Ahead of establishing a US office, the Fugitive content development, financing and distribution business founded by Anthony Kimble in 2019, is rebranding to become Arrested Industries.
Fugitive was formed in March 2019 after Kimble spent five years as SVP acquisitions and co-productions North America for Cineflix Rights. At its foundation Fugitive drew on Kimble’s experience in programme strategy, co-productions, sales and acquisitions, gained from working in businesses such as National Geographic and Channel 5. It primarily worked with producers, agents, broadcasters and other content platforms to get innovative programming off the ground with a key focus on finding and securing best-fit project partners and financing and additionally working closely with writers and producers at the content development stage across scripted, unscripted and formats.
In its latest contract in March 2021, Fugitive announced a new partnership with South African entertainment company MultiChoice, becoming the exclusive distributor for the premium, scripted original programming made available on its M-Net channel and Showmax SVOD platform.
Arrested Industries (AI) will be establishing an office in Los Angeles this summer with Kimble re-locating to America to run the new venture as CEO of scripted. Merrily Ross, who joined Fugitive in 2019, will become CEO of unscripted, running this side of the business out of the existing London base.
“We now start the next phase in our story as a revitalised Arrested Industries, with focused scripted and unscripted divisions, healthy development slates in each, a growing catalogue of completed shows for distribution, an international sales team in place and new partnership ventures, such as we have with AVOD company Merzigo,” said Kimble explaining the rationale for the move.
“We have a significant slate of exciting, scripted projects in development, and it now feels right to embed ourselves with the creative community in the US so that we can do the very best for our clients and collaborators on both sides of the pond. The pandemic has shown, of course, that we can all work anywhere. However, I believe it will be to Arrested Industries’ benefit if we are able to operate in the same time zone, can readily take meetings face-to-face, and be closer to the main hubs of major studios and global streamers as their strategies evolve.”
In its latest contract in March 2021, Fugitive announced a new partnership with South African entertainment company MultiChoice, becoming the exclusive distributor for the premium, scripted original programming made available on its M-Net channel and Showmax SVOD platform.
Arrested Industries (AI) will be establishing an office in Los Angeles this summer with Kimble re-locating to America to run the new venture as CEO of scripted. Merrily Ross, who joined Fugitive in 2019, will become CEO of unscripted, running this side of the business out of the existing London base.
“We now start the next phase in our story as a revitalised Arrested Industries, with focused scripted and unscripted divisions, healthy development slates in each, a growing catalogue of completed shows for distribution, an international sales team in place and new partnership ventures, such as we have with AVOD company Merzigo,” said Kimble explaining the rationale for the move.
“We have a significant slate of exciting, scripted projects in development, and it now feels right to embed ourselves with the creative community in the US so that we can do the very best for our clients and collaborators on both sides of the pond. The pandemic has shown, of course, that we can all work anywhere. However, I believe it will be to Arrested Industries’ benefit if we are able to operate in the same time zone, can readily take meetings face-to-face, and be closer to the main hubs of major studios and global streamers as their strategies evolve.”
