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Veteran media executive Yoko Higuchi-Zitzmann took over as CEO of Telepool in January, barely a year after Will and Jada Pinkett Smith’s Westbrook took full control, in December 2021, of the German rights giant.

The appointment was a bit of a coup. The Japan-born, Germany-educated Higuchi-Zitzmann has more than a quarter century of experience in some of Europe’s biggest media companies. She was an acquisitions exec for Constantin Film — scoring Olivier Dahan’s Oscar winner La Vie En Rose for the German market among other deals — and producer at renowned German groups Ziegler Cinema — where she delivered sleeper hit My Blind Date With Life, a romantic comedy that earned more than $5 million at the German box office for distributor StudioCanal — and Studio Hamburg, where her hits included Herzogpark, a Desperate Housewives-style series for leading German network Rtl. She joined Telepool from Matthias Schweighöfer’s production outfit Pantaleon Films...

German film and TV distribution and licensing company Telepool, which is owned by Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith’s Westbrook, is moving into lead producing movies and series, its CEO Yoko Higuchi-Zitzmann tells Variety exclusively in her first interview since joining the company in January.

Munich-based Telepool is celebrating its 60th anniversary on Wednesday, and although it has a barrel-load of experience in selling, distributing, licensing, financing and co-producing movies and series, this shift into initiating and lead producing represents a significant step for the company. It also forms part of Westbrook’s broader strategy for international expansion, which – in part – lay behind its acquisition of Telepool in December 2021.

Higuchi-Zitzmann seems ideally suited to the task as she has worked for several leading German film and TV companies, giving her experience in both distribution and production. Most recently, she served as the managing director of Pantaleon Films, whose founders include German star Matthias Schweighöfer,...

Veteran media executive Yoko Higuchi-Zitzmann has been named the new CEO of Telepool, the German licensing, production and distribution company owned by Will and Jada Pinkett Smith’s Westbrook.

Her appointment comes after Westbrook’s took full control of Telepool in December 2021. The Munich-based group is being positioned to play a major role in Westbrook’s international expansion strategy. Alongside Telepool, Westbrook have production partnerships with Mo Abudu’s Nigerian production studio EbonyLife and Yasushi Akimoto’s Akimoto Project in Japan. Last January, Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs’ Candle Media paid 60 million for a 10 percent stake in Westbrook.

As CEO, Higuchi-Zitzmann will oversee Telepool’s entire operation, from development, co-financing and co-production through to sales and distribution. Telepool’s subsidiaries include world sales group Global Screen and home entertainment label EuroVideo. The group is one of Europe’s leading licensors of film and television rights. Alongside its massive German rights library,...

Leonine Studios has picked up six-part event series “Herzogpark,” one of the first big-budget offerings commissioned by German broadcast giant Rtl’s streaming service Tvnow.

Leonine will handle worldwide sales, and is set to launch global distribution at next month’s Mipcom market in Cannes. The show, from “Bad Banks” producer Letterbox Filmproduktion, is directed by Jochen Alexander Freydank, who is best known for his Oscar-winning short film “Toyland.”

Billed as a scandalous society comedy-drama with strong female characters, the cast is led by Heike Makatsch (“Love Actually”), Lisa Maria Potthoff (“Kaiserschmarrndrama”), Antje Traue (“Dark”) and Felicitas Woll. Others include Heiner Lauterbach (“Welcome to Germany”), Jeanette Hain (“The Reader”), Trystan Pütter (“Babylon Berlin”) and Lukas Spisser (“What We Wanted”) and Francis Fulton-Smith (“Blackout”).

The show centers on Hannah, Elisabeth and Annabelle, who are beautiful, rich and want to stay in their home in Munich’s highly exclusive residential area of Herzogpark at all costs.