FremantleMedia Enterprises likes making TV shows with John Brunton so much it wants to pool development resources and start making programming from the get-go with his Insight Production Company.

‘In terms of John’s production ability, we think the world of him and his [Insight] team,’ David Ellender, FremantleMedia CEO, tells Playback Daily.

As part of a new agreement with Toronto-based Insight, Fremantle will continue to sell Brunton’s shows into the world market, starting with The Jon Dore Show at MIPCOM.

On the flip side, Insight will keep its first option on new FremantleMedia formats for the Canadian market, which it will produce.

At the same time, Insight and FremantleMedia will jointly develop, fund and launch scripted and unscripted projects together with other Canadian producers and broadcast partners around the world.

‘Our relationship has been successful. Now we want to take it to the next level,’ Brunton explains.

‘In addition to putting together the financial pool to finance new projects, we’re also putting a huge effort behind international co-ventures with producers all around the world — the U.S., Britain, France, Germany, Australia,’ he adds.

The first project due from the ramped-up Insight/FremantleMedia partnership is an updated Ripley’s Believe It or Not TV show to be unwrapped at MIPCOM next week.

Insight and FremantleMedia will work with Ripley Entertainment, which is owned by Vancouver’s Jim Pattison Group. The William Morris Agency will shop the new series in the U.S. market, and FremantleMedia is expected to sell the new series elsewhere worldwide.

While Brunton will be free to produce with other global partners, his relationship with FremantleMedia is only getting deeper.

His first collaboration was Canadian Idol, which he started producing for CTV six years ago, under a licence from FremantleMedia.

The two parties signed a reciprocal first-look agreement in 2006. That was followed by Brunton producing a Canadian version of the Miramax/The Weinstein Company series Project Runway for Slice, and FremantleMedia selling Falcon Beach, coproduced with Winnipeg’s Original Pictures, into over 100 markets internationally.

But while Insight has been busy creatively, Ellender insists Brunton is challenged to come up with financial models for his expanding programming slate.

‘Clearly there are other series like Flashpoint — produced in Canada for CBS [and CTV] — and other Canadian shows that have a U.S. or international partner,’ he said of the North American and international ambitions that Insight and FremantleMedia share.

Without being specific, Brunton said he’s dangling a trio of dramas before Canadian broadcasters, each to receive development financing from the new Insight/FremantleMedia joint venture if they get a network green light to go to pilot.

Insight is also developing a scripted miniseries about Greenpeace. The environmental group got its start in Vancouver before it became an international phenomenon.

The tie-up between Insight and FremantleMedia also follows an industry trend. BBC Worldwide took a minority position in rival producer Temple Street Productions to secure a Canadian home for its TV formats. In return, BBC Worldwide gained access to Temple Street’s original series and formats for international distribution.

In response, Entertainment One last July acquired TV producers Blueprint Entertainment and Barna-Alper Productions and Toronto-based distrib Oasis International to provide smaller Canadian TV producers with homegrown financing and distribution alternative to international players such as FremantleMedia and BBC Worldwide.