APC Studios, Make It Happen Studio and Sweet Chili Entertainment Secure Deal With Orange Studios For UNPUNISHED

Orange Studio’s TV series department is a newly created entity from French telco Orange with the aim to co-develop and co-produce high-end content. The studio is boarding Unpunished as a co-producer and primary commissioner as the show will air on Orange’s Pay TV service OCS in France.

Unpunished is an ambitious new 8x 60’ television drama for a global audience on the topical phenomena of Artificial Intelligence and cyber warfare.

It is a co-development between Nordic independent company Sweet Chili Entertainment, French independent Make it Happen Studio, and APC, which will also exploit global distribution rights in partnership with Orange Studio.

Leading independent production and distribution company APC, Danish production company Sweet Chili Entertainment and French production company Make It Happen Studio have secured a far-reaching deal with Orange Studio for their drama series Unpunished.

Orange Studio’s TV series department is a newly created entity from French telco Orange with the aim to co-develop and co-produce high-end content. The studio is boarding Unpunished as a co-producer and primary commissioner as the show will air on Orange’s Pay TV service OCS in France.

Unpunished is an ambitious new 8x 60’ television drama for a global audience on the topical phenomena of Artificial Intelligence and cyber warfare. It is a co-development between Nordic independent company Sweet Chili Entertainment, French independent Make it Happen Studio, and APC, which will also exploit global distribution rights in partnership with Orange Studio. The co-producers are already engaged in several advanced conversations with other potential financers in Europe and in the US with a view to complete financing and start production over the summer.

Filming primarily in the English language, Unpunished is a grounded sci-fi thriller set across Europe that follows the evolution of an artificial intelligence (A.I.), from a man-made virus into a ever-evolving, ever-learning, ever-growing, Super Intelligence with the capacity to take away humanity’s control of its own destiny.

When prodigious start-up CEO David Dimauro finds out that his younger sister’s suicide was a direct result of lies spread on social media, he decides to launch a revolutionary new virus. And he disappears without a trace. The virus is designed to quietly spread, avoid detection and expose every secret it can find on any major social network. Millions of secrets are leaked causing irreversible damage to first private citizens and then corporations and governments. Frida Raila, head of cyber security at the EU Defence Ministry, is put on the case with an aim to stop the virus at all costs.

Álex García López, Director of Utopia, Misfits, Daredevil and currently directing The Witcher for Netflix, is attached as showrunner. Coline Abert (The Returned, The Bureau) is attached as the main writer. The series will start production in November this year.

David Kessler says “Orange is excited to unfold its strategy into the competitive series landscape and is proud to board another international TV series (after Name of the Rose and Devils). Unpunished will tackle contemporary issues of cyber security and AI that might become tomorrow’s prime concerns for every human beings. Orange looks forward to present the series to the market, along with all the talented people working on it.”

Laurent Boissel at APC adds “We are excited to be partnering with Orange on such an ambitious project with some of the most experienced European creators of high-end drama. Unpunished is intelligent, epic and original and we look forward to working with the teams at Orange, Sweet Chili Entertainment and Make it Happen Studio to bring this fascinating and timely story to the screen.”

Ole Søndberg at Sweet Chili said “Unpunished is a wonderful project that I started years ago with a great ambition from the outset and I found great partners along the way. I’m so happy it’s now found a perfect home with Orange.”

Sydney Gallonde at Make It Happen Studio (represented by ICM) said “The uniqueness of a project is the key to make it stand out in todays’ competitive marketplace. With Orange's distinctive tone and artistic team on board this project, we have found the dream family for our Unpunished project. Watch out, AI is coming...”

About APC Studios
APC Studios is headed by experienced principals Emmanuelle Guilbart and Laurent Boissel and is a leading independent production and distribution company that partners with global content creators to develop and finance projects from inception to international distribution. APC has built a curated slate of English-language and local-language fiction from a range of global producers all over the world including hit drama Keeping Faith (BBC/S4C), Gigantes (Telefonica Studios), Alex (Viaplay), stylish series A Very Secret Service (Arte), Valkyrien, Young and Promising (NRK) and crime thriller The Forest (France Televisions). APC also has a quality slate of top-tier factual programmes and has a children’s division APC Kids which houses its own production company Zephyr Animation.

About Sweet Chili Entertainment
Sweet Chili Entertainment is a Copenhagen-based production and distribution company. Founded in 2014, today co-owned by the four partners Ole Søndberg (founder of Yellow Bird and producer of Wallander and Millennium), Sofie Wanting Hassing (Academy Award Winning Ida), Line Winther Skyum Funch (The Truth will Out, Hidden, and The Girl in The Spider’s Web), and Rasmus Ramstad (former CEO of SF Studios). SCE focuses on high-end drama productions with a Nordic resonance for the global audience.

About Make It Happen Studio
Make It Happen Studio is a Paris based independent production company founded by French producer Sydney Gallonde (Harlan Coben’s No Second Chance & Just One Look) in 2017. With the backing of heavy weight financial partner Alliance Entreprendre, a Private Equity subsidiary of Natixis group, Make It Happen Studio works with global broadcasters, partners and talents to produce an eclectic raft of premium drama for the French, European and international marketplaces. The company collaborate with many best-seller talents such as; Paula Daly, Guillaume Musso, Alex Scarrow, Riad Sattouf, Tim Willocks and Harlan Coben.