EXCLUSIVE: Gilles Bannier, the director of the first seasons of the hit series Blue lights And Trigger point opens a new indie drama, Alef UK. The London-based label will be a subsidiary of Alef One, Nora Melhli’s Paris-based producer Flight MH370 and doc Carlos Ghosn The Last Flight to his credits.
French-born writer and director Bannier has lived in England for a decade and will be creative director of the new British theater business. His directing credits include iconic dramas Spiral And The pretty boys as well as The tunnelHere he worked for the first time with Melhli, who was the producer of the Kudos drama. The duo also worked together on “Tim Roth” in the lead role Pewter Star.
Melhli worked at Endemol and Altice before teaming up with Jacques Arthur Essebag to form Alef One in 2018. She told Deadline that working with Bannier during the coronavirus crisis — and the problem-solving and creative conversations required to hold projects together while production was halted — gave rise to the idea that they could work together in a new capacity .
“It was no longer just about, ‘You’re a writer and I’m a producer,’ but more about how we can make things happen, because it was so difficult when everything stopped, there was an energy between us. “
Bannier took up the thread: “We shared a very strong common vision and thought she could find a way to express herself in London and beyond… and in English-language dramas.”
Alef UK’s first project will be a TV adaptation of Iain Levison’s thriller Mind reader, which it has optionally. Levison has a strange backstory as a Scottish-American writer who is currently best known in France, where his works are on bestseller lists.
Jonathan Wakeman, who wrote the screenplay for the film Shailene Woodly To catch a murderer and the upcoming Brian Epstein biopic Midas manwrites the script for Mind reader. The story is about a police officer and a death row prisoner, both of whom can read other people’s minds. The novel is set in the US, but the six-part series is expected to move some of the action to the UK.
As a small indie, Alef UK will structure its projects as co-productions and involve additional partners. Bannier and Melhli said what interests them is a drama that speaks to the modern world and that could include technology, immigration or other issues we face in today’s society. There is an open-minded approach to realizing this vision. “We can do any story, we don’t limit ourselves to one theme or one genre – we do comedies, we do thrillers, we do action,” Melhli said.
As a director, Bannier said moving to the UK ten years ago showed him a different way of working: “When I got here it was so challenging but also so exciting, the way directors in the UK work with producers and clients,” he said . “I’ve had to adopt a new way of working that isn’t just managing and forgetting everyone else, because here it’s a real team effort.”
As an indie boss, he has about six projects on the docket and is recruiting a development manager to join soon. “The core of the relationship between Alef UK and the mother ship, the Paris office, is my ongoing conversation with Nora,” he said. “She has an overview of my projects but gives me complete independence, which is wonderful, it gives me wings.”