New scripted indie Burn These Words is launching, with six-part comedy series The Show, created by and starring Ellyn Daniels.
Burn These Words is helmed by Will O’Connor, who aims to bring his experience in the video games advertising industry to produce scripted content for the international market. O’Connor founded creative agency Fire Without Smoke which sold to Keywords Studios in 2018 for £5.2m. Before that he was Managing Director at production and financing company WROCA and Managing Director at post house Crow TV (now Radiant Post Production).
O’Connor is producer of The Show, which was funded privately and filmed earlier this year.
Inspired by Daniels’ experience performing her one-woman show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, The Show provides a fresh take on the skewering of modern celebrity. Hayley Harris is a former sitcom actress trying to reclaim her artistic integrity by writing and performing a one-woman show. Following her mother’s death, she returns to her North Carolina hometown and becomes embroiled in local eccentricities while discovering hidden truths about her family as she attempts to make her show harrowing enough to win a Tony.
Alongside Daniels, the six-parter features James D’Arcy (Dunkirk, Agent Carter, Leonardo) and Nicholas Farrell (Chariots of Fire, The Iron Lady, The Nevers.)
Burn These Words also has two feature films in pre-production.
“We have secured a great line up of TV and film content to be announced over the coming months,” says O’Connor. “We want to reach consumers where they are, and I will be bringing techniques and expertise from my time in video games to work with broadcasters in a whole new, very exciting way.”
US Sales for The Show are being handled by Out There TV Consulting, another fledgling company, founded by former Banijay Group commercial director Andreas Lemos.
Launched earlier this year, Out There TV Consulting has already sealed a deal on behalf of London-based indie, Touchdown Films, pre-selling The Wedding of The Century, an anniversary special marking 40 years since the landmark nuptials between Lady Diana Spencer and Prince Charles, to multi-region platform Brit Box.
Jon Creamer
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