Author, producer and script editor Cassandra Johnson-Bekoe has joined U.Okay. impartial manufacturing firm DARE Pictures within the newly created place of head of scripted improvement.
Johnson-Bekoe was beforehand senior improvement government at Daniel Kaluuya’s manufacturing outfit 59%, overseeing the corporate’s slate and producing new IP throughout worldwide and regional markets. Previous to this she labored in scripted improvement and her credit embody “Ted Lasso” season 2 (WarnerBros/Apple+), “Riches” (Greenacre Movies for ITV), “Secret Invasion” (Marvel Studios) and “The Chemistry of Loss of life” (Cuba Photos Ltd, for Paramount+).
Reporting into DARE CEO Derren Lawford, Johnson-Bekoe will give attention to growing the corporate’s scripted slate, as properly bringing together with her an authentic slate of IP and dealing on new drama and movie initiatives with a view to taking them from pitch to fee with a selected emphasis on the U.S. and African markets. She is going to establish and develop relationships with rising and established storytelling expertise.
Johnson-Bekoe additionally co-founded two collectives – Black Girls in Scripted, a mixture of writers, producers, executives, in addition to new trade expertise, and The Colab, a various community for trade professionals.
DARE, which stands for range, allyship, illustration and empowerment and goals to mirror these values on and off display, was based by Lawford (“Mandela, My Dad and Me,” “Reduce From a Totally different Material,” each co-produced with Idris Elba, “Fiennes: Return to the Nile” for Nat Geo, and BAFTA-winning brief movie “The Black Cop”). Commissions since launching embody “Crypto Queen,” (co-production with Tondowski Movies), an unscripted sequence with Channel 4, Sky Germany and Fremantle directed by Rudolph Herzog and “Dalton’s Dream,” a characteristic documentary for BBC Storyville directed by Kim Longinotto and Franky Murray Brown, backed by the BFI’s International Display screen Fund and distributed by Dogwoof.
Lawford stated: “This has been a yr within the making and properly definitely worth the wait. We’ve been quietly buying life rights, optioning books and articles with a view to creating worldwide and impactful dramas and movies, so securing somebody of Cassandra’s calibre and dynamism supplies us with the right alternative to speed up our presence in scripted genres. She has a really spectacular community of contacts within the U.Okay., America and Africa and has already secured distinctive entry to some extremely highly effective and distinctive tales for DARE which we’re actually excited to see develop over the approaching months. Suffice to say that we’re delighted to welcome her into the DARE Photos household.”
Johnson-Bekoe added: “Derren has paved the way in which for a lot of profitable and progressive creatives within the trade. I’m proud to say I’m one among these creatives; and bestowing the chance of head of scripted improvement for DARE Photos to me, additional establishes this legacy. I’m really trying ahead to this subsequent chapter – via my entrepreneurship and true ardour for scripted, we’re going to create subversive and revolutionary content material.”
