The sale was not by chance, the German FreeTV Group is a media company:
"TANDEM PRESS RELEASE
TANDEM COMMUNICATIONS Builds the Financial Pillars of Ken Follett’s Best-Selling Phenomenon, The Pillars of the Earth as an Event Television Series with ProSieben/Sat.1’s German FreeTV Group and Spain’s Sogecable. The TANDEM / Scott Free Production will Begin Prep in the Fall.
Munich, Germany (2008/07/21) - Emmy® and Golden Globe® nominated TANDEM COMMUNICATIONS (Ring of the Nibelungs, The Company) announced having inked deals with the German FreeTV Group, a division of Germany’s ProSieben/Sat.1 AG, as well as Spain’s Sogecable S.A. (for their Pay TV network, Canal+ and the Free TV broadcaster, Cuatro) for Ken Follett’s worldwide bestseller The Pillars of the Earth as an 8-hour event series. In April at MIP TV 2008, TANDEM announced having acquired the film option on the book many consider to be Follett’s masterpiece and having joined forces with Ridley Scott and Tony Scott’s production company Scott Free (Numb3rs, The Andromeda Strain) to produce the epic 12th century thriller. The two companies will begin prepping the production this fall.
Board member of ProSieben/Sat.1 AG’s German FreeTV Group, Andreas Bartl: “We’re very excited about having secured the rights to this sensational project for our market. I’m sure that together with TANDEM and Scott Free it will be possible to turn this unusually popular book into an equally successful television event.”
In Germany, The Pillars of the Earth is the 3rd best-selling book of all time after The Bible and Lord of the Rings. Top German toy and game manufacturer Kosmos won Game of the Year for their board game based on Follett’s book.
Sogecable’s Head of Acquisitions for Cuatro Angel López Armendáriz: “We have developed a very close relationship to TANDEM as a top supplier of event programming and have just acquired their new productions of Impact! and Lost City Raiders. The Pillars of the Earth just reconfirms that this strategy was right for our network. After The Company, we’re thrilled to be working with the team of TANDEM and Scott Free again.”
In Spain, this Ken Follett’s thriller is the all-time best-selling work of fiction. The Pillars of the Earth has been translated into 30 languages worldwide. In 2007, The Pillars of the Earth was named Oprah Winfrey’s 60th Book Club Selection, it is ranked 33rd on BBC’s 2003 ‘The Big Read’ as one of the top 100 books ever printed and was chosen 27th out of the ‘101 Books to Read Before You Die’.
Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth is a sweeping thriller of good and evil, treachery and intrigue, violence and beauty. This sensuous, spirited and passionate story is set against a backdrop of war, religious strife and power struggles which tears lives and families apart. A suspense/thriller in structure, Follett weaves three love-stories masterfully through the political turmoil of 12th century England, creating a relevant and viable world for today’s audience and for generations to come.
“We’re very pleased with the overwhelming response worldwide to the announcement of this amazing project,” so Rola Bauer, Managing Director of TANDEM. “We have gained partners with ProSieben/Sat.1’s German FreeTV Group and Sogecable, who are as dedicated as we are about turning this very special book into a television masterpiece full of passion, pathos and suspense for audiences of all ages.”
TANDEM COMMUNICATIONS was founded in 1999 by Rola Bauer and Tim Halkin. In 2007 Jonas Bauer became a partner in the company. From the beginning their strategy was to build a vertically integrated media company whose core business is International Production and Worldwide Distribution.
From the Emmy® winner Dune to the Emmy® nominated Dragons’ World to the Golden Globe®nominated The Company to the Nora Roberts Franchise, TANDEM continues to identify and develop high-quality projects and are presently developing a wide range of event programming.
TANDEM produced the DIVA Award-winning Ring of the Nibelungs and is currently in postproduction on Lost City Raiders, a new two-hour movie starring James Brolin, Ian Somerhalder and Ben Cross, scheduled for delivery in September 2008.
TANDEM is co-producing Impact!, a new four-hour miniseries slated for delivery in December 2008. TANDEM continues to grow its library of event programming with wide audience appeal.
TANDEM’S head office is located in Munich, Germany.
Based in Los Angeles and London, SCOTT FREE, INC. was formed in 1995 and is the film and television production company of directors Ridley Scott and Tony Scott.
Scott Free Television produces the hit CBS series Numb3rs, set to enter its fifth season; a four-hour adaptation of Michael Crichton’s landmark novel, The Andromeda Strain, which premiered on A&E in May 2008 and became the highest rated original movie or miniseries on cable this year with the second part actually building on the first. In post-production is HBO’s forthcoming Churchill at War, a sequel to the Emmy®-winning telefilm, The Gathering Storm.
Scott Free Films produced the box-office smash American Gangster, starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe, and The Assassination of Jesse James starring Brad Pitt.
Scott Free is in post-production on Ridley Scott’s Body of Lies, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, after which he’ll helm Nottingham, a role-reversal of the classic Robin Hood tale starring Russell Crowe. Tony Scott’s next film will be a remake of The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, starring Denzel Washington and John Travolta."
Source:
http://www.the-pillars-of-the-earth.tv/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=45&Itemid=71
