Harder Than You Think & Off The Fence join to boost Rising Phoenix Paralympic Content

Emmy award winning Harder Than You Think (HTYT) and Off The Fence (OTF) have announced on 12 January that OTF has been appointed to find partners for the next four projects from Harder Than You Think’s  ‘Rising Phoenix Universe’ - a catalogue of trailblazing content which charts the story of the Paralympic Games. OTF will also co-produce additional content commissioned outside of these core projects.

The ‘Rising Phoenix Universe’ was born out of the success of Harder Than You Think’s debut film Rising Phoenix, a four-time nominated and double Emmy winning feature documentary about the history of the Paralympic Movement which debuted in 2020 on Netflix and Bytedance.

Now, Harder Than You Think, founded by London 2012 CMO Greg Nugent and chaired by ex-BBC director general Tony Hall, is set to produce a collection of documentaries and docu series as part of the Rising Phoenix Universe which aims to connect global audiences to the Paralympics and in so doing create a shift in attitudes towards disability. Under the deal announced today, OTF will oversee the distribution strategy for all Rising Phoenix productions: Road To Tokyo (2022) and Paris 2024: A New Revolution w/t (2024). As part of the deal, OTF will act for Harder Than You Think on selling the rights to the 2025-2028 Road To LA which will chart the Milano Cortina 2026 Paralympic Winter Games and LA 2028 Paralympic Games.

The Productions

Road to Tokyo - a 3 part docu series following 12 Paralympians preparing to compete in the delayed Tokyo 2020 Paralympics through the Covid-19 pandemic. Co-directed by Mat Whitecross and pioneering deaf director Bim Ajadi, the series is also produced by Academy Award winning John Battsek at Ventureland and Exec Produced by Jack Thorne. One in four of those who worked on the production identify as disabled.

Paris 2024: A New Revolution (w/t), a 90-minute feature in post production and slated for release this summer. Co-produced with Ventureland, investors include P&G Studios, in a partnership that dates back to the highly successful Equal Too podcast. Directed by Sheridan O’Donnell, the film aims to use the platform of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games to ignite a global conversation on disability equality. Throughout the film, Sheridan will chronicle his own story as a low vision filmmaker as he grows to embrace life with a disability. Produced by Barnaby Spurrier (Rising Phoenix) and Exec Produced by Jim LeBrecht (Crip Camp), Harder Than You Think founder Greg Nugent and Ventureland’s John Battsek and Sarah Thompson. The production is currently on course to achieve its target of half of the production team to identify as disabled.

The Road To LA (w/t) production will continue beyond the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, with documentary content planned around the Milano Cortina 2026 Paralympic Winter Games, culminating in a unique offering around the LA 2028 Paralympic Games.

In 2022, Harder Than You Think was granted worldwide exclusive rights by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) to tell the story of the Paralympics through to the LA 2028 Paralympic Games. This deal gives HTYT worldwide exclusive access to the IPC’s archive for every edition of the Winter and Summer Paralympic Games to the LA 2028 Paralympic Games. The deal gives Harder Than You Think global AVOD, SVOD and TVOD rights and unique access, including field of play and trackside filming rights.

Television audiences for the Paralympic Games are growing rapidly with its cumulative audience more than doubling in the last decade. The IPC projects a cumulative five billion-strong global audience for the LA 2028 Paralympic Games. According to the United Nations, more than 1 billion people, or around 15% of the world’s population, have a disability. However, they represent only a very small fraction of those working in the entertainment industry today. Harder Than You Think’s mission is to change this and increase diverse representation for people with disabilities in front of and behind the camera. The team has set a groundbreaking target for representation of disabled talent with a goal to have at least 50% of the production team identifying as disabled on all future productions.

Andrew Parsons, President of the IPC, said: “We want to open up the Paralympics to the world’s greatest storytellers to help bring the world’s greatest sporting and social stories to every corner of the globe.”

Bo Stehmeier, CEO of Off The Fence, said: “The IPC chose wisely when it granted Harder Than You Think unprecedented access to the Paralympics — and not just because Greg and his team produce glorious, award-winning work, but also because their commercial instincts are as sound as their creative talent. We’re honoured to have been entrusted with maximising the reach and impact of the Rising Phoenix. The power, glory and heroism of the Paralympics deserve to be seen by the widest possible global audience — and we’re only too pleased to help make that happen.”

Greg Nugent, Creator Of Rising Phoenix said: “We have something very special and unique in Rising Phoenix and its storyline. Our desire is to find a partner who shares our passion not only for extraordinary content but also more inclusive and representative production standards that can hopefully inspire others in the industry."’

About Harder Than You Think

Harder Than You Think (HTYT) is an independent production company and creators of award-winning content that has the power to change us. The company was created and founded by Greg Nugent, ex CMO of the highly successful Olympic & Paralympic Games London 2012.

About Off The Fence

Off the Fence (OTF) is an Academy Award-winning factual studio, involved in every aspect and facet of non-fiction programming. It produces, acquires, localises and distributes programming via its network of creative and commercial offices in Amsterdam, London, Bristol and Toronto. OTF Originals has produced more than 700 hours of programming over the last three decades for the world’s A-list broadcasters, including National Geographic, Netflix, Curiosity Stream, ARTE and the BBC. OTF was founded in 1994 and acquired by ZDF Studios, the commercial arm of German public broadcaster ZDF, in 2019.