German distributor-producer SquareOne Entertainment, part of rising European film studio Vuelta Group, has acquired German film and TV production, distribution and licensing company Telepool, which was owned by Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith’s Westbrook.
The news was announced Wednesday by Vuelta Group chairman Jerome Levy and CEO of SquareOne and Vuelta Group Germany Al Munteanu.
Munteanu will spearhead the newly combined entity under the SquareOne banner with Michael Heyd serving as CFO/COO.
The newly combined SquareOne entity will boast a library consisting of over 1,200 titles such as “Drive,” “Intouchables,” “The Olympus Has Fallen,” “The Hitman’s Bodyguard,” “Imitation Game,” “Lone Survivor,” “Book Club,” “Transporter 3,” “King Richard,” “Maurice the Tomcat” and the recently released “One Life” among others.
“For over 60 years, Telepool has been one of the leading global content houses and we are proud of the work we did with the company said Westbrook CEO Kosaku Yada. “We are grateful to Yoko Higuchi-Zitzmann for her leadership over the past two years. Her respect from the creative community has been instrumental in Telepool’s success.”
The new and expanded company will be active across distribution and production. Said Munteanu, “the combined entity enables SquareOne to offer German-speaking audiences a strong and varied slate of theatrical releases going forward, across multiple genres – from ‘smarthouse,’ comedies, and actioners to high-end family entertainment: ‘The Last Breath,’ ‘Lords of War,’ ‘Hellboy,’ ‘Broker Homefront 2’ and ‘Bambi’ being the first out of the gate.”
Over the past year, SquareOne has focused its efforts on the expansion of its production’s activity under the SquareOne Productions banner with teams in Munich and London. The teams are active across local language as well as international television and theatrical films. The company boasts successes with the German, Italian, and French version of “Your Honor,” the Netflix and ORF co-production with Barry Films Totenfrau as well as SF Studios Coproduction for TV2/ZDF Oxen, now going into its second season.
Vuelta Group will collaborate further with Telepool’s international sales arm Global Screen, which distributes premium feature films and TV series to audiences around the world. Its credits include animation hits like “The Amazing Maurice” and “Luis and the Aliens,” dramas “The Collini Case,” “The Conference,” as well as “School of Magical Animals.” Current highlights include the WWII drama “Stella – A Life,” as well as the beloved canine adventure “Lassie – A New Adventure.”
As reported exclusively in Variety, Global Screen this week boarded horror-Western “The Trek.” This reflects a growing focus on genre content for Global Screen, best known for its expertise with animation, family entertainment and prestige drama.
Global Screen’s foray into elevated genre includes the Sandra Hüller led nightmare-thriller “Sleep,” a debut feature by Michael Venus in which the Oscar- and BAFTA-nominated Hüller plays a woman plagued by horrific dreams, which become a never-ending nightmare haunting an entire village community.
Recent genre titles handled also include “You’re Not Me” (Tú No Eres Yo) by Goya-nominated producers Marisa Crespo and Moisés Romera, a Spanish-language satirical thriller, which launched at Fantastic Fest in Austin, before having its international premiere at Imagine Film Festival Amsterdam.