Vice racks up global pre-sales for The Big Squeeze

Vice Distribution has announced global pre-sales for The Big Squeeze, a 90-minute documentary produced by Vice World News about the GameStop short squeeze.

The film was pre-sold to SVT Sweden, NRK Norway, DR Denmark, RTL Nederland, SBS Australia and Yes Israel through Vice Media Group’s dedicated distribution arm. Vice Distribution holds worldwide rights to the film.

The documentary covers the story of amateur traders – some of whom made tens of millions off of GameStop, others who lost their life savings – as well as seasoned investors and hedge fund managers who bet against the stock and took massive losses, and GameStop employees who faced losing their jobs. The documentary digs into the economic structures that govern U.S. markets and leave many with few reliable channels to build wealth.

The film is directed by Samuel Black, and produced by Brennan Cusack and Rebecca Davis. Executive producers on the film are Subrata De, Mat Skene and Gemma Jordan.

“The Big Squeeze is the definitive telling of the story of GameStop, which dominated news headlines around the world. After incredible initial interest and following multiple pre-sales to our global partners, we are seeing even more international demand for this captivating documentary,” said Bea Hegedus, Vice Media Group global head of distribution.

Potato brings on Adam Adler as creative director

Potato, an ITV Studios label, has brought on Adam Adler, creator of the global format The Cube, as creative director.

Adler most recently led ITV Studios’ Gameface label, which was behind series such as The Void and Britain’s Brightest Family. Gameface’s IP will integrate into Potato going forward. Martin Scott and Phil Mount already work as creative directors at Potato, and Adler will report to Potato’s managing director Michael Kelpie.

Before working at Gameface, Adler was creative director of Objective Productions, where he created The Cube and the BBC One game show Reflex. He also worked as commissioning editor for entertainment at Channel 4, overseeing series including Darren Brown’s The Heist, 8 out of 10 Cats, Beauty & the Geek and Russell Brand’s Ponderland.

Adler’s new position comes as Potato is focusing more on quiz and game shows, following the commission of shows for ITV such as Moneyball and Sitting on a Fortune, both coproductions with ITV Studios label Possessed.

Fred Media signs content deals with Canadian broadcasters

Fred Media, the distribution arm of Australia’s WTFN Group, has completed new content deals with multiple Canadian broadcasters.

Hayu, a reality-based SVOD service, has acquired seasons one and two of the obs-doc series Emergency (20 x 60 minutes) and three seasons of Paramedics (30 x 60 minutes). Both series were produced by WTFN for Nine Network and follow frontline medical workers in Australia.

Quebecor Content licensed Space Invaders (10 x 60 minutes), produced by WTFN and re-commissioned by Nine Network in Australia, for its Casa lifestyle channel and Travels with the Bondi Vet (13 x 30 minutes), also produced by WTFN, for the travel and adventure-led channel Évasion. Space Invaders sees people receive help to de-clutter their homes, while Travels with the Bondi Vet follows Dr. Chris Brown as he leaves his veterinary practice in Sydney, Australia and sets out on adventures in the wild.

Bell Media, meanwhile, acquired Mega Zoo (10 x 60 minutes), an obs-doc series from WTFN that goes behind the scenes at Zoos Victoria, the largest zoo in the Southern Hemisphere.

And TLN TV acquired a package of 38 hours of food series content from Fred Media’s Tastemade catalogue, including All the Pizza (7 x 30 minutes), Heritage (7 x 30 minutes), Frankie’s World (5 x 30 minutes), Struggle Meals (45 x 30 minutes), Sourced (8 x 30 minutes) and Recipe for Love (4 x 30 minutes).