Charlotte Toledano-Detail, the former Media One producer behind Prime Video’s streaming hit Escort Boys, is launching an independent banner, Alix Films, with an ambitious plan built around breakout French digital creator Geronimo.
The company, based in Paris and the South of France, has entered into an exclusive partnership with Geronimo, whose viral series “The Book Club” has generated more than 35 million views and reaches 450 million people across platforms. Alyx Films and Geronimo are working together to co-produce his first short and feature films, while also developing a hybrid talk show for SVOD platforms.
This partnership reflects Toledano Detaille’s broader ambitions for Alyx Films to build premium fiction, international formats, and projects that combine traditional and digital culture.
Toledano Detaille has over 20 years of experience in the French and international television business, having held senior positions at Endemol, Banijay, Newen, Studio TF1, Lagardère Studios, and was an associate producer on Netflix France’s first original documentary series, Grégory. In 2021, she co-founded Story Nation within Mediawan, producing both fiction and documentary projects. Alongside “Escort Boys,” she brought the American format “Hot Ones” to France, where it aired for four seasons on Canal+ and YouTube. After years working for France’s largest media companies, she said starting her own independent company felt like a natural next step because it would allow her to “own and control the IP of the shows[that I produce].”
“The industry is changing very rapidly, and I believe independent organizations are better able to adapt to new formats, new talent, and new ways of producing,” she told Variety. “Freedom, agility and relationships are key to working with a new generation of creatives and talented people, and I believe this is exactly what you get when you go independent.”
As for her desire to work with creators, she says she is inspired by their “freedom and boldness” and “strong connection with their audience.” “They understand their audience in real time in a way that traditional systems don’t. They test, fail, adjust, and succeed much faster than in film and television.” He added that digital creators are especially savvy and often know how to “produce, write, star, direct, and edit themselves.”
To Toledano-Deterre, Geronimo stood out not only because of his online influence, but because he was “already thinking like a filmmaker, not just a content creator.”
“Coming from the development side and the international format business, I’ve always tried to find high concepts or what I call IP that have international potential, and that’s exactly what I felt when I discovered Geronimo’s work,” she says.
Detaille argues that the next wave of premium storytelling could come from a combination of online native creators and experienced film and TV writers, producers, and executives. She points to the growing number of digital creators making the leap to feature films, citing the low-budget horror blockbuster “Obsession,” which was written and directed by a YouTube creator, and the French phenomenon “Kaizen,” by YouTube creator Inoxtag, which played successfully in local theaters.
“This shows that online creators are poised to succeed in long-form storytelling and that investors and commissioners should be paying attention to them now more than ever,” she says.
Alyx Films is also developing scripted and unscripted international IP adaptations, including talks to adapt another Israeli series for the French market, based on its experience with Toledano Detaille’s Escort Boys. The Prime Video series, written and directed by Ruben Alves, ran for two seasons and became one of the hottest French streaming comedies in recent years.
