Nova Mundi
A Teesside based Production Company
Exploring NEW WORLDS TOGETHER
Nova Mundi are a Teesside based production company with connections up and down the country and have a passion to get Northern voices heard and Northern creatives into work. Over the years, Nova Mundi directors Marc de Launay and Daniel-John Williams have worked with some of the best in the business. A small, dedicated team with years of experience behind them, working with and for many fantastic people and companies. The future looks as bright as ever as they embark on a new world. NOVA MUNDI.
Mission Statement
'Quirky and curious'
Nova Mundi endeavour to unravel and shine a light on exciting, fresh, current and unique characters and worlds within the region by creating never before seen access to exclusive places with memorable people. From Factual Entertainment, Documentary, Daytime TV, Short Film, Feature Film and Podcasts to name a few, Nova Mundi are passionate about creating a positive and powerful Teesside presence in all areas of the Entertainment Industry. We strive to discover talent in our region to produce memorable and distinctive content, with a commercial profit, to enable us to build a sustainable and scaleable future for the creative sector. We are passionate about nurturing emerging talent as well as underrepresented voices, while working with established talent in the North.
Nova Mundi have a slate of scripted and unscripted comedy, drama and documentary, factual entertainment programmes for television and film, including Pigeon Men, a feature length documentary about love, passion and pigeons. Nova Mundi will be working for the Mayor of London Creative Industries as the Northern Hub for the new scheme ‘Mayor of London Academies’ to help youngsters find a career in the television, film and theatre industry and are currently Screen Skills mentoring. We are also members of the Creative England Foundation Programme for Film & TV (2022-2023) and have enjoyed supporting BFI Academy for young filmmakers in 2021 and 2022.
Daniel-John
ted
marc
hollIE
rea
NORMAN
Tom
OUR TEAM
Daniel-John
Williams
Pigeon Wrangler - Executive PRODUCER & CO-FOUNDER
Daniel-John Williams founder and company director at DJW Talent, The DJW School of Acting which are both certified at GOLD level by QA International from 2015-2022. Most recently Daniel launched DJW Films. Daniel-John has worked in theatre, television and film for over twenty five years in one shape or another and he trained as an actor at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts, graduating in 2008. He is a proud member of the Tees Valley Screen steering group, an initiative created and hosted by Northern Film & Media (North East Screen)
Daniel-John has recently produced a BFI Micro-short comedy film, a Channel4 Comedy Sparks through Couch Potato Films and North East Comedy HotHouse, and is currently producing and directing Pigeon Men a feature length documentary about racing pigeons. In 2022 Daniel-John will be producing the highly anticipated short film, DAVE a £15k budget, family fantasy drama. He also has a feature film in early development, which he is extremely passionate about shooting one day.
Daniel-John has worked in television and film as an actor. He has also worked in Motion Capture with Director John Dower, on a new game in development, trialling new technologies known as Project Nutal, for an interactive game called Mylo & Kate. Daniel has a real talent in getting the best out of actors, including Sara Davies, known for her appearances on The Dragons Den; He was brought onto The BBC show, Strictly Come Dancing to be Sara's Acting Coach for 'Movie Week' and recently He worked on Steel & Iron a show which was held at The Riverside Stadium in Middlesbrough where he coached Bernie Slaven for the role of Ken whilst also being company manager for Twenty Seven Productions. Daniel is no stranger to coaching actors, clients include actors with contracts in Coronation Street, Shameless, Hollyoaks, and Peppa Pig.
Daniel-John is responsible for casting multi-award winning Creative England Funded ‘A Six & Two Threes’ for writer-director Andy Berriman (Candle & Bell) BBC’s Taxi Tales (LIVE Performance) and in 2021 was casting director two BFI short films for Sea & Sky Pictures, The Wilds starring Vincent Franklin, Freya Parker and Nicola Bryant and a Maxy Neil Bianco film called Brother Nature. Daniel is one of the executive producers of a new channel4 digital comedy fact ent show in development with Adam Bouabda.
Daniel-John has recently been accepted onto the Creative England Foundations
Film & TV programme 2022-2023. Daniel has enjoyed supporting BFI Academy young filmmakers in 2021 and 2022 by offering Producer and Acting Masterclasses.
Marc
de Launay
Pigeon WHISPERER - EXECUTIVE PRODUCER & CO-FOUNDER
Marc is an international award winning theatre, film & television director, writer and producer, who has worked professionally within the creative arts and digital sectors for nearly three decades. Marc is Executive Producer and a co-owner of the leading and largest specialist 2D Animation Studio in the North East, Arcus Animation Studios. He also loves comics, and with his colleague John Farman at Vital Publishing, they have become one of Scotland’s most prolific indie comic publishers.
Marc also acted as a freelance creative industries consultant, notably as Lead Creative Industries Mentor for Teesside University Graduate Enterprise, having previously been Creative Director of the Queens Anniversary Award winning project Digital City Innovation at Teesside University. Marc is proud to have mentored many companies under these roles that have grown exponentially such as Wander Films, Sockmonkey Games Studios, Ithica Films among many others, along with many individuals whom have become significant contributors to the North East and International Creative Industries.
After professionally acting for many years as a teenager and adult, Marc acted and directed in his own theatre company (Heretic Theatre Co) in the early 1990’s, touring nationally. Marc then ran his own multi-media/ videogame/sfx company ‘Terminal Creations Ltd’ in the mid 1990’s. He then served an apprenticeship in film & TV freelance crewing throughout the latter 1990’s and worked professionally in all the areas of production,
becoming a 3rd and then a 1st Assistant Director.
Marc directed his first feature film, the thriller ‘Dark Nature’, in 2008, gaining a UK Theatrical distribution with Cineworld that was the most successful box office Indie Scottish feature Film in the UK of 2011/12 and gained a worldwide dvd/bluray distribution deal with Troma Films NYC that saw it also streamed on Amazon Prime and Youtube Studios . The film gained a UK wide DVD distribution deal in 2012 onwards that saw it in Asda Superstores and HMV and gaining Top 25 UK Best Selling status. Dark Nature’s awards include WINNER of the Best Director Award for a Feature at the International HD Fest “Deffies” where it also won Best Cinematography and was RUNNER UP for Best Feature, has screened at several international festivals in Seattle, Paris, Seoul and Tokyo in 2011 and was nominated for BAFTA Best Director New Talent Award 2010.
Marc has written a number of commissioned and award winning feature film scripts and TV pilots, including his supernatural thriller ‘Contorted Hazel’ that was not only WINNER of the internationally recognised and
prestigious BAFTA Rocliffe New Writing Forum at Edinburgh International Film Festival 2011and also found interest and was optioned by a number of major US Studios (including Sam Raimi's Ghost house Pictures) and now has a BAFTA Best Actress Winner attached as it continues to be developed towards production.
Marc is also a PACT member (Producers Alliance for Cinema and Television). Marc is not afraid of Alsatians but is slightly cautious of Norman our office dog.
Rea
White
Associate Producer
Rea has worked as a Personal Assistant for several years in different creative and business sectors whilst also having a professional background in theatre, television and film. Rea trained as an actor at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts and has enjoyed working in front of the camera and now wants to transition further towards working in production. We are excited to bring Rea on the team to help us develop our slate and bring our projects to life.
TOM
TUCKER
Production consultant
Tom Tucker is a UK-based writer/producer with extensive credits in Film, Theatre and Television. Tom began his career in the US rising up the ranks of the independent feature film world in New York and Los Angeles. He has been behind the curtain, working for highly-respected indie filmmakers such as Tamara Jenkins and Neil Burger, as well as for cinema legends like Robert Redford and Stan Winston. He has worked for Fox Searchlight, Killer Films, Dimensions Films, The Walt Disney Company, Paramount, Lakeshore, Nickelodeon and CBBC.
Moving to England in the mid-2000s, Tom spent several years producing musical theatre and cabaret in London and Brighton including live shows with Joe Black, Mr. B. and Pete Bennett among others. He is a prolific London fringe producer. Tom has written two stage musicals with composer Laurence Jepson: Santaphrenia which premiered in the West End in 2013 at the Leicester Square Theatre to excellent reviews, and Babyface scheduled for its debut run in 2023. Tom is a founder of the Shakespeare troupe Permanently Bard which has toured the UK extensively.
Since 2020, Tom has refocussed on screen works. He has written and is developing two live action feature film screenplays: The Resurrection Murders, and Angle of Reflection; and a six-part series John Law. He is Co-Creator of animated kids’ IPs The Ta-Dahs, Lucky Penny, and Fizz-Pup & Lazlow. In the past two years, Tom has worked closely behind the scenes with UK directors Peter Strickland, Ben Cookson and Keith Farrell on their recent feature film productions, and continues to develop and promote unique voices for stage and screen.
He lives in the Peak District with his wife and two young children.
Ted
Mitchell
Associate Producer
Ted is currently a successful and experienced freelancer 1st Assistant Director, writer and producer. Ted’s introduction into the Arts was acting in a succession of plays in the late 80’s, namely Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet; Shelagh Delaney’s A Taste of Honey which ran at the Edinburgh Fringe, as well as Edward Albee’s The Death of Bessie Smith. Prior to film and TV crewing he was a professional hairdresser from the Award winning Irvine Rusk Hair Salon’s and then was employed as Creative Director with White Rabbit Cowboys Theatre Group in Edinburgh, as well as being a resident DJ in Glasgow longest running nightclub The Tunnel. His crewing career started with Andrew MacDonald’s short Dr Reitzers Fragment (producer of Shallow Grave, Trainspotting) and that experience transitioned into many years as a 1st AD in TV, shorts and features and led onto producing too.
Ted was employed as a mentor, hosting various workshops for the Scottish Screen New Entrants Program assisting Kay Sheridan the coordinator in educating the students on their first steps in the world of film and Television. Other mentoring work shops include Pan African Arts and Mentoring in a thinking Environment through The Glasgow Film and Video Workshop (GFVW) and 2nd Light in their new positive action-training scheme for young Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) 18-23 year old filmmakers.
Ted’s first job as a script writer was in 2012 for The Scottish Government and the Fiscals office in Scotland, who commissioned The Learning Centre, a company who make educational videos and develop film making with young adults in secondary schools. This inspired Ted to apply for the and successfully be awarded the MA TV Fiction Writing Course at Caledonian University in Glasgow in 2012, in which Anne Marie di Mambro and Chris Dolan, two of Scotland’s leading and well respected script writers, were his principle lecturers. Ted is continuing to develop several scripted and unscripted projects with national production companies, including work nova Mundi. He was recently working on the BBC Scotland Soap ‘River City’.
Hollie
Myers
Trainee Production Assistant
Nova Mundi Studios are proud to invite Hollie Myers to the team. Hollie is an aspiring actress with a real passion to develop her knowledge of TV and Film. Trained at The DJW School of Acting, including Masterclasses and recently received a mentoring scholarship for her achievements. Represented by DJW Talent, Hollie has plans to pursue a career in acting but also has a passion for creating content in all areas of the creative industries. Hollie worked on the Twenty Seven Productions show 'Steel & Iron' working closely with Adam Morley, who directed the World Premiere of 'Billionaire Boy' by David Walliams. Hollie has been shadowing Daniel-John for a while now, so has picked up all of his bad habits, like talking.
NORMAN
WILLIAMS
STUDIO DOG
Norman is trained to sit, give his paw and roll over. Norman is extremely loveable and loves meaty treats. Norman is very confident when barking out his ideas and is able to communicate well, what’s on his mind... Well, at least we think we know what he is talking about.
