Epic Chess Show ‘Rematch,’ Bought by HBO Europe and Disney+, Sets New Milestone for French Banner Unité and Federation Studios (EXCLUSIVE)
variety.comElsa Keslassy International Correspondent A rare flagship indie producer left on the French market, Bruno Nahon‘s Paris-based company Unité is preparing to conquer international audiences with “Rematch,” a period psychological thriller chronicling the historical battle between world chess champion Garry Kasparov (Christian Cooke, “That Dirty Black Bag”), and IBM’s supercomputer Deep Blue in 1997.
The sprawling show, directed by Yan England (“The Red Band Society”) and co-created with Nahon and André Gulluni (“Sam”), was commissioned by Arte in France and has already been sold by Federation Studios to major outlets around the world, including HBO Europe for Spain, Portugal, the Nordics, Iceland, Baltics, Central Europe, Greece and the Netherlands.
Disney+ has bought first-window rights for the U.K. and will air the show in France after the Arte broadcast. Nahon, who created Unité a decade ago, has been making bold shows and movies exploring social, religious and political aspects of societies, and has often captured the zeitgeist in the process.
Back in 2012, Unité broke grounds with “The Churchmen,” a daring series taking a critical look at the Catholic Church through the stories of five seminarians in Paris which proved a hit on Arte .
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