The producers of two of Netflix’s buzziest series are joining forces to develop new shows, with a focus on work by women and people of color.
Dominic Buchanan, the executive producer of “The End of the F***ing World,” and Eleven, the shingle behind “Sex Education,” have inked a production pact giving Eleven first look at Buchanan’s TV projects. The partners will co-develop and take new shows out to both streaming platforms and linear broadcasters.
About 45% of Eleven’s work already comes from female writers and directors, but the company wants to increase the proportion of its shows from people of color.
“There are a disproportionately small number of stories that are told by women and people of color,” Eleven co-founder Jamie Campbell told Variety. “We have been quite self-analytical as a company to work out how we can find more of these stories and how we can be more inclusive.”
Buchanan is a seasoned producer and has worked on both sides of the Atlantic in film and TV. He produced Hong Khaou’s 2014 Sundance movie “Lilting,” which starred Cheng Pei-pei and Ben Whishaw. In TV, he has been homing in on writers and directors of color as his slate comes together.
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“That will inform the projects that come through,” Buchanan told Variety. “The stories don’t need to be about the black or Asian experience. It can be just that these filmmakers want to tell different stories or have stories that they want to tell that could be genre-based but [that] they haven’t had the opportunity to do because they have been overlooked.”
Eleven’s other founder, Joel Wilson, said the company was a long-time admirer of Buchanan’s work and had been looking for a way to work with him. “We are looking for material that will provoke an audience in some way, which will challenge an audience’s perception of the way the world is,” Wilson said. “I think there is an overlap with the way Dominic approaches his work.”
Eleven’s “Sex Education,” which stars Gillian Anderson, has been renewed for a second season. Clerkenwell Films-produced “The End of the F***ing World” was originally commissioned by Britain’s Channel 4 and is on Netflix globally.