Jude Law’s Riff Raff Strikes TV Development Deal With Newen Connect; First Project Is Political Thriller Starring Law

Max Goldbart and Jesse Whittock
·3 min read

EXCLUSIVE: Jude Law’s Riff Raff Entertainment has received “significant funding” via a new TV development deal with France’s Newen Connect.

Unveiled at Newen’s London TV Screenings event, the deal sees Riff Raff, which the two-time Oscar nominee co-founded with Ben Jackson, handed a cash injection to develop a slate of TV projects, while giving the company a distribution pipeline.

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The development partnership has already spawned three early-stage projects: political thriller Foreign Desk starring Law and written by Marek Horn, a female-led show from Pure writer Kirstie Swain and a “talent-led TV project with acclaimed playwright Chris Urch.”

The investment figure was not disclosed but is referred to as “significant.” It is being underwritten by European studio-financier Anton, which separately invested €50M ($54M) in Newen in early 2022 that allowed the French major to move into features.

Riff Raff CEO Stephen Fuss said: “We’re thrilled to be partnering with Newen and leveraging their international distribution expertise to expand our television slate. This partnership will help us further our goal of making Riff Raff Entertainment the ultimate home for high-end talent to build their TV projects.”

Newen Connect boss Rodolphe Buet called the move a “significant step forward” for the outfit’s growth strategy in the English-language space. “Our investment and distribution expertise will offer Riff Raff an important route to market and the ability to quickly take its projects from the page to the screen,” he added.

Riff Raff had already been growing rapidly due to a multi-million dollar capital injection 18 months ago from Calculus Capital. The indie has since appointed former Ingenious Media executive Fuss, Blueprint Pictures alumnus Katie Sinclair as Head of Development and Studiocanal’s Lionelle Galloppa into the development team.

Up next for Riff Raff is two projects starring Law: Justin Kurzel movie The Order and Netflix TV series Black Rabbit featuring Jason Bateman and co-produced with Bateman’s Aggregate. On the development slate is a rom-com written by Sharon Horgan, a historical-drama film penned by Justin Kuritzkes (Challengers) and other TV series with Jonathan Glatzer (Succession), Temi Wilkey (Sex Education) and Seth Sinclair (Pennyworth). More will be announced soon, Riff Raff said.

Along with its distribution arm, TF1-owned Newen owns more than 50 production companies around Europe in 11 territories. It sells the likes of Dark Heart, Gael Garcia Bernal’s Another End and Kevin Macdonald’s High & Low – John Galliano. Earlier this month, it announced that ex-Warner Bros. Discovery exec Pierre Branco will be replacing Romain Bessi as CEO in April.

The Riff Raff-Newen tie-up is the latest between a Hollywood movie star-producer and a French major, following Mediawan’s acquisition of Brad Pitt’s Plan B in late 2022.

The partnership was negotiated between Josephine Fontaine, VP Acquisition & Co-production, and Pia Valentie, Head of Legal for Newen Connect, and Fuss CEO for Riff Raff.

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