For Lazuri Film founder Cumali Varer, everything flows back to the sea.
Once a political prisoner and later a self-made seafarer, the Turkish-born Varer arrived in France as an exile in the late 1980s. Splitting his time between Paris, Istanbul and Cannes, he transformed the passions first sparked while fishing on the Black Sea into a life that carried him from sailor to one of the Mediterranean’s leading organizers of international regattas, and ultimately to producer, making a splash at Mipcom with “Korsan,” a nautical adventure series inspired as much by history as by the saltwater coursing through his own story.
“I’ve spent my life on the sea, sailing and learning its rhythms,” Varer says. “Now I want to bring that world to the screen, telling stories that are universal but rooted in the region’s culture, courage, and beauty.”
Before founding Lazuri Film, Varer built cultural bridges through sailing, organizing international races across Spain, France, England, Turkey, Greece, and Italy. He honed his craft producing French-language documentaries for Turkish television, capturing Mediterranean life and sport along the way.
At the same time, a chance encounter at a Paris embassy inspired a personal passion project: the story of Spain’s Jewish exiles, intercepted by Ottoman corsairs and given refuge in 15th-century Istanbul — a tale Varer has pursued with unwavering determination ever since.
“This is a story of humanity and solidarity in a time of religious conflict and upheaval,” Varer says. “It speaks to enduring values of tolerance and cooperation, themes as urgent today as they were in the Mediterranean of the 15th century.”
Varer first developed the idea independently before teaming with renowned French screenwriter and Luis Buñuel collaborator Jean-Claude Carrière. After Carrière’s passing in 2021, and navigating the shifting post-pandemic landscape, Varer reimagined the project as a series, enlisting “Barbarians” creator Andreas Heckmann.
Under Heckmann’s lead, the script was transformed into a more action-driven, episodic story, weaving a central love triangle into a dynamic television drama. Acclaimed director Paul Wilmshurst, known for “The Last Kingdom” and “The Day of the Jackal,” has also come onboard.
In 2022, Varer formally launched Lazuri Film to helm “Korsan.” He brought on ITV Studios veteran François Florentiny as strategic advisor, helping navigate distributor relations, shape marketing strategy, and assemble the production team, drawing on his extensive network across French audiovisual circles.
The project is now ready to set sail. In advanced development and approaching pre-production, the script is complete, key crew members are on board, and Spanish locations have been scouted. Written in English, the series aims to cast top-tier actors in lead roles. Primarily a French production, it could expand into a French-Spanish co-production, with extensive filming in Granada and Cádiz and potential partners already in talks.
The six-episode series carries a budget of $24 to $25 million, with net financing of $16 million-$17 million after rebates. A pre-sale deal with a major international distributor is in its final stages and expected to launch immediate pre-production, with filming planned in Spain in late summer 2026.
Further on the horizon, Lazuri Film is developing “Groundtruth,” a high-stakes thriller exploring espionage, AI ethics, and global power struggles. Still in early development, the series is guided by Varer’s artistic vision, though his main focus remains on “Korsan.”
“Telling this story today is about choice,” Varer says. “We can either fuel hatred or embrace coexistence. We live in a world full of fear, division and so-called clashes of civilizations. I have experienced exile and hardship, but this is not my personal story. It is universal; we all carry a past, a culture, a philosophy, and from that, a vision can emerge.”
Varer also draws on his own experience to explain his approach to producing. “Organizing a regatta and producing a series follow the same principles,” he says. “You need passion, courage, preparation and the ability to bring people together around a vision. The skills I learned running international events — diplomacy, public relations, building cultural connections — now help me manage large-scale productions. It is about taking skills trained in one area and applying them in another.”