Fremantle has promoted Christian Vesper to the newly created position of CEO of global drama. He will report to Andrea Scrosati, Group COO and CEO Continental Europe.
Previously, Vesper served as president of the department, a role he was appointed to in 2020 after joining the company four years earlier as executive vice president and creative director of global drama.
In the expanded capacity, Vesper will continue to build on Fremantle’s portfolio of scripted dramas and have direct oversight over the company’s scripted labels, including Miso Film (“The Investigation”), Wildside (“My Brilliant Friend”), The Apartment (“Bones and All,” HBO’s “We Are Who We Are” and Academy-Award nominee “The Hand of God”), Element Pictures (Oscar winner “The Favourite,” “Normal People,” “Conversations With Friends”), Lux Vide (“Medici”), Dancing Ledge Productions (“The Salisbury Poisonings”) and the group’s most recent acquisition, Passenger (“This England,” “Catch-22”).
He will also oversee Fremantle’s talent and deal roster, which includes “Chernobyl” director Johan Renck and Michael Paret’s newly launched production company Sinestra, Michael Winterbottom’s Revolution Films, Afua Hirsch’s Born In Me and The Creatives, Fremantle’s three-year partnership agreement with a creative alliance of nine leading independent production companies.
Vesper and his team will be based in London, working in close partnership with Fremantle’s regional drama heads across all territories in which Fremantle operates, including UFA in Germany, Fremantle Australia, Abot Hameiri in Israel and Fremantle Mexico.
The executive will also play a strategic role in Fremantle’s growing film strategy, working with its producers on projects like Element Pictures’ “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl” directed by Rungano Nyoni and upcoming titles soon to be announced by Wildside.
Scrosati said in a statement, “Following the acquisitions of Element Pictures and Lux Vide, our scripted eco-system has become even stronger. This new role is part of the new organisational structure we are putting in place to best support our family of great producers. Under Christian’s leadership, Fremantle has delivered beautifully made, provocative and taste-making series. He has also made connections and partnerships with some of the best creatives in the world. He has impeccable taste and a unique creative instinct, which makes him an exceptionally-valued point of reference for our producers and talents across the world.”
Vesper added, “The opportunity to oversee the Drama Group, and to help support and guide our producers to continue to make the best TV and films in the global marketplace, is a privilege. Over the last seven years, I have been lucky enough to be a part of Fremantle’s growth in the scripted business and am proud to be part of us having increased the number of Dramas we have delivered from around 30 projects in 2016, to over 100 projects in 2022. I can’t wait to continue the journey of growth and quality.”
Prior to joining Fremantle in 2016, Vesper was the drama chief at Sundance TV where he oversaw critically-acclaimed international productions including Jane Campion’s “Top Of The Lake” and Hugo Blick’s “The Honourable Woman,” with Maggie Gyllenhaal, as well as “Deutschland 83,” “Hap And Leonard” and Ray McKinnon’s “Rectify.” Vesper previously held roles at HBO; entertainment industry start-up iFilm; October Films and USA Film.
