‘White Lines’ & ‘Driven’ Director Nick Hamm Launches London & LA-Based Entertainment Company Free Turn
EXCLUSIVE: Nick Hamm, director of movies Driven and The Journey and new Netflix series White Lines, is launching London and LA-based entertainment company Free Turn.
Hamm is teaming with ex-WPP agency executive Jon Hamm on the firm which will be a hybrid film and TV production outfit and creative advertising agency. The brothers previously co-founded Greenroom Digital which they sold to IPG in 2009.
Also aboard at Free Turn are Firecracker Films co-founder Jeremy Groman, who will take the role of Chief Creative Officer, and former WPP agency growth director Gemma Batterby, who will run the business as Managing Director.
Hamm is currently in pre-production on Free Turn’s first movie. Factual will be under the guidance of Groman, whose recent projects include ESPN’s World’s Fastest Gamer. The company says it has already inked deals with SVOD and OTT services “to exclusively create brand-funded entertainment for their platforms” and it has recently been appointed to lead the launch of a new U.S. ‘hard seltzer’ brand into the UK in autumn 2020.
Related Story
'White Lines': How Netflix's Sun-Soaked Spanish Saga United The Creators Of 'Money Heist' & 'The Crown'
Hamm most recently directed four episodes of Netflix’s buzzy new series White Lines from The Crown‘s Left Bank and Money Heist‘s Alex Pina. Laura Haddock and Daniel Mays star in the well-received drama which launches today. We covered the production in detail here. The BAFTA-winning filmmaker is also known for movies including Driven, The Journey, Killing Bono and Godsend.
“There is a revolution happening in entertainment. How it’s made, distributed, funded, and watched. This new reality has uncoupled the traditional relationship between advertising and entertainment, resulting in a vacuum that has yet to be filled. Free Turn is at the forefront of that transformation as we build a company that bonds the two worlds in a mutually beneficial future,” said the filmmaker.
Jon Hamm, who will serve as CEO, commented: “We are in a time of limitless supply, infinite desire and the technological means to deliver entertainment on a previously unimaginable scale.“Free Turn is conceived and built for this new era: the era of attention on demand. At this time, ‘throwing switches’ to buy our attention is quite simply no longer the power afforded to advertising. We are now in a buyer’s market and the audience are the buyers. Today’s audience is vastly more discerning, educated and demanding and quite simply will no longer tolerate mediocrity or any experience that isn’t ‘audience first’. Brand-led messages, no matter how creatively presented, are failing to cut through. Combine this with platforms needing new revenue models to fund their content ambitions and you’re in a perfect storm. Our total entertainment solution is set up to solve this problem for platforms and brands.”
Nick Hamm is repped by WME and Independent Talent.
Source: Read Full Article