Pierre-Antoine Capton is one of the founders of Mediawan, the leading producer of fiction in Europe for television. This company that he manages includes in its catalog series such as HPI or 10% as well as the show C à vous. Several projects are in progress. For the Mediawan cinema which notably produces the blockbluster The three Musketeersbought the production company Plan B, of which Brad Pitt is one of the producers.
franceinfo: Employees in audiovisual production, technicians in particular, have been stopping work occasionally for several weeks to obtain salary increases of 20%. The producers’ unions offered them between 3 and 5% revaluation on Thursday. Insufficient, they judge, they are now calling for a general strike from Monday. Why are the negotiations stuck? Can’t producers pay sound engineers, scriptwriters and decorators better?
Pierre-Antoine Capton: We can pay them better. Union negotiations started on Thursday, a first meeting took place. There have already been efforts. There is another meeting scheduled for next week. Social listening is essential in our profession. We are in a sector that is still evolving and revolutionizing with new entrants. The strike in the United States had a significant impact. Today, we must all be extremely attentive because if we are talking about very important impacts for producers, for television channels, at a time when it is perhaps a little more complex. I am convinced that we will be able to find solutions together.
Mediawan has any productions impacted by this strike?
HPI filming was impacted. It has since been completed. Beyond that, the entire sector could be impacted, so we must find a solution as quickly as possible.
Technicians, in particular, are working more and more because there are more and more platform broadcasters. Isn’t it normal for them to ask to be paid more?
Yes and there are proposals in progress. On Thursday, the proposal was between 3 and 5 percent, with other benefits. There are lots of different genres and I don’t want to go into detail because it would be too complicated between animation, documentary, flow, fiction. But in any case, we all want to make an effort and get back to work.
Mediawan has quite a few projects in the works. You are preparing a documentary on Emmanuel Macron. Have you followed him everywhere since the start of his second term?
The story of Mediawan is to create premium content, to prepare, at times, things in confidential secrecy and to find the best way to do it. We made a documentary with Orelsan a few years ago which recounted his journey. With Emmanuel Macron, we made this first documentary in 2017 which told the story behind the scenes of his election and we had the idea of wanting to follow him during his second presidential campaign. It turns out that everything was impacted by Ukraine, by lots of issues. We continued to tour. We have two directors following him and we are working on a film. I can’t tell you yet where it will be broadcast, how it will be broadcast…
Could it be at the cinema?
Today, we leave ourselves open to all possibilities, perhaps internationally, perhaps in France, on a platform, perhaps a series, we don’t know yet. All I know is that we have sequences that are incredible, never seen before and we are extremely proud of this film which is not directed by Cédric Jimenez. When we wanted to make this film, we asked Cédric Gimenez for an artistic look, but he is not the one who directed it.
You are preparing the rest of the Three Musketeerswhose name is Milady. The first, d’Artagnan, attracted more than three million spectators. Is that enough for such a blockbuster?
That’s enough. If we manage to have roughly the same number of people in the theaters for the second part, it will be a big success.
Is it profitable?
It’s profitable. But that’s not the subject today at Mediawan. For cinema, the subject is to be able to support talents and make them shine internationally. Today, in the group, we produced The three Musketeers, I will always see your faceswhich was an exceptional film, but also Miraculous Ladybugwhich is the French film that did the best internationally in 2023. So today, we want to support all these talents, allow them to shine and it is not the economic impact that interests us.
There will also be the biopic on Bob Marley which will be released in cinemas in February. This is the fruit of your collaboration with Brad Pitt, whose production company Plan B you bought. What does this alliance bring you?
The association with Plan B and these three producers, including Brad Pitt, who are themselves shareholders of Mediawan, has opened up an incredible field of possibilities for us, allowing us to support our series and our European programs in the United States and to collaborate with great talents.
“We are producing the next Tim Burton film, the next film with Brad Pitt and George Clooney. A film about Formula One. We are meeting exceptional people.”
Pierre-Antoine Capton, CEO of Mediawan.at franceinfo
Mediawan already shines internationally thanks to the platforms, we see this with the 10% series for example, which is a global success.
We have five new remakes underway in different countries. It’s great to promote French content internationally. But at the same time, we are trying today, thanks to companies like Plan B, to be able to raise quality another level. In France, we have the best possible talents and we continue to support them.
HPI will also have its American version and you announced last week that you are working on a series behind the scenes at Radio France, a bit like 10%. Can you tell us more?
We are at the start of the project. During a discussion with Sibyle Veil, CEO of Radio France, where we talked a little about everything behind the scenes at the Maison de la Radio, we said to ourselves that it was a great area to tell a little behind the scenes. That there were funny things from time to time. That there were issues and tensions. You are often in the news. We said to ourselves that we could do a series.
C à vous is also part of Mediawan’s broadcasts. Is this Anne Elisabeth Lemoine’s last season at the helm?
No, I don’t want that and I’ve already said that. Anne-Elisabeth Lemoine, Patrick Cohen and all the talents who joined us form a great team. The show has never performed as well as at this moment on difficult news. I am particularly proud of the work of Anne-Elisabeth Lemoine and so she will be.
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