Marvelous Productions and Kapa Studios Team Up on a Zola Adaptation, *Nana*

Marvelous Productions and Kapa Studios are joining forces on a cross-border partnership to develop and produce projects for European and international audiences. Their first title is Nana, a period drama directed by Olivier Dahan, based on the classic novel by Émile Zola. Variety reported the deal.

The collaboration will be announced on Thursday, 5 November, at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival in Greece. The festival runs from 5 to 15 November, and it is one of the places where producers, sales agents and buyers meet to talk about what projects might get made.

Marvelous Productions was launched in 2017 by Romain Le Grand and Vivien Aslanian. Kapa Studios runs 12 sound stages covering 250,000 square feet on 25 acres in Greece. A sound stage is an enclosed, soundproofed building where film and television sets are built and shot.

Arthur Cohen of Momentum Entertainment brokered the Marvelous Productions and Kapa Studios deal and is the executive producer on Nana. The film is co-produced and distributed by ARP in France and internationally, which means ARP handles the selling of the film to cinemas and other buyers outside the production itself. Financing comes from France Télévision, the French public broadcaster, along with the pay channel Canal+ and the CNC, the French state body that supports cinema.

The partners plan a television series next. Variety reports that additional film and television projects could follow.

For a producer, the appeal of a deal like this is simple. A company with its own stages and a partner with a development slate can keep a project moving from script to shoot without starting from scratch each time. Whether the partnership produces more than its first film will become clearer over the coming years, as the television series and any further titles are announced.