1 month ago
French movie stalwart Sara May is stepping into nan action and genre abstraction pinch nan motorboat of her caller accumulation banner Sonderworld. The company, which has backing from Goodfellas, is presently processing a slate of elevated, globally-minded action and genre features pinch nan extremity of building original IP and franchises retired of nan French and European markets.
A erstwhile TF1 and EuropaCorp exec, May antecedently spent six years astatine Netflix arsenic Director of Content Acquisition EMEA. During her clip location she was instrumental astatine getting deed French action thriller Lost Bullet off nan ground, which was groundbreaking for nan genre successful France.
May has been softly building nan caller outfit and its slate since she stepped down from nan streamer successful 2024. Sonderworld has hired erstwhile Mars Film and EuropaCorp exec Véronique Cuilhe (Taken, Hitman) arsenic General Manager while May serves arsenic Founder/President.
The company’s pillar, May tells Deadline, will beryllium connected action titles and action heroes successful France and Europe. “I want to create a metaverse of action,” she said. “I want to show that we tin do awesome action successful France and Europe for nan remainder of nan world astatine a fraction of nan price. We person nan talents, we person nan infrastructure for that, and we surely person nan stories and nan locations.”
Goodfellas has a first-look woody for world income and co-productions connected each Sonderworld projects. It is presently packaging six films, which are successful improvement – 2 action, 2 elevated genre, 1 “urban” and 1 acheronian comedy/crime feature.
While nan attraction will initially beryllium connected French-language productions, May admitted she is making room for English-language projects “when nan scope is large capable for nan market.”
May said that each task will look to partner pinch a co-producer successful France aliases elsewhere successful Europe, pinch nan exec having a keen oculus connected UK producers specifically and feels location is scope for much cross-pollination betwixt nan 2 countries.
“I consciousness for illustration nan borders are getting much and much blurry successful position of language,” nan Quebec-born exec said. “And location are talents successful nan UK who would really activity pinch nan talents we person successful France and vice-versa. In position of accumulation capacities, these are very move markets that, if they activity together properly, there’s nary logic we can’t triumph connected some sides by moving broadside by side.”
The strategy is to “scale quickly” crossed nan adjacent 2 years and build a measurement of titles that tin beryllium “impactful connected nan market.”
“When you’ve spent years connected nan buying and trading broadside – acquisitions, packaging, negotiating pre-sales – you create a very precise knowing of why money moves, why a supplier says yes to 1 task and nary to different and why a financier gets comfortable pinch consequence structure. You internalize what bankability really intends and it has thing to do pinch nan value of nan book alone. It’s astir really nan full point is assembled.”
She continued: “A batch of films neglect – not because nan communicative was bad – they neglect because nan shaper wasn’t reasoning astir risk, income reality and investor psychology. That’s nan spread we close.”
May added that she won’t awkward from utilizing caller tech, specified arsenic AI, successful a creator-led and ethical way. “Our attack is creator-first, always. The liking successful AI, for illustration immoderate different technology, lies successful hybridization and really to springiness filmmakers stronger, world-building tools, faster loop and much imaginative options.”
May was astatine nan crossroads of nan first existent tectonic changes erstwhile Netflix arrived successful Europe, starting astatine nan institution successful 2018. She said nan acquisition “was a masterclass successful scale” and during her six year-tenure, she was capable to hone successful “very quickly connected what separates projects that recreation globally from nan ones that don’t.”
“It’s not often what group expect,” she said. “It’s little astir nan communicative being ‘universal’, successful immoderate absurd sense, and much astir whether it has been packaged pinch nan correct talent, nan correct genre signals and nan correct marketplace positioning from nan start.”
She continued: “What struck maine most, and which is why Sonderworld was created, is that location was an expanding spread betwixt nan caller realities of nan marketplace and our manufacture and, much specifically, really producers run successful a exemplary that is becoming progressively obsolete pinch nan realities of nan market.”
May will beryllium successful Cannes adjacent period presenting projects to imaginable co-production partners.
