Al Munteanu’s BriskPace Studios has installed its senior leadership team, naming André Druskeit as Chief Financial Officer, Rob Van Norden as Head of Production and Michael Bütow as Head of German Originals.

All three executives will be based in Germany and report to Munteanu, the company’s founder and CEO. The appointments give the film and television production company dedicated leadership across finance, physical production and German-language development.

BriskPace’s main slate will focus on English-language features and series produced in Europe for the U.S. and international markets. Munteanu and Van Norden are in Los Angeles this week for the American Film Market, where they are meeting with buyers and potential partners.

The leadership announcement follows a series of developments for the company. Two weeks earlier, BriskPace unveiled its first television project, The Light and Hard Times of Lucky Briscoe. It has also acquired the unscripted format The Greatest Duo for Germany.

“We are building a studio for how audiences watch now: we originate the IP, we finance and produce it, we keep it, and we take it to every screen it belongs on,” Munteanu said.

He described the three executives as bringing experience from distinct parts of the business: “the bank, the set and the broadcaster.” Munteanu added that BriskPace had spent a year building quietly and was now ready to become more visible.

Finance, production and German originals

Druskeit joined BriskPace in 2025 after working at DZ Bank AG, where he had served as Head of Media and Entertainment Banking from 2021. Before that, he spent 15 years at Munich distributor and producer Telepool, first as Deputy Managing Director and CFO and later as Managing Director.

During his Telepool tenure, Druskeit co-led the company’s 2018 sale to Swiss and U.S. investors. He had previously spent a decade working in structured and media finance at HypoVereinsbank.

Druskeit said his experience evaluating film financing showed him that producers were often left with too little to support their next project after a movie was completed and its bank financing repaid. He said BriskPace’s approach combines retaining rights, applying lender-style financial discipline and seeking multiple revenue opportunities for each project.

“I wanted to build that from the inside, not watch it from across the table,” Druskeit said.

Van Norden, meanwhile, has overseen physical production for BriskPace since 2025. From 2018 to 2023, he was Head of Production at Millennium Media in Los Angeles, where his slate included Expend4bles, Rambo: Last Blood, The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard and Angel Has Fallen.

His producer credits include The Beast, Deep Water, The Bricklayer, Dirty Angels, The Protégé, Hellboy: The Crooked Man, Jolt and Blackbird. Before joining Millennium, he spent more than a decade working as a producer and line producer.

Van Norden said his role is to deliver the quality emphasized by Munteanu while keeping costs at the appropriate level. He also pointed to Europe’s incentives, experienced crews and locations as advantages for making theatrical projects.

“After twenty years making other people’s slates work, I wanted to build one from scratch, in a place where we can succeed creatively and financially,” he said.

Munich-based Bütow arrives with nearly 15 years of experience in Central and Eastern Europe. He served as Head of Fiction for RTL Group and later CME, launching more than 25 scripted series during that period.

Bütow was previously Senior Vice President International Production at ProSiebenSat.1. He also worked as a managing director and executive producer at German production companies including Odeon Film and Studio Babelsberg, after beginning in fiction commissioning at RTL II and ProSieben.

In his new position, Bütow intends to pair locally focused storytelling with broader ambitions. He said German originals are rarely developed for international reach while their rights remain at home, adding that he joined BriskPace to demonstrate that both goals can be achieved.

BriskPace expands beyond its main slate

Alongside the studio’s principal film and television operation, BriskPace Unlimited will work on AI-native productions, micro-dramas and creator-led formats.

Unlimited holds a minority stake in AiMation. It is also a seed investor, alongside Groupe M6, in Sweetz, a French micro-drama app from AI studio Nation and app publisher Kovalee.

The division has additionally invested in Snips, an Israel-based platform that converts full-length film and television content into vertical micro-episodes. Snips launched in August with catalogue deals from Banijay Rights and BIG Media.

ShowBiz Take

BriskPace’s leadership choices directly reflect the operating model Munteanu is pitching. Druskeit brings banking and media-finance experience, Van Norden adds oversight of large production slates, and Bütow contributes commissioning, production and scripted-series expertise across Germany and Central and Eastern Europe.

That combination matters because the company is not presenting itself solely as a producer. Its stated plan is to originate intellectual property, finance and make projects, retain the rights and pursue multiple screens and revenue paths. At the same time, BriskPace Unlimited gives the wider business a route into AI-native work, short-form drama and creator-led formats while the main studio builds its film and television slate.

What Happens Next?

The immediate focus is on the market: Munteanu and Van Norden are meeting buyers and prospective partners in Los Angeles during the American Film Market. With its leadership team now identified, BriskPace is moving forward with its English-language international slate, German originals and the newer formats being developed through BriskPace Unlimited.