Paramount International announced a tie-up with global production house Gaumont – producers of hit show Lupin and Narcos. These shows are set to be produced for Paramount +, the streaming service of Paramount. The deal forges a three-year partnership to produce a string of originals for subscribers across the world.
This deal is part of Paramount +’s plan to greenlight 50 new international scripted originals in 2022. Paramount + plans to expand its reach in international markets with the streaming service set to be launched in U.K., South Korea, France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy this year.
The first show to be announced as part of the deal is “The Signal” / Le Signal from Lupin showrunner François Uzan. It is a horror show based on the best-selling novel by Maxime Chattam. The plot of the show tracks famous radio host Olivia Dormeuil, who after losing her beloved sister in a car accident, moves to an old house on a faraway island with her family. This change of scenery soon proves more challenging than expected when the family’s unspoken fears begin to take ghostly form and some of the island’s inhabitants start dying off in strange circumstances. Their mysterious deaths prompt the family to wrestle with dark demons.
In addition to this, three more shows have received the green signal – France’s Impact, Argentina’s Desolate Future / Future Desierto and Germany’s Anywhere.
Impact is a French thriller based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Olivier Norek. It is about one man’s initially single-handed battle against the catastrophic ecological situation of our planet.
Desolate Future is a dystopian thriller set in a near-future Argentina that turns on a robotics engineer who moves with his family to an isolated town in Patagonia.
Anywhere is a supernatural show from German screenwriter Jana Burbach (Bad Banks). It is about a character Toni Falk who is struck by a curse that transports her to different versions of her life.
Apart from this deal with Paramount, Gaumont already has 40 projects in the pipeline. These include new installments of “Narcos,” season six; “Barbarian,” season 2; and “Lupin,” season 2. Along with Netflix and now Paramount, they have deals in place with Amazon, Disney and Apple as well to commission shows for their respective streaming services.
Raffaele Annecchino, Paramount International head, said partnerships such as the Gaumont deal are a “strategic asset.” A deal with Gaumont, who has various hit shows under their belt, could really help Paramount make a breakthrough globally and increase its subscriber count. Fans in India will be excited as well to check out the commissioned shows whenever they are released.