Courtesy of Box to Box Films
Box to Box Films
James Gay-Rees (co-founder)
Paul Martin (co-founder)
London-based Box to Box Films captured the industry’s full attention with the hit Netflix series “Formula 1: Drive to Survive.” It debuted in 2019, released its fifth season earlier this year and has been credited with lifting Formula One to unprecedented levels of popularity in the United States, where the race series had long struggled to find a foothold. And its success has been a massive catalyst for other properties interested in the same treatment.
Box to Box has itself since produced the definitive follow documentary series for a litany of other sports, including three on Netflix: tennis (“Break Point”), golf (“Full Swing”), and cycling (“Tour de France: Unchained”). Its Apple TV+ surfing docuseries, “Make or Break,” debuted its second season earlier this year.
Co-founder Paul Martin said the company is now up to some 40 full-time staffers. Most of them are in the U.K., but Box to Box has been quickly expanding its operations in Los Angeles, where Martin is now based. And the team has never been busier.
Box to Box is working on a Lewis Hamilton doc for Apple TV+ and upcoming Netflix docuseries on rugby and sprinting. It had crews capturing footage for the latter at this year’s World Athletics Championships in Budapest, and Martin sees an opportunity for unscripted storytelling to once again deliver new fans to a sport that’s waned in popularity.
“If you care about sprinting, you know who the Fred Kerleys are, or Shericka Jackson and people like that. But they’re just not big household names anymore,” said Martin. “I feel like that’s a shame, because it’s almost the purest form of sport: Eight people stand on a line, and whoever gets to that other line first wins. It was that starting point of wow, we could go back into that world, bring those narratives out and make people fall in love with sprinting and athletics again.” — Chris Smith
