Disney+ is making push for more British comedies, the streamer’s head of originals Eric Schrier said Wednesday morning, Deadline reports.
The move is partly in reaction to the recent state of international discourse, the television studios president said, adding via Deadline that “We think the world can use some comedy right now.”
The executive made the comments at Content London where he noted that there were “a number of dramas in development in the UK – limited and not limited – and comedy, which has not been a trend as of late,” per Deadline.
Schrier went on to play a trailer for Disney+’s upcoming comedy-drama Alice & Steve, starring Jermaine Clement (Avatar: Fire and Ash, Moana) and Nicola Walker (The Split, MI-5) as a pair of platonic middle-aged friends whose relationship is tested when he begins dating her 26-year-old daughter, according to synopsis provided by Deadline. The series is created by Sophie Goodhart (Rivals, Sex Education), directed by Tom Kingsley (Deep Cover, Black Pond), and is produced by Baby Reindeer‘s Clerkenwell Films.
Schrier praised the show’s “super unique concept” while calling on producers at the development conference to pitch more adventurous ideas, reports Deadline. “You have to build risk into the system,” he added. “You can’t just buy the ‘good’ stuff. If failure is not part of your business model, you are not going to succeed in a creative business.”
He pointed to the massive success of Rivals, the streamer’s television adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s (Emily, Bella) Rutshire Chronicles novel series that has drawn in audiences from the UK and elsewhere, according to Deadline.
The comments come as Disney chief Bob Iger has stated that Disney+ is ready to enter “phase two” of its development, with the company increasingly targeting productions in local markets, per Deadline. Iger recently told investors that the company is “already starting to develop more aggressively in very, very targeted markets outside the United States.”
That sentiment has been borne out this year as Disney+ has released 100 series in over 20 markets, with the UK, Spain, Germany, Italy, Korea, Turkey, and Brazil being top priority for the company’s international ambitions. Schrier recently told Deadline that Disney would be “laser focused” on the Asia-Pacific region in particular at last month’s APAC showcase.
During the conference, Schrier also announced four-part true-crime Hulu series The Devil in My DMs, which will follow four separate stories where a real-life crime was precipitated through online channels, according to Deadline.
The UK’s Lightbox, which made Disney+’s Camden, will produce the show, with Suzanne Lavery (The Diamond Heist, Til Death Do Us Part), Simon Chinn (Lost in the Jungle, Man on a Wire), and Jonathan Chinn (Lost in the Amazon, Black Sheep) executive producing and Camden‘s Toby Trackman (The Last Musician of Auschwitz, Secrets) directing.