EXCLUSIVEJames Reed, director of Oscar winning Netflix documentary My Octopus Teacher A one-year partnership has been established with BBC Studios.
Under the terms of the deal, Reed and his company Underdog Films will work with the BBC’s commercial producer-distributor over the next 12 months, adding to its pipeline of natural history feature docs. Reed will be joined at Underdog by Matt Houghton as his creative partner.
The news has been unveiled as the UK’s Wildscreen Festival gets underway, the respected natural history TV festival, and Reed is due to speak on a panel later today.
With Netflix 2020, he received worldwide praise My Octopus Teacher The story of a South African filmmaker who forms an unexpected friendship and which goes on to win Best Documentary Feature at the Oscars. Reed’s past credits include Jago – A Life Underwater And Rise of the Warrior ApesHe founded Underdog in 2015
BBC Studios Natural History Unit (NHU) Head Jonny Keeling said: “Character and emotional storytelling are at the heart of filmmaking both at the NHU and Underdog Films, so we look forward to developing a number of original, ambitious and compelling natural history features.”
Reed was very pleased with the NHU’s work. “at the forefront of natural history film-making for decades and their further growth in the feature doc market will be a fantastic development for the industry as a whole.”
The NHU had a great couple of years. It won commissions at the likes Netflix, Apple TV+, HBO, and also prepared for the likes Blue Planet IIIBBC.