EXCLUSIVE: After its dark comedy-drama The Big Fuck Up played in competition at Canneseries this week, Flemish producer Jonnydepony has landed another drama commission from Belgian platform Streamz.
Boho is a light comedy-drama from writer Abbie Boutkabout that follows a trio of 30-something friends as they navigate life in Borgerhout, an eclectic and culturally-rich area of Antwerp in Belgium. “It’s like Soho, but in Antwerp,” said Jonnydepony CEO and co-founder Helen Perquy in an interview with Deadline.
Abbie Boutkabout is the creator and Philippe De Schepper, who leads Banijay Benelux-backed Jonnydepony with content financier and exec producer Perquy, will be the showrunner. Boutkabout, De Schepper and Zita Theunynck are the writers, and Olympia Allaert is the director. The show received script and production support from the Flanders Audiovisual Fund, and Perquy revealed all heads of department on the production are female.
Ikram Aoulad (Arcadia), Serine Ayari (Exen) and hip-hop artist Miss Angel, who has appeared in the local version of Dancing with the Stars, are in the lead roles. They play three friends grappling the everyday pressure of life and modern adulthood, from cultural expectations around careers, marriages and families to their often-conflicting pursuit of their own dreams and happiness.
Each week, they gather for ‘Fuzzy Fridays’, a chaotic but comforting ritual of ‘nightshop’ wine and bad weed. There they vent and provide inspiration for the musical one of them is determined to make about their lives.
“While Boho is a distinctly Flemish story, capturing the warmth and urban vibe of Borgerhout, the themes and characters are universally relatable – this could be in any European city,” said Perquy. “Abbie Boutkabout has created a bond between the three characters that is raw, funny and authentic. With dance and music woven into the narrative structure, the series not only offers drama, but an atmospheric mood throughout.
Canneseries & More Future Projects
Jonnydepony is coming off a strong week at Canneseries, where crime caper The Big Fuck Up had its world premiere out of competition. The show – starring the likes of Willem De Schryver, Tom Vermeir, Tibo Vandenborre and Lien Joosten – is set in the 1980s and based on a true story of a rogue group of Belgium’s former national police service, the Gendarmarie. Led by a CIA operative, the unit trades chasing criminals for a life of crime, leading to chaos.
“It’s a fun, dramatic story that really happened, which makes the absurdity really clear,” said Perquy. “It’s also quite American in style – dark, humorous and vibrant with a young main character. The audience is going to find it a really fun watch – it is really a crazy story.”
Perquy added that the frosting of relations between Vladimir Putin’s Russia and the European Union helped to contextualize the 1980s Cold War-era setting of The Big Fuck Up. “Back then, the Americans wanted the Europeans to spend more on defense, which is actually happening now,” she said.
The Streamz and Prime Video Netherlands show, which launches later this year, comes from De Schepper and Bas Adriaensen, with Perquy currently shopping it directly to buyers as she considers several sales agent offers. Though Banijay has a significant stake in Jonnydepony, the France-based company does not immediately get to sell the Brussels-based producer’s shows.
“The business is difficult at the moment, especially for non-English-language drama, and while I was pitching it, everybody thought it was a cop show, but it’s not at all,” said Perquy. “I didn’t want to sell it for too little, so we decided to make it first and see what audience feels. It’s a particular world, and with the American link and the tensions in the world right now, you can really relate. There are sales agents interested in selling it, of course, but we’re hoping to sell it to certain territories after Canneseries.”
Perquy revealed the writing team behind The Big Fuck Up are next turning their hand to a drama series about a farming family struggling to make ends meet under the pressure of environmental regulations and everyday life. “The family is stubborn and dysfunctional, striving to survive,” said Perquy. The thing about farmers in Flanders – and everywhere else – is they just do it their way.”
The project is still at writing phase, with De Schepper attached to be showrunner. While the topic is markedly different from the dramedy period vibes of The Big Fuck Up, Perquy said: “The writers have been very versatile and that is a necessity in this business.”
Exec producer and financing expert Perquy co-owns Jonnydepony, which was formed in 2015, with De Schepper. She joined following a spell at Belgian pubcaster VRT advising its scripted division and after working on shows such as Veerle Baetens and Malin-Sarah Gozin’s Tabula Rasa. The company remains lean, with a staff of three. Laura Brewaeys, Head of Production & Finance, is the other manager.
Perquy said: “I wanted to join a company that really has a sense of strategic business – I may have studied literature, but I do the business, and that’s exactly what Jonnydepony does: We are in development on three titles, we are in post-production on The Big Fuck Up and we’ll shoot a new series in three weeks.”
Banijay, which is now Europe’s biggest studio for scripted, bought into the business in 2022, backing the creative-led approach De Schepper had developed. Mediawan and Newen Connect (now Studio TF1) are understood to have also been in the hunt, ultimately Jonnydepony’s management felt closest to the Peaky Blinders and Asterix Le Combat des Chef‘s company.
“A lot of people call themselves showrunners in the Flemish world, but very few are real showrunners – meaning you understand budget, planning, scheduling, writing and everything else,” said Perquy. “Philippe is a real showrunner who went to America, read all the books on it, and then took the best ones, read them again and defined what that meant for him.
“He says a showrunner creates a show, shoots a show and is in post-production. That is the only way you can survive if you’re really focused on working at this pace.”
Belgian shows were a theme at this week’s Canneseries, with two played out of competition and Dead End and How to Kill Your Sister in contention for the main competition, but Perquy issue a word of warning for the future.
“The audience loves creativity but we are living in a time where people are very risk averse, and that kills the industry,” she said. “Producers are the ones who should be the most risk-averse, because we’re basically bankrupt [most of the time]. The passion is there to make shows with good and talent people.
“Luckily, Canneseries picked original, creative titles, but VRT and the commercial stations are not represented. It was all Streamz, and I’m not sure they will continue to take risks – I hope they do. I’m not saying everything has to be niche – Bridgerton and The Walking Dead were screened at Canneseries, and I am absolutely in favor of that, as Jonnydepony doesn’t do niche – but at least we try to be creative.”
