Good Hero and Mediawan Greenlight Animated film ‘Wings Of Freedom: Operation Rebirth’: Laurent Zeitoun and Gregory Ouanhon Detail One World Construction Development Process

Exclusive: Good Hero, a Paris and New York-based production label launched by Laurent Zeitoun and Gregory Ouanhon in 2020, unveiled its first film project earlier this year after signing a strategic partnership with European company Mediawan .

Wings of Freedom: Operation Resurgence It is an animated film co-written by Zeitoun with Nick Luddington, who recently co-wrote two episodes of the Netflix animated series. Arcane. The story was inspired by Jonathan Keys’ idea.

Operation Rebirth The first delivery is expected ფ Wings of freedom Universe, which also includes a graphic novel due out next year, the film will be released around 2025.

Building worlds is key to a good hero process, as these two founders explain below in their first interview since starting the company.

Instead of developing individual content, the team focuses on developing the entire world which, when fully implemented, can become the home of many media, including movies, series, comics, podcasts and more.

ფ Wings of freedomFor example, there is a futuristic world where humanity is nearly extinct due to the rebellion of artificial intelligence. Here’s the complete premise: Once people turn to AI to tackle global warming, the plan fails when AI planes name humanity as the main enemy to save Earth. By 2340, an army of drones had conquered the planet and humans were nearly extinct. But a new resistance is growing and bold birds and animals are gathering around the world to create humanity’s last hope of survival: the Animal Air Force.

To create these worlds, Zeitoun, Ouanhon and the rest of the Good Hero team, including co-creative director Kiel Murray (cars), ask for help from dozens of experts who consult all aspects of the world as it is built. For what ფ Wings of freedomBy the way, the team consulted the famous American Air Force pilot Andrea Temli.

Below, Deadline learns the process of creating a unique IP for Zeitoun and Ouanhon, and takes a look at the pair as they plan to bring their worlds to the screen.

DEADLINE: Tell me about how to open your company in these strange last two years.

Olive: It was a continuation of what we had been doing for 25 or 30 years. This was the natural next step for us. [to set up Good Hero]. We did it during a pandemic, we put all our creativity into Zoom, which was challenging. i finished my movie Heart of fire [the animated feature released earlier this year] During the pandemic, therefore, I was used to doing remote sessions with 40 publishers.

DEADLINE: Why did you decide to settle between Paris and New York?

Olive: It is also a large part of London. There is a very strong culture there.

OUANHON: All the worlds we develop are all creative works in English. We do not develop in French. That’s why we needed creatives, consultants and English language experts. At the same time, we wanted to use what France is good at. When you produce a film from France, you automatically get a lot of funding [from public sources]. We wanted the best of both worlds.

DEADLINE: Its website says it runs “premium content for ages 7 to 77”. What do you have against 78-year-olds?

Olive: [Laughs] 78 is young. More seriously, this is easy to remember code.

DEADLINE: Your first project is animation, will this be your goal?

Olive: No, we producers didn’t want to fit into a single genre. What I have developed so far is live action, animation, TV series. What we consider stories can be used on many platforms, in many media. Not just movies and TV, but also podcasts, comics, novels.

DEADLINE: Tell us about your process of creating these “worlds”.

Olive: We have four pillars: the first is the imaginary world, an element that is not reality; The second are the inspiring characters, the hero who changes and learns, who embarks on a journey and you learn with them; Third, the epic journey, the high thrills, the high stakes, not necessarily the adventure, but the epic; Finally exciting stories that give hope in the end. This is what defines our original premium content. We do not make plays where, for example, we cannot expect it. We limit the stories / worlds we can develop.

DEADLINE: Obviously your midfielder liked your concept, tell me about your relationship with them.

OUANHON: It is quite simple. Our process is to create the world first, then the story. When we are happy with the world and history, we sit together [with Mediawan] And ask them if they want to finance the development of a movie or a TV series. Say yes or no, until now they always said yes. This is not a financing agreement, we continue to finance our project as we always have.

DEADLINE: Are you focusing on traditional funding structures or are you looking at global studio / broadcast deals if all else fails?

OUANHON: Everything Everything. For example, we do not yet know the funding structure ფ Wings of freedomBut we firmly believe it is a theatrical event.

DEADLINE: Animation is an expensive and time-consuming tool.

Olive: Yes, it takes a long, long time and you also lose your hair. You can’t just produce a script, you need a story, you need visualization.

DEADLINE: tell us a little more ფ Wings of freedomWhy did you want this to be the first project you launched on the market?

Olive: So far we have developed 12 worlds. Half of them are ready for the story. We will develop in another five or six years. ფ Wings of freedom It was a longer, deeper and more subtle world. It was accelerated by Kiel Murray, head of story development, and Nick Luddington, and we got a sense that now we could start, now was the time.

OUANHON: This is one of the first worlds we’ve worked on, so naturally it’s the first.

DEADLINE: In ფ Wings of freedom The world, Operation Rebirth Will there be a movie and do you also make comics from this world?

Olive: Yes, we are starting this story comic. We have more history in the world: one in Mexico where the comics will be shot, another in India and another that develops how it all starts as a prequel.

OUANHON: The comics are being written and will be ready next year. An animated film directed to 2025-2026.

Olive: We also hope to make an otherworldly live-action film before then.

DEADLINE: The golden ticket in the film industry is the original IP, but it’s also the hardest thing to do right, which is why so many movies are remakes or adaptations. What gives you the certainty of being able to work with completely new stories?

Olive: You’re absolutely right, you can’t decide which IP it is before launch. dancer [also called Leap!] For example, it became a potential IP. At first it just tells the story. Let’s try to decide what IP defines. He has always been a hero and that’s why we made a good hero. We tried to take a small step back and create that creative bubble that explores the universe in the first place. It is a hybrid of live action, animation, and video game development.

If you try to develop a story from a world you don’t have, or try to develop the story and the world at the same time, you lose. We try to simplify our lives by building the world first.

OUANHON: We cannot build these worlds in four or five. For every universe we create, there are probably 40 or 50 people with very different backgrounds.

Olive: For example, if we were to develop a world around entertainment journalism, you would be a consultant and tell us how your day went. This is how we treat information.

DEADLINE: Who did you consult for? ფ Wings of freedom?

Olive: We spoke to one of the most famous female pilots in the US Air Force, Andrea Temley. You can watch it on YouTube and be mesmerized. She is our consultant at the Animal Air Force. We share the pilot’s life, the missions he undertakes, the planes he uses. We have a great group for this.

We also talk to ornithology experts, we know everything about all kinds of birds from all over the world. We spoke to artificial intelligence specialists. We talked to satellite communications experts. We spoke to an aeronautical specialist in Italy. We spoke to scientists and philosophers to determine what the evolution of artificial intelligence will be. It is also linked to climate change, which is why we spoke to environmentalists. They are 40 people, we can call at any time if we have any questions.

OUANHON: They stay on board for years to come when we need to light something up.

Olive: All this information is combined in what we call a “guide”. This is a summary of all of our interviews and brainstorming. 40-50 pages. We open the archetypes of the characters and then try to find the best story that will live in this world.

DEADLINE: Can you tell us about other projects?

Olive: We are currently trying to explain the method. We collect long-term sociological trends that become habits in the future. We collect behaviors that change. Each story is set in a very specific world.

OUANHON: We are trying to create playgrounds that will resonate in five years. And then there is talk of creating stories on these playgrounds.