way?
We’re looking to expand into new territories. We don’t necessarily want to go to Spain or Italy but we ask who’s the great talent there. We’re going to be announcing a few other deals in other territories like Spain but they’re going to be driven by people who we’re excited to be in the business with. The way we’re looking at our local language originals, we’re going to be more focused on talent. With the Quoc deal, we not only want to be in France but we want to be with the incredible writing talent and quality. We pursued him heavily to come and work with us especially because he could work across so many different genres so successfully. The additional deals that you will see us doing, will be driven from talent first and territory second.
What’s your process to find the best talent?
Typically, it comes from referrals from another talent. In some of the deals we’ve done across the studio, a showrunner has come to us and said I love this writer, you should get to know them. We love that because it is a referral network of people who have loved working with us in the past. Sometimes it is just sampling, like reading something amazing or watching a lot of films, plays and theatre. It is across the board in terms of how we’re discovering talent.
How does discovering talent dovetail with your taste? What are you enjoying at the moment?
I have a nine-year-old daughter so we watch a lot of cooking shows across the board. Everything from “Nailed It!” where amateurs try baking and it doesn’t end up great. For the past two years, I’ve loved “It’s a Sin,” the Russell T Davies show. It was done with so much joy and has a great cast.
My experience is from working at Hulu and a lot of the shows that we developed there, have started to come out now. You will see that some of the shows that we worked like “Only Murders in the Building” subvert genre and tone. That’s one of the things you’ll see from across the Universal studio while creating for Peacock.
“Apples Never Fall” which is coming out on Peacock shows my love for books. I’ve been really lucky in my career to have people who’ve trusted me and I feel the same way about the executives who work here. It is hard to have confidence in your creative opinion and be surrounded by people who have their point of view. I don’t want this studio to be worn in my image. I want everyone else to be contributing, coming with their input and hopefully getting shows for everyone which is borne from their passion.
You’re focused creatively on European talent based on the stuff you’ve announced. What do you think is the current landscape for European content?
When I’m talking to the creative about the studio, I’m talking about television, so it’s all the same and I don’t think people see those boundaries anymore. Everything from the often referenced “Squid Game” to “Normal People” and shows we’re seen across the board, people don’t look at a piece of content and say that’s an international show, I’m not going to watch it. We’ve seen the world open up in a way that is embracing all kinds of content. Shows like “Squid Game” ripped up the rulebook that defined the popularity of non-English language programming. I also think people want to travel after all this time and experience another culture. There’s a real openness in audiences today to embrace other cultures.
We’re looking for local and foreign-language shows. Local for the global is a strategy but I also think looking global for local, there is a real emphasis on finding stories that you might not think may translate for the audience but people are just interested in the human experience without language boundaries. So, we’re looking for creators first even if they’re coming from a non-English background to speak to them and experience that universal human connection.
There are a couple of Universal shows where authenticity comes out such as “We Are Lady Parts”. What’s the process for producers to make a show as authentic as it can be?
Working Title Television, one of our production partners worked on “We Are Lady Parts” along with Nida Manzoor. Nida had such a specific experience, humour and heart to the show that no one else but her could have brought that authenticity. I think the best way to construct a show is by having the right people and the right chemistry. Like “We Are Lady Parts” could not have been made without Nida there are many shows like that which are lightning in a bottle not because it was a piece of IP that was reverse engineered but because of the amazing group of people that went into producing it.
What are your key priorities for the next few months?
I’m seeing a few other local language deals. We’re coming out in some bigger territories and some deals were borne out of us being in love with a certain show or having read a script from the creators. We reached out to them and wooed them to come to Universal. A lot of the deals are based on the relationships that we have with creators. There are some people who I worked with at Hulu and some of them were people, other people I knew worked with. All those deals have emerged out of collaboration and from a relationship perspective first.
