‘Wagatha’ Producer Reels In Buzzy Projects
U.k.-based Lorton Entertainment launched by providing financial backing for documentaries including “Diego Maradona,” about the Argentine soccer star, and an untitled one about tennis greatturned-convict Boris Becker. But its latest docuseries project for Disney+, tentatively titled “Wagatha Christie,” drew gasps when it was unveiled at the Edinburgh TV festival in August. Snagging the exclusive rights to the tabloid drama surrounding Coleen Rooney, wife of soccer star Wayne Rooney, cemented Lorton as one of the hottest unscripted producers around.
In 2019, Rooney set up an elaborate social media sting to catch the person she believed was leaking information to the U.K. press about her, eventually naming fellow WAG (the collective noun for athletes’ wives and girlfriends) Rebekah Vardy. Vardy sued her for libel but lost the case in late July and must pay 90% of Rooney’s legal fees.
Lorton founder and CEO Julian Bird acknowledged that, “like everyone,” he was fascinated with the Wagatha story. He also benefited from an existing relationship with Coleen Rooney and her husband, having recently produced another documentary about Wayne’s playing days for Amazon Prime Video. In “Rooney,”the couple address their occasionally toe-curling marital woes.
After success financing films, the obvious next step for Lorton was to move into producing and co-producing. As well as “Wagatha Christie,” the company is working on a James Blunt project billed as “Spinal Tap”-inspired; as well as “Horsepower,” a nonfiction series in which a top jockey flunks a drug test.
“We were very much a finance business at first,” Bird, a former banker, says of Lorton’s evolution. “We’re just looking for interesting stories of interesting people or interesting institutions or whatever that may be.”