Former NDF Chief Eric Welbers Launches Bravado Media

Eric Welbers, who served as managing director of the manufacturing firm NDF till the top of March, has arrange the internationally centered content material firm Bravado Media, with headquarters in Munich.

Bravado has acquired all of NDF’s shares in Italy’s Viola Movie (an 80% stake), headed by Alessandro Passadore, and Belgium-based Bravado Fiction (additionally an 80% stake), headed by Jan Theys, and Welbers is rising his stake in NDF Intl. Manufacturing, which he’ll proceed to run along with Matthias Walter.

The brand new firm will make its first market look at subsequent week’s commerce truthful for audiovisual content material Mipcom in Cannes.

“Bravado Media will probably be a recent, trendy content material home: internationally positioned, open-formatted, story-driven, content-oriented,” Welbers stated. “Whether or not or not it’s high-quality TV films or movies for streamers, occasion sequence for personal and public service companions and, after all, for streaming providers. With its distinctive community of creativity and competence, Bravado will assist producers and broadcasters to understand thrilling tales.”

Bravado already has an in depth portfolio of latest productions in place to accompany its launch: Welbers has collaborated with Frank Doelger of Intaglio Movies to supply a high-end sequence adaptation of Frank Schätzing’s bestselling novel “The Swarm” with NDF Intl. Manufacturing for ZDF. Welbers is co-producing “The Man Who Died,” based mostly on the Finnish creator Antti Tuomainen’s best-selling novel, for the Finnish streaming platform Eliza Vide. And following the primary season of the co-production “Sophie Cross” for Degeto/Das Erste, capturing started in September on the second season. Different initiatives are in growth embody a global sequence based mostly on Andreas Eschbach’s novel “Lord of All Issues.”

Manufacturing has wrapped on the TV sequence “Stranded,” that includes the German actress Rike Schmid in one of many leads, as a co-production with Italy’s Eliseo, with Mediawan Rights dealing with worldwide distribution.

The lineup additionally contains “On the Ropes,” Bravado’s first occasion sequence in Belgium, against the law drama about protection legal professionals and the prosecutors investigating organized crime within the Belgian port metropolis of Antwerp.

Viola has been behind productions for Italy’s RAI corresponding to “Everyone Is Good,” identified regionally as “Avvocato Malinconico,” which is being broadcast in October. Viola additionally labored in Italy as a service producer for “The Swarm” in addition to the Sky sequence “Funeral for a Canine.”

Welbers, who oversaw gross sales, co-productions and the event of manufacturing firms at Beta Movie in addition to such initiatives as “Downfall” and “Borgia,” has been accountable since 2015, as managing director at NDF, for such high-end sequence as “The Swarm” and main TV productions like “Alpencops” for RTL. As well as, whereas on this submit he launched NDF and ZDF Studios’ three way partnership Fiction Magnet.