Vuelta Group’s SquareOne Acquires Telepool From Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith’s Westbrook
08.05.2024 - 12:49
/ variety.com
SquareOne Entertainment, part of rising European film studio Vuelta Group, has acquired German film and TV production, distribution and licensing company Telepool, which was owned by Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith’s Westbrook. The news was announced Wednesday by Vuelta Group chairman Jerome Levy and CEO of SquareOne and Vuelta Group Germany Al Munteanu.
Munteanu will spearhead the newly combined entity under the SquareOne banner with Michael Heyd serving as CFO/COO. The newly combined SquareOne entity will boast a library consisting of over 1,200 titles such as “Drive,” “Intouchables,” “The Olympus Has Fallen,” “The Hitman’s Bodyguard,” “Imitation Game,” “Lone Survivor,” “Book Club,” “Transporter 3,” “King Richard,” “Maurice the Tomcat” and the recently released “One Life” among others.
“For over 60 years, Telepool has been one of the leading global content houses and we are proud of the work we did with the company,” said Westbrook CEO Kosaku Yada. “We are grateful to [former Telepool CEO] Yoko Higuchi-Zitzmann for her leadership over the past two years.
Her respect from the creative community has been instrumental in Telepool’s success.” The new and expanded company will be active across distribution and production. Munteanu said, “The combined entity enables SquareOne to offer German-speaking audiences a strong and varied slate of theatrical releases going forward, across multiple genres – from ‘smarthouse,’ comedies, and actioners to high-end family entertainment: ‘The Last Breath,’ ‘Lords of War,’ ‘Hellboy,’ ‘Broker Homefront 2’ and ‘Bambi’ being the first out of the gate.” Over the past year, SquareOne has focused its efforts on the expansion of its production’s activity under the SquareOne Productions banner
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