Antenna also announces new hires Debbie London and Tom Keeling
Blue Ant Media’s Antenna Pictures joins forces with VICELAND for the new true-crime series “How to Rob a Bank” (8 x 60’)
(London, UK – April 24, 2019) – Fourteen bank robberies happen every day in the United States – often committed by apparently ordinary Americans. How and why are America’s teachers, lawyers, college students, and soldiers turning themselves into seasoned bank robbers? Blue Ant Media’s factual production company Antenna Pictures and VICELAND announce the greenlight of How to Rob a Bank (8 x 60’), a drama-documentary series that leads with the perspective and testimony of some very surprising criminals. Currently in production, How to Rob a Bank will air on VICELAND’s linear and streaming video platforms later this year.
Each 60-minute episode of How To Rob A Bank tells the story of an ordinary American who spirals into becoming a bank robber with extraordinary consequences. Now back on the outside, each perp’s story is told by merging powerful personal testimony, textured reconstruction and actuality that takes them back to the scene of their crime; exploring not only how, but why they robbed the bank.
“How to Rob a Bank is an edgy, surprising, and legally complex show to pull off, full of fascinating human stories,” says Jago Lee, Managing Director, Antenna Pictures. “It’s exactly the kind of engaging, psychologically rich series we want to be making”
“We are delighted that Antenna, Blue Ant Media’s London-based production company, is working with Viceland on How To Rob a Bank,” says Sam Sniderman, EVP, Production, Blue Ant Media. “Following the success of the Sidemen Show for YouTube Premium, Jago and his team are again making an entertaining factual show for the global market.”
“The title alone was a win. Who hasn’t wondered — what does it take to actually rob a bank — what does it really look like? Something about a heist seems both accessible and unfathomable at the same time,” says Nomi Ernst Leidner, VICELAND’s SVP of Development.
Coinciding with this news and following the recent appointment of Jonathan Levi as Creative Director, Antenna Pictures has hired Debbie London as Director of Operations and Tom Keeling as Executive Producer. Operating out of Antenna’s London office, London will manage Antenna’s Operations, Business Affairs and co-productions negotiations, while Keeling will bolster the studio’s US Development and Production capabilities.
London arrives at Antenna Pictures after working at Al Jazeera Television as Director of Business Affairs and Rights Management. Her experience ranges from programme finance management at Channel Four, to SVP of Business Development at National Geographic, to Director of Production Management at Discovery.
Before joining Antenna Pictures, Keeling spent the past decade making some of the most popular US documentary and drama-documentary series. Recent highlights include Banged Up Abroad (National Geographic), two seasons of See No Evil and The Devil Speaks (Discovery ID), and Bodycam (Discovery).
Blue Ant Media is a privately held, international content producer, distributor and channel operator. From our production houses around the world, we create content for multiple genres including factual, factual entertainment, short-form digital series and kids programming. Our distribution business, Blue Ant International, offers a catalogue of 3,500+ hours of content, including the largest 4K natural history offering on the market. Blue Ant Media’s international channel business offers a portfolio of media brands such as Love Nature (International), ZooMoo Networks (International), Smithsonian Channel Canada, BBC Earth (Canada), Blue Ant Entertainment (International), Blue Ant Extreme (International) and HGTV (New Zealand). Blue Ant Media is headquartered in Toronto, with operations in Los Angeles, Singapore, Auckland, Dunedin, London, Washington, Sydney, Beijing and Taipei. www.blueantmedia.com.
Antenna Pictures is a London, UK-based production company founded in 2016, developing and producing daring and ambitious series, specials and formats with a focus on younger-skewing networks. Recent productions include The Sidemen Show for Youtube Premium (co-produced with Blue Ant Digital Studios), Orangutan Jungle School for Channel 4 (co-produced with NHNZ) and Is Love Racist? for Channel 4. Antenna Pictures is a Blue Ant Media production company. Antennapictures.com.
ABOUT VICELAND
Most TV channels are just a collection of shows – VICELAND is a collection of personal points-of-view. Everything at VICELAND has a reason to exist and a strong perspective. Our mission is to examine the world we live in, and explore the things that confuse us, make us curious, make us laugh, or awaken our sense of wonder.
Debuting March 2016, as a joint venture between VICE Media and A+E Networks, with creative oversight from Oscar-winning writer/director Spike Jonze, VICELAND features series examining all things culture, including music, food, technology, sex, fashion and more. The channel also serves as an experimental platform for familiar faces like 2 Chainz, Ellen Page, Gloria Steinem, Tyler the Creator, Action Bronson, James Van Der Beek, Michael K. Williams and Eddie Huang to explore personal projects while also breaking new talent like the network’s first late night show “Desus & Mero.”
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