France’s Troisième Œil Teams With China’s CICC on Richard Dale’s ‘Panda Kingdom’

Troisième Œil Productions is teaming with Chinese partners to make its first international co-production with the premium documentary “Panda Kingdom,” and has brought BAFTA-winning director Richard Dale on board to helm it.

The outfits China Aviation Pictures and CICC are co-producing the documentary with Troisième Œil Productions. The docu feature will explore the captive breeding programs that China has been conducting for decades to sustain the Panda population, said Nicolas Deschamps, head of international documentaries at Troisième Œil Productions.

China Aviation Pictures started developing the documentary several years ago and has already shot hundreds of hours of footage in 4K. The story will chart the journey of a panda from his birth in captivity to his return to the wilderness in China.

“The development of this documentary in co-production with China Aviation Pictures, a leader in large -scale aerial photography in China, and CICC, the country’s biggest producer of documentaries, underscores the ambition of Troisième Œil Productions to boost its offer of documentaries and expand its scope globally,” said Deschamps.

Dale, who is best known for his BAFTA-winning documentary series “The Human Body,” also directed the Emmy-nominated TV movies “Moonshot” and 9/11: The Twin Towers, as well as the BAFTA-nominated “D-Day 6.6.1944.” His documentary credits also include “Earth: One Amazing Day” which was nominated for a PGA Award in 2018.

Troisième Œil Productions is one of France’s leading producers of daytime programming. The banner, which is behind the top rated French talk show “C à vous,” was founded in 2001 by Pierre-Antoine Capton who continues to preside the company. Capton is also the chairman of Mediawan.

By： Elsa Keslassy

Source： Variety