Deadline Hollywood - Special Issue: MIPCOM - 10/17/22

DIEGO

LONDONO on crafting Disney+ for Euro audiences

How UKRAINE’S

TV & FILM industries are fighting to stay on the map Why INTERNATIONAL TALENT is hot property for U.S. streamers

NEW HORIZONS

From Attack the Block to TheWomanKing, JOHN BOYEGA reflects on his work, talks next steps & TV ambitions

THE HOT ONES Buzzy shows up for grabs at Mipcom this year

SCENE SETTERS

How Israel, Spain, PSBs & Warner Bros. Discovery are affecting the global market

EDITORS’ LETTER

WELCOME TO THE FIRST EVER DEADLINE INTERNATIONAL MIPCOM EDITION

It’s been quite the labor of love, but it comes in the nick of time as the tectonic plates that guide the global TV industry shift at a rate of knots.

As we pondered how best to cover the market and hit the Croisette with a bang, we realized that one thing is for sure: everything is changing.

Our debut issue reflects a world in which the deep-pocketed U.S. streamers have had their say locally and are now setting their sights on global domination. That string of launches over the past year has put pressure on Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, two offerings that now feel like they’ve been around forever.

We sat down with one of the execs leading this charge, Disney+ EMEA’s Diego Londono, for our feature industry interview, and he spoke about the wild ride of setting up the growing streamer outside of the U.S. over the past two-and-a-half years during Covid and beyond, along with teasing what might come next.

It’s been a year dominated by talk of the popularity of non-English language content, following the success of the likes of Netflix mega breakout Squid Game, and now we’re seeing streamers and studios looking to local markets to strike new talent deals and find the next global hit. We cover how the big players are approaching the world beyond U.S. borders.

Meanwhile, with so many streamers

commissioning big-budget content— and as the walls that separate TV and film continue to break down—execs and fans alike could be seeing a bit more of our cover star, John Boyega, who spoke to Baz Bamigboye about his career and plans for the small screen. You won’t want to miss it.

But it isn’t only the streaming services dominating the conversation. A look through our fantastic debut collection of Deadline’s The Hot Ones tells us that the mighty public broadcasters are still coming up with some of the globe’s best content, and keen eyes will be trained on where some of these shows head after they’re launched into the market.

That said, public broadcasting is in peril in some nations, and our Scene Setters set out the state of play for the likes of the BBC, European streaming, the Warner Bros./Discovery megamerger and local production ecologies in Israel and Spain.

All of this adds up to an overarching inspection of the shifting international ground; developments that matter so much to the buyers and sellers who will be out in force in Cannes at the first fully attended Mipcom since 2019.

We’re hoping this one lives long in the memory. Read on.

MAX GOLDBART & JESSE WHITTOCK

TV

ON THE COVER

John Boyega photographed exclusively for Deadline by Chris Chapman

Deadline

PRESIDENT Stacey Farish

EXECUTIVE

Joe Utichi

Craig Edwards

SENIOR

Antonia Blyth

TELEVISION

Lynette Rice

FILM EDITOR

Damon Wise

DOCUMENTARY EDITOR

Matthew Carey

CRAFTS EDITOR

Ryan Fleming

PRODUCTION EDITOR

David Morgan

EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Destiny Jackson

DIRECTOR, SOCIAL MEDIA Scott Shilstone

DIRECTOR, EVENTS

CO-EDITORS-IN-CHIEF

Nellie Andreeva (Television)

Mike Fleming Jr. (Film)

AWARDS COLUMNIST & CHIEF FILM CRITIC Pete Hammond

COLUMNIST & INTERNATIONAL EDITOR-AT-LARGE

Baz Bamigboye

EXECUTIVE MANAGING EDITOR Patrick Hipes

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR & BOX OFFICE EDITOR

Anthony D’Alessandro

SENIOR EDITOR, LEGAL & TV CRITIC Dominic Patten

SENIOR MANAGING EDITOR Denise Petski

MANAGING EDITOR Erik Pedersen

DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR Tom Tapp

TELEVISION EDITOR Peter White

INTERNATIONAL EDITOR Andreas Wiseman

BUSINESS EDITOR Dade Hayes

MARKETING

EDITOR-AT-LARGE Peter Bart

FILM CRITIC & COLUMNIST Todd McCarthy

EXECUTIVE EDITOR Michael Cieply

SENIOR FILM WRITER Justin Kroll

CO-BUSINESS EDITOR Jill Goldsmith

LABOR EDITOR David Robb

POLITICAL EDITOR Ted Johnson

INTERNATIONAL TELEVISION EDITOR Max Goldbart

INTERNATIONAL FEATURES EDITOR Diana Lodderhose

INTERNATIONAL BOX OFFICE EDITOR & SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR Nancy Tartaglione

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, GLOBAL BUSINESS

INTERNATIONAL TELEVISION CO-EDITOR Jesse Whittock

ASSOCIATE EDITOR & FILM WRITER Valerie Complex

ASSOCIATE EDITORS Greg Evans Bruce Haring

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, ASIA Liz Shackleton

SENIOR TELEVISION REPORTER Rosy Cordero

FILM REPORTER Matt Grobar

SENIOR INTERNATIONAL FILM CORRESPONDENT Melanie Goodfellow

INTERNATIONAL FILM REPORTER Zac Ntim

DEADLINE.COM

Breaking News

Follow Deadline.com 24/7 for the latest breaking news in entertainment.

Sign up for Alerts & Newsletters

Sign up for breaking news alerts and other Deadline newsletters at: deadline.com/newsletters

VIDEO SERIES

The Actor’s Side

Meet some of the biggest and hardest working actors of today, who discuss their passion for their work in film and television. deadline.com/vcategory/ the-actors-side/

Behind the Lens

Explore the art and craft of directors from first-timers to veterans, and take a unique look into the world of filmmakers and their films. deadline.com/vcategory/ behind-the-lens/

The Film That Lit My Fuse

Get an insight into the creative ambitions, formative influences, and inspirations that fuelled today’s greatest screen artists. deadline.com/vcategory/ the-film-that-lit-my-fuse/

PODCASTS

Scene 2 Seen Valerie Complex offers a platform for up-and-comers and established voices. deadline.com/tag/ scene-2-seen-podcast/

Crew Call

Anthony D’Alessandro focuses on the contenders in the below-the-line categories. deadline.com/tag/ crew-call-podcast/

SOCIAL MEDIA

Follow Deadline Facebook.com/Deadline Instagram.com/Deadline Twitter.com/Deadline YouTube.com/Deadline

CHAIRMAN & CEO Jay Penske

VICE CHAIRMAN Gerry Byrne

CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER George Grobar

CHIEF ACCOUNTING OFFICER Sarlina See

CHIEF DIGITAL OFFICER Craig Perreault

EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, BUSINESS AFFAIRS & CHIEF LEGAL OFFICER Todd Greene

EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, OPERATIONS & FINANCE Paul Rainey

EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, OPERATIONS & FINANCE Tom Finn

EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, PRODUCT & ENGINEERING Jenny Connelly

MANAGING DIRECTOR, INTERNATIONAL MARKETS Debashish Ghosh

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, DEPUTY GENERAL COUNSEL Judith R. Margolin

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, FINANCE Ken DelAlcazar

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, HUMAN RESOURCES Lauren Utecht

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Marissa O’Hare

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, CREATIVE Nelson Anderson

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, LICENSING & BRAND DEVELOPMENT Rachel Terrace

VICE PRESIDENT & ASSOCIATE GENERAL COUNSEL Adrian White

VICE PRESIDENT, HUMAN RESOURCES Anne Doyle

VICE PRESIDENT, REVENUE OPERATIONS Brian Levine

VICE PRESIDENT, PUBLIC AFFAIRS & STRATEGY Brooke Jaffe

VICE PRESIDENT, SEO Constance Ejuma

VICE PRESIDENT & ASSOCIATE GENERAL COUNSEL Dan Feinberg

VICE PRESIDENT, AUDIENCE MARKETING & SPECIAL PROJECTS Ellen Deally

VICE PRESIDENT, GLOBAL TAX Frank McCallick

VICE PRESIDENT, TECHNOLOGY Gabriel Koen

VICE PRESIDENT, E-COMMERCE Jamie Miles

VICE PRESIDENT, ACQUISITIONS & OPERATIONS Jerry Ruiz

VICE PRESIDENT, PRODUCTION OPERATIONS Joni Antonacci

VICE PRESIDENT, FINANCE Karen Reed

HEAD OF TALENT Marquetta Moore

VICE PRESIDENT, STRATEGIC PLANNING & ACQUISITIONS Mike Ye

VICE PRESIDENT, PRODUCT DELIVERY Nici Catton

VICE PRESIDENT, CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE & MARKETING OPERATIONS Noemi Lazo

VICE PRESIDENT, MARKETING & PORTFOLIO SALES Stephanie Parker

VICE PRESIDENT, ASSOCIATE GENERAL COUNSEL Victor Hendrickson

CALL SHEET

First Take

8 SCENE SETTERS: Deadline takes a close look at hot button topics affecting the global television space - Israel in Focus - Spain’s Production Boom - PSBs on the Brink - Warner Bros. Discovery

16 DIEGO LONDONO: The Disney+ exec talks local ambitions for the streamer

18 AMERICA LOOKS ABROAD: Why U.S. giants have their sights set on global talent

22 FIGHTING FOR SURVIVAL: How the local industry in Ukraine is adapting in the face of war

24 INDIAN TAKEAWAYS: How companies are boosting the drama boon in the sub-continent

Cover Story

26 JOHN BOYEGA: More than a decade on from Attack the Block, the Star Wars star opens up about his career and ambitions moving forward on screens big and small

The Hot Ones

36 Deadline profiles some of the buzziest titles up for sale at this year’s Mipcom

PHOTO

ISRAEL IN FOCUS

By Max Goldbart

Israel’s position as a global creative force has been quietly cementing across the last decade, but a new tax credit and ongoing government strife is bringing intense focus from the TV and film indus tries onto the Middle Eastern nation.

The country that brought the likes of Fauda , Shtisel and the original Euphoria to the world is very much open for business, according to a government that recently rubberstamped a $13 million tax rebate in June aimed at incoming film and TV pro ductions before collapsing in the same week. The initiative was restated by the new regime in August this year.

An election has been set for Novem ber, the country’s fifth in four years, but meanwhile work has begun and at least 30 productions have applied to make use of the landmark rebate.

The rebate is in effect for two years, is set to offer up to 30% of the budget for films and TV shows looking to shoot in the country with a cap of $4.8 million (16.6 million shekels).

This sees Israel join a long list of nations to offer such incentives after previous measures failed to get off the ground in the country, in part due to a lack of interest fuelled by political difficulties in the region.

Since the incentive opened for submissions, more than 250 Israeli filmmakers, including Oscar nominees Ari Folman, Guy Davidi and Oren Moverman, signed an open letter saying they refused to take part in or seek funding from the separate Shomron Film Fund, which they all accused of fuelling “a politics aimed at erasing the green line and the dis tinction between military and civilian regimes, normalizing the [Palestin ian] settlements.”

It’s perhaps no surprise that Israel has been on somewhat of a U.S. charm offensive. Last month, Netflix supported the Scripted Israel event in LA, which saw a slew of U.S. execs meet with 17 prominent Israeli pro ducers, including Our Boys production outfit MoviePlus Productions, and Dori Media, which produced Apple TV+’s Losing Alice

On the formats side, all eyes at Mipcom will be on Avi Armoza’s Armoza Formats and ITV Studios’ new relationship, which saw the former become the latter’s production arm in Israel earlier this year, producing a new sea son of Come Dine With Me for public broadcaster Kan 11.

ITV Studios acquired Armoza in 2019 and buyers will undoubtedly be looking for other projects to emerge from the relationship as Israel looks to build the next generation of formats.

“Some big legacy brands have been exhausted and there is a real need for new shows,” one senior Israeli exec told Deadline.

Additionally, production-distribution powerhouse Keshet will also be out in force at Cannes. The bustling company is taking advantage of the next wave of streamer wars by making shows for the likes of Apple TV+ and Peacock, along with launching its own platform, Free TV, which brings together streaming and fibre-based internet services.

Highly respected Keshet International CEO Alon Shtruzman is on his way out after a decade and his successor will take advantage of an opera tion in rude health. ★

Top: A scene from Fauda ; below: Losing Alice

SPAIN’S PRODUCTION BOOM

By Jesse Whittock

Spain is in the midst of a production boom that has transformed the country into a powerhouse of global television. New producers continue to pop up as streamers bed in. Netflix earmarked Madrid as its first Euro pean hub and has doubled down on its commitment to Spanish content. This has, in turn, seen broadcasters up their games to compete, with pro duction spend hitting unprecedented levels.

Several incentive schemes add to the allure as well, with the national tax rebate rate sitting at 30% of the first $1.1 milllion of spend on an inter national shoot and 25% for further expenditure. The cap sits at $11 mil lion. Incentives are available for filming in Madrid, while generous schemes exist in the Canary Islands and the province of Navarre.

“It’s a very competitive moment, but very exciting and wonderful too,” says Laura Fernández Espeso, CEO of The Mediapro Studios, the com pany behind HBO Max’s Spanish drama The Head

According to the Spanish producers’ association Profilm, overseas production was worth €263 million ($259 million) in 2021, double the prepandemic average. Pair this with the government’s wider AVS Hub plan, announced in March, which will see $1.6 billion invested in Spain’s enter tainment sector, and you can see why Netflix upped their investment in the region, and why Amazon and Disney+ are targeting Spain. Even HBO

Max, which has stopped commissioning in most of Europe, has commit ted to the territory.

“It’s a historical fact that we’ve always dreamed of having an industry like the U.S., a place where the creative community is able to do what it loves, and now we do,” says La Unidad co-creator and showrunner Dani de la Torre. “These days, everybody is working, and working on surprising and ambitious projects. We feel we can produce work that can compete bril liantly with U.S. and Latin American fiction.”

While Money Heist ( La Casa de Papel ) has been the poster child for high-end Spanish drama, Head of Movistar+ Internacional María Valenzu ela, whose unit opened earlier this year to sell Spanish titles globally, says there are many examples of shows that “demonstrate the production levels here, and how internationally attractive they are.”

Notable upcoming streaming titles include Disney+’s biopic drama Balenciaga , Prime Video’s Spanish noir Reina Roja and Netflix’s psycho logical thriller El Silencio

Ignacio Corrales, CEO of La Unidad producer Buendía Estudios, says Spain’s moment in the sun has been a long time coming.

“Of course, streamers have contributed to the explosion in the demand for content, but without the existing professionalisation and maturity of the sector in Spain, this boom in talent would not have been possible, nor would we as an industry have been able to meet this demand.” ★

Clockwise from left: Laura Fernández Espeso, CEO The Mediapro Studios; Money Heist ; Reina Roja star Vicky Luengo.

PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTERS ON THE BRINK

By Max Goldbart

When buyers and commissioners from Europe’s major public service broadcasters (PSBs) descend on Cannes this week, they will do so with some trepidation.

PSBs are the bedrock of TV in the continent and make up a sector that the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) says is worth more than $33 bil lion (€35 billion) but the future of many of Europe’s major broadcasters are under threat from existential forces.

European PSBs have a long and prized history. When countries get them right, they can have huge value and can produce programming one sim ply would not get on a commercial platform, especially in today’s ubercompetitive commercial TV world. As they do not prioritize profit above all else, pubcasters have the opportunity to commission shows in genres that are less commercially viable, such as arts, specialist factual or children’s content, as well as gifting opportunities to creatives and producers who otherwise might struggle to get their projects off the ground.

With the competition fierce, PSBs have spent the past few years finding ways in which to navigate the super-inflation caused by the entrance of the streamers by forging alliances and relying on relationships with tradi tional producers.

All the while, governments have been showing a propensity to be less amenable towards public broadcasters than ever before. In the UK, for example, where the BBC is valued the world over, times are tougher than ever. The country’s Conservative Party has been no friend to the national broadcaster, having frozen the annual license fee for two years. This has

placed the corporation under “significant financial pressure,” according to Director General Tim Davie, who is set to appear at Mipcom alongside BBC Studios CEO Tom Fussell off of the back of a record year for the commer cial subsidiary.

The BBC is now faced with a potentially harrowing 24 months where it will become even more reliant on co-production funding and, at the same time, it has to navigate a review into the future of the license fee from 2027.

Former culture secretary Nadine Dorries, who resigned last month, is notoriously an arch-BBC sceptic but she has been replaced by Michelle Donelan, who has previously said the license fee is an “unfair tax that should be scrapped.”

Meanwhile, the irreverent Channel 4, is on the verge of being sold and a change in UK government appears to have done little to stem this tide. The vast majority of the British public and entirety of the UK TV sector believe this to be a bad decision that will heavily disrupt the ecosystem.

In France, things are a step further down the road on their license fee, with legislation recently introduced that will scrap the annual fee and instead see public broadcasters funded by VAT revenues.

There is real nervousness that this move will threaten broadcasting independence and leave itself open to being axed if a government that is more antagonistic to PSBs were to take charge in 2026.

European Broadcasting Union Director General Noel Curran told Dead line changes in these major nations will have “big implications elsewhere.”

While there are green shoots, like in Ireland, where the government decided to reinstate the license fee, these once thriving broadcasters are going to be in peril if there is no serious financial or government aid in the very near future.

★

WARNER BROS.

Tim Davie, Director General of the BBC.

WARNER BROS. DISCOVERY

By Jesse Whittock

With more players having entered the global streaming market, the competition for content and subscribers has never been fiercer. Netflix, which has historically been the dominant player in this space, was at the sharp end of this change when its disappointing first quarter earnings earlier this year saw it lose subscribers for the first time in more than a decade.

One of the biggest questions for distributors and pro ducers is what will be next for Warner Bros. Discovery now that the Discovery and WarnerMedia mega-merger is complete?

The company shocked many industry players in Europe when it announced it would stop making original HBO Max shows on the continent, with wider cost savings and layoffs continuing as the U.S.-based giant moves away from a streaming-first model.

It’s a deeply uncertain time for streaming in general, as Netflix’s subscriber losses earlier in the year forced every one to question the economics behind these platforms and their insatiable hunt for new content. HBO Max will soon be no more as a standalone service—it is due to merge with Discovery+ in 2024—and content creators and sellers are wondering if further changes are on the horizon at the company.

After the plan to kill off original program development in the Nordics, the Netherlands, Central and Eastern Europe and Turkey emerged over the summer, Warner Bros. Discovery made 29 HBO Max staffers redundant, and projects set for greenlight were stopped in their tracks. Shows already on the platform such as Umbre , One True Singer and Ruxx disappeared overnight, with heartbroken producers privately talking of their shock and receiving a stony silence when they questioned where their programs and films had gone.

Deadline understands a handful of shows from the CEE region will still go ahead—espionage drama, Spy/Master was recently announced, but this was a legacy order from before the strategy shift. Warner Bros. Discovery is still developing original programs in Spain and France, but the latter never saw a standalone HBO Max launch. Commissioning has largely shifted to Warner Bros. Discovery’s new-look regional teams.

This is all set to the backdrop of Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav seeking at least $3 billion in cost savings after Discovery acquired Warner Bros. for $43 billion in April. Zaslav, known for his bullish, bottomline driven management style, has made clear he wants a much tighter ship. He’s stressed the need to make money over adding streaming sub scriptions for the sake of it – a criticism levelled at all the global streamers at one time or the other. This summer, he scrapped $90 million DC Com ics pic Batgirl , emphasizing that he couldn’t “find an economic value” for expensive films going straight to streaming.

On top of this was the new rumor in Hollywood: Warner Bros. Discovery could sell to rival Comcast further down the line. Zaslav shot down that notion at a digital town hall last month, insisting: “We are not for sale.” That provides some reassurances, but Mipcom will no doubt be awash with chatter about the future of the House of the Dragon owner and its onceflagship streaming service. ★

Top: Leslie Grace as Batgirl in the unreleased Warner Bros. Discovery film; below: David Zaslav, President and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery.

LONDONO GOES LOCAL

Diego Londono is on a mission to leverage local EMEA content for Disney+. He explains just how he plans to do it

By Max Goldbart

Diego Londono comes alive when reflect ing on the success of Disney+’s Italian remake of The Ignorant Angels , one of the streamer’s first international originals that tells the story of an unexpected and moving friendship at a time of change.

While Disney+ doesn’t report viewing figures for individual shows, Londono says it is this remake of 2001 film The Ignorant Fairies above all others that has helped “change perceptions” of what a Disney show can be, bringing in a broader audience and driving the day-to-day proposition.

“This is strong local talent coming from known IP aimed at an older audi ence that has really resonated,” Londono explains enthusiastically, as the Executive Vice President, Media Networks and Content, EMEA, sits down for an interview with Deadline on a rainy day in early September at Disney’s West London headquarters.

The man responsible for the daunting task of guaranteeing Disney+’s EMEA content punches above its weight is all about the shows and has spent the past two-and-a-half years shepherding this perception-changing drive. However, he knows he has a lot more work to do.

Recent Digital TV Research predicted the streamer will have nearly 50 mil lion European subscribers by the start of 2027, not far off Netflix and Prime Video’s numbers.

The low-profile Londono acknowledges the platform has inherited “amaz ing content from the U.S”, but he has helmed a fascinating journey, clearing the path for dozens of Disney+ originals that don’t necessarily come in the shape that traditional Disney fans would expect.

He has overseen launches in multiple countries, setting up local commis sioning teams, and the result ranges from irreverent action-comedy Wedding Season to devastating French mini-series Oussekine and a soon-to-launch non-scripted format featuring David Beckham returning to his hometown to train up a young soccer team.

Londono, a self-confessed sports fanatic, was born in Columbia but grew up in L.A. and was working in a “boring job” in his early 20s when a friend urged him to apply for a job at Fox Sports, where he could marry his love for sports with entertainment.

While he didn’t get that particular job, Londono was instead recom mended to Fox Latin America and, he says, “that’s where it all began.

“I didn’t necessarily wake up as a nine-year-old thinking I wanted to be the next big exec, but really fell into all this through love of sport.”

It’s been 25 years since Londono joined Fox and rose through the ranks, starting as Fox Networks Group's (FNG) Italy and Germany President, where he oversaw pay-TV channels, and eventually becoming Chief Operating Offi cer for FNG in Europe and Africa.

Soon after the 2017 Disney/Fox acquisition, EMEA President Jan Koep pen put Londono in charge of Disney+ content in the region and, from there, some serious work began, around the time a global pandemic was slowing everything down.

To Londono, forging a powerful aggregated content streamer like Disney+ has multiple parallels with what he was doing with Fox’s nascent pay-TV channels in the mid-2000s, and he constantly harks back to this era when seeking inspiration for the streaming service.

“Back then, we started recognizing there was deeper interest either from a demo, perspective, or genre that went beyond our flagship channels,” he explains, pointing to the likes of Fox Life and the now-closed Italian linear channel Fox Retro.

“Looking at content in terms of different taste-based segments, or through the eyes of different demos, is so important when you are faced with the daunting task of putting together a platform like Disney+.”

Although the platform takes advantage of powerhouse Disney brands, local content has been the priority from the start. A major priority for his acquisitions team when they head to Mipcom is the 30% EU production quota that the platform must meet in some European territories. (A man agement retreat is preventing Londono from attending himself, but this quota sits at the forefront of his mind, he says.)

He’s also been tasked with handling an international boost to adult-skew ing vertical Star, which has swelled in priority across the last few months. Plus, he is still looking after linear channels, which he insists are “very impor tant to the overall portfolio.”

Leveraging local commissioning talent on the ground has been a key plank of his strategy and Londono points to some local people who have been managing Fox and Disney channels for years, who “know exactly what works in their market”.

To help with the local charge, he hired popular former BBC exec and com missioner Liam Keelan in 2019 as regional head, who now oversees a team

featuring the likes of scripted execs Johanna Devereaux and Lee Mason, along with non-scripted boss Sean Doyle.

There are boots on the ground in key territories such as France and Ger many, countries from which the streamer is looking to greenlight between 4 and 10 shows per year as it bids to hit 60 international originals across the next two years.

The work started with a creative brief, one that focused on two areas: family content for Disney that “parents can watch with kids and ideally older kids” (Londono stresses he is “not looking for kids’ content”), and general entertainment shows for Star that “aren’t too prescriptive”.

That brief was delivered to the continent’s booming production sector and Londono has been overjoyed with the result, although he believes it has worked a little too well.

When Deadline quizzes Londono on his biggest challenge, the executive pauses briefly before chuckling. “A lot of good ideas come to us that we have to turn down,” he says. “We were always concerned that those great new general entertainment shows wouldn’t come to us and yet we’ve had so much money.

“There’s that preconception of Disney being all about family entertain ment, so we had to get out there and educate, and have ended up skewing the majority of our commissions towards general entertainment.”

Londono says that it would be “too much” to describe himself as a taste maker for Disney+’s non-U.S. offering and he instead chooses to get involved at a later stage in the process, allowing Keelan’s team to handle the pitches and development.

“I read scripts but don’t give notes,” he adds, contrasting with Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos’ eyebrow-raising admission at the Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power premiere that he had himself been a note-giver on the most expensive show of all time.

THE SHOWS

So, what are the shows that have defined Disney+’s international efforts during Londono’s tenure?

Alongside his beloved The Ignorant Angels from original creator Ferzan Özpetek, he is excited by Wedding Season and Extraordinary out of the UK, two irreverent comedies that come from respective young writers Oliver Lyttelton and Emma Moran and feature budding stars including Rosa Salazar and Belfast’s Máiréad Tyers.

The former is described as an “action comedy romantic thriller” following a runaway pair after the main character’s fiancée’s entire family are killed at a wedding. Extraordinary is about a young, painfully self-aware woman who lives in a world where everyone has a superpower except her.

In France, Londono praises Ousse kine, the mini-series featuring Succes sion star Hiam Abbass that tells the tragic story of the death of student Malik Oussekine and his family’s fight for justice, along with young adult scifi Parallels from French-Vietnamese writer Quoc Dang Tran.

Each of this quartet of shows has a unique feel, feeding into Londono’s desire to avoid being overly rigid and instead play with tone.

“We would have turned down shows like Oussekine if we had been too prescriptive and thought people only wanted crime, thrillers or

romance,” he says. “You’ve got to allow stories to come from anywhere.”

The streamer is working with a range of creatives from well-known voices including Sally Wainwright and Deutschland 83 creator Jörg Winger to the likes of Lyttelton and Moran and mixing these top auteurs with younger voices is what his team set out to achieve from the beginning, says Londono.

He acknowledges it is “competitive out there” as the wave of new stream ers rush to secure the best European creatives—especially during a nonEnglish language content boom—but says Disney is still able to have its pick of the best writers and directors.

On the non-scripted front, David Beckham’s Save Our Squad leads the pack. It will show the soccer superstar in a new light, according to Londono. Meanwhile, at this year’s Edinburgh TV Festival, Doyle revealed that Disney+ had bought the highly prized doc on the "Wagatha Christie" case, a libel trial between soccer wives Rebekah Vardy and Coleen Rooney, along with a Keanu Reeves-fronted series about the Brawn Formula 1 team.

Taken together, the scripted and non-scripted offering packs a punch and, as Disney+ plans more territory rollouts later this year, Londono is galvanized by the original’s opportunity to expand in emerging territories such as Poland and Turkey.

MONITORING THE COMPETITION

The past months have been tricky to navigate for the streamers thanks to Netflix’s well-publicized subscriber losses dominating headlines and an impending cost-of-living crisis fast approaching, which could impact peo ple’s appetite to subscribe to content.

Meanwhile, the likes of Paramount+ and SkyShowtime are swiftly rolling out to more territories, while HBO Max is soon to combine with Discovery+ for a mega offering.

Londono rejects any notion that he will be steering a “change of direction”, however, citing Bob Chapek’s recent earnings call declaration that Disney+ will maintain a “business as usual” face in the ever-shifting current climate.

He is instead laser-focused on widening the perception of what Disney can offer its subscribers and says this involves always keeping half an eye on the competition.

HBO’s House of the Dragon has already been binged along with Amazon’s Lord of the Rings spin-off, and Londono says he also enjoyed the latter’s All or Nothing: Arsenal doc series (his kids go to the same school as Arsenal man ager Mikel Arteta’s).

“We’d be irresponsible not to be monitoring the competition,” he adds. “But it’s one thing to monitor and another thing to let them drive your dayto-day decision-making. We set out a strategy, which we can adjust when necessary, and feel pretty confident in terms of what we set out as our plan.”

Looking to the near future, Londono wants to keep unearthing more shows like The Ignorant Angels, commission ing that strong, resonating IP that shifts the dial in terms of audience expectation of the Mouse House.

“It takes time for a perception change to happen,” he adds, mulling what’s in store for the streamer over the coming years.

“I want to ensure that we keep driv ing this change so that when people sit down and ask themselves, ‘What am I going to watch tonight?,’ they know Disney+ has more to offer than they would expect.”

The Ignorant Angels

TALENT BEYOND BORDERS

Emerging South African actor-pro ducer Thuso Mbedu, whose breakout role was in Barry Jenkins’ Prime Video series The Underground Railroad, says the rise of global streaming has changed the picture for local creatives. “For a long time, the film and TV industry wasn't seen as a viable career choice in Africa,” she says.

“There were pockets of successful proj ects, but as the world is getting smaller with the expansion of global platforms there is an increased appetite for diverse content everywhere.”

In April, she signed a first-look deal with Paramount Global’s VIS Social Impact to create a suite of Paramount+ shows that focus on equity, climate and health—an agreement that gives her control over a slate but with the organi zational and financial backing of a U.S. studio. “Traditionally it wasn’t always the creatives that ran with these types of projects,” she says. “The truth is that as creatives we need support to succeed in realising our creative visions. Fortunately, through streaming we now have easier access to these great stories.”

By Jesse Whittock

What do Idris Elba, Lupin superstar Omar Sy and emerging French-Vietnamese writer Quoc Dang Tran have in common? Other than their obvious creative skills, they are among a growing number of stars born outside the U.S. who have signed talent deals in the last year. Deadline estimates as many as 20 firstlook or multi-title deals have been struck by global streamers or LA-based studios since the beginning of 2021.

Back in May, HBO Max announced it had locked in Sy into a first-look deal to make international shows for the streamer, with the actor-producer developing and producing content out of his native France. It’s perhaps no coincidence that France was one of only two European countries that will still develop its HBO Max originals, following Warner Bros. Discovery’s decision to halt production in most of the continent.

The deal was among the clearest indicators that creative partnerships with non-U.S. talent have become a key strategy for global streamers and international studios. They are desperate to create local content in local mar kets that attracts subscribers, and builds their reputation.

For VIS Social Impact boss and Para mount Senior Vice President of Inter national Social Responsibility Georgia Arnold—who first saw Mbedu in South African drama MTV Shuga and now calls her “the biggest talent to come out of Africa”—the deal represents how Paramount+ is trying to attract audi ences. “Our remit is to think about our global audience, and what they want to see,” she says. “And what they want to see is an authentic reflection of their lives. The VIS Social Impact studio gives us the opportunity to explore talent in parts of the world that have perhaps been overlooked to date.”

It’s been a similar story in Africa for Amazon, which recently struck an overall agreement with Gangs of Lagos creator Jáde Osiberu, and Netflix, which has multi-title agreements in place with Nigerian broadcast and pro duction pioneer Mo Abudu, her compatriot Kunle Afolayan (Citation) and South Africa’s Mandlakayise Walter Dube (Tsotsi). Netflix’s push began in February 2020 when Ted Sarandos travelled through the continent ahead of the launch of the streamer’s first African original series, Kagiso Lediga’s Queen Soro, which starred Pearl Thusi (Quantico). Dube, who had directed an episode of that show, was in attendance in a packed room in South Africa, where Sarandos affirmed a commitment to local African production. “I liter ally pinched myself,” Dube recalls. “The door was open.”

He soon made friends with Netflix Director of Content for Africa and the Middle East Ben Amadasun, and has since struck a long-term agreement with the streamer to create films out of South Africa. His latest action flick, Silverton Siege, launched on Netflix on South Africa’s Freedom Day (April 27).

“Now we have to open more doors and not take our foot off the gas,” says Dube. “How far can this thing go?”

Dube, who teaches filmmaking, says the local activity of global content outfits has firmly put the “apathy of believing you’ll never make it” behind creatives in his country while dispatching the “self-pity of thinking you have to go all the way to Hollywood” to meet with agents and execs to get shows and films made. While his rise has led to him signing with manager Steven

Why U.S. giants see international talent markets as the next frontier in the streaming age

Adams from Alta Global Media in the U.S., he always gives his students one piece of advice: “Don’t go to Hollywood. Let Hollywood come to you.”

This all feeds into a wider narrative around how globallyminded content companies are allowing international tal ent to take more control of their destinies in the stream ing era. “Netflix is supporting the whole journey of being an entrepreneur,” Dube explains. For them to agree to a multiyear deal means that they’re invested in supporting one’s ongoing career. It’s a very Quoc Dang Tran

humbling thing.”

At the same time, Dube connects Amadasun and Netflix’s African team with creatives and helps build its local network. “I remember Ben saying, ‘OK, man, can you stop sending emails now; there are just too many people to consider,’” he recalls with a laugh.

Parallels and Nox creator Dang Tran’s first-look deal with Universal Inter national Studios has a similarly entrepreneurial bent. The international pro duction arm of Universal Studios Group supports the French-Vietnamese writer’s creative endeavors, while he looks at local opportunities for the Comcast-owned business and uses his local contacts to explore opportuni ties. “We want the people we’re doing deals with to have great relationships on the ground,” Universal International Studios President Beatrice Springborn explains. “And part of that is their relationships with the buyers, for example. We certainly don’t want the deal to be prohibitive when they get into busi ness with us.”

The wider strategic goal is for these local talent deals to open markets organically, allowing Universal International Studios to identify potential new business through “a combination of a referral network, whether that’s Quoc telling us to look at a writer, or the producers that we have on the ground in the UK recommending talent,” along with international agents and attending markets such as Mipcom and MIA.

Earlier this year, Springborn’s boss, Universal Studios Group President Pearlena Igbokwe said the talent arms race in the U.S. appeared to be slow ing. This too has informed how Universal International Studios is approaching its dealmaking. “I agree with Pearlena’s assessment,” says Springborn. “Not everybody is looking for a big overall deal. There’s been a move away from it. Because of the way our international studio is structured, people aren’t just looking for money. They’re looking for how this studio is going to help move their career forward.”

That’s a principle also held by Amazon Germany Head of Originals Philip Pratt, who says he assesses whether a talent deal is the right approach by asking: “Where is that person today in their life and what do they need? How can we help each other? I don’t want the talent to be unhappy and it also has to work for us, so we really have to be sure if we do one.” Amazon’s Ger man arm has first-looks in place with Ziegler Film and author Sebastian Fitzek among others.

Dang Tran, who has written for Netflix’s Call My Agent! and created hor ror Marianne for the streamer, calls his Universal International Studios deal a “once in a lifetime” opportunity. “I just want to make the most out of it,” he notes. “Theoretically-speaking, imagination knows no boundaries. But when you are a writer in France—a market limited by its size and language—there

are genres that can be difficult to access budget-wise, such as action/adven ture, sci-fi or fantasy. By giving me the opportunity to write English-language projects, Universal International Studios has stripped away all the existing barriers and allowed me to roam in an open world of fiction. It is an incredibly invaluable experience.”

That ambition is set to grow even further. Deadline understands Dang Tran is currently working up a multiple language scripted project set in Europe under the deal’s umbrella, as streaming services continue to break down bar riers to entry and provide local creatives with new opportunities to tell local stories in local markets.

Along with its deal with Dang Tran’s Daïmôn Films, Universal International Studios owns several international production companies and this year also struck a partnership agreement with the Telefónica- and Atresmedia-backed Buendía Estudios to develop a bespoke slate of projects, and remake a num ber of NBCUniversal formats in Spain, with an adaptation of Safe Harbour being the first.

With all this opportunity, international talent is being forced to think busi ness; while the narrative from both investors and talent is of collaboration and partnership, having a good agent protecting their interests is paramount.

“First-look deals are not common in South Africa and when negotiating any deal, it is very important to have a good team, regardless of where they are based,” says Mbedu. “They need to have experience in negotiating these deals, and the industry knowledge and expertise on how they are structured and how to protect you.”

Dang Tran adds of his LA agent Jeff Barry, from Range Media Partners, and French rep Simon Rey, from Film Talents: “From the very beginning they were both incredible and engaged in full cooperation mode, making the communi cation seamless. I truly would not be where I am without them.”

Fabian Haslob, of leading Germany-based talent agency Players, says agents working in English-language content are now “excited to hear about international talent”.

“Since Netflix and the other streamers arrived, we’ve found it easier to bring our directors and writers to international agencies. Back in the day you had to send DVDs and no one was interested.”

However, one European agent warns U.S. companies are “not doing exclu sive deals in emerging markets”, even where prices are often very low, as they seek to mitigate risk should the content not break internationally. The theory is for every Squid Game or Money Heist, there are dozens of originals that go under the radar. “There is a big problem that so many things get produced and there is so little time to watch them,” adds the agent.

That may be true, but with the likes of Amazon, Netflix and Universal all upping spend on international creatives, those with something to say have never had a better chance to have their voices heard. ★

Parallels

THE BATTLE FOR THE SMALL SCREEN

How Ukraine’s film and television sectors are striving to rebuild their business in the face of war

By Max Goldbart

“When life gives you lemons, make lemonade,” declares Kateryna Vyshnevska, with a small smile on her face. The FILM.UA exec Vyshnevska, the architect behind the $20 million Ukrainian Content Club, is rifling through old emails from that now history-defining week that started with the Rus sian invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

She is amazed to see that in just days she was already part of a taskforce focusing on how to get “significant and cultural” Ukrainian projects to screen.

“There was a moment when all of us just froze,” Vyshnevska tells Deadline. “There was a lot of anger, but that anger was quickly channelled in the right direction. We realized that if we couldn’t tell the stories that matter, then [the Russians] have already won.”

For many in the Ukrainian TV and film industry, it is hard to believe the devastating war has been raging for more than eight months.

Key figures in a sector that was previously blossoming had their entire lives turned upside down overnight. Some have left the embattled nation and others have adapted to a new normal that has, for the moment, upended the way in which projects are funded and brought to screen.

The swift action described by Vyshnevska is reflective of the innovation and out-of-the-box thinking that has characterized Ukrainian culture over the past months, with a slew of challenges needed to be overcome.

“When war broke out, it felt like everyone was prepared and yet at the same time not ready at all,” remembers Yaroslav Pakholchuk, CEO of 1+1 Media, Ukraine’s largest media group.

With only circa-10% to 15% of staff “completely dedicated to the job” in the days after the invasion, 1+1 and a trio of other major broadcasters took an approach akin to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, says Pakholchuk, quickly pivoting their services in what would normally have taken weeks of planning.

“This was about how to survive, keep signal and deliver news to the West

and Ukraine,” he says. “We made our decisions quickly and with no limits, obligations or commitments.”

The result was United News, a roundly praised 24/7 news service that has brought together the might of 1+1, StarLight Media, Media Group Ukraine and Inter Media Group. It is still in operation today.

For those first few weeks, the competitors cooperated without complaint, eschewing traditional competition to operate with a rotating roster of pre senters from each of the four broadcast groups complemented by the work of international news services such as the BBC.

United News delivers crucial information to those most in need, although Pakholchuk says Ukraine’s geographical enormity means viewers based thousands of miles from where the war is raging have grown frustrated with the round-the-clock content.

Keeping audiences engaged beyond the news has been tricky and Pakhol chuk’s 1+1 has struggled financially, only starting to pick up some investment from donors following a funding drive in July.

This inability to attract domestic funding has been the biggest obstacle to rebuilding the industry, according to many Deadline heard from, including filmmaker and Series Mania 2022 Jury President Julia Sinkevych.

“People are doing the best they can to maintain an industry that can’t really be called an industry at present,” says Sinkevych, who was in postproduction on feature doc Lucky Girl when Russia invaded. “Everything feels on hold,” she adds.

Budgets have understandably been diverted from culture to the military, says Sinkevych, and, away from the small screen, the Ukrainian Film Agency has struggled to raise funding as cinema numbers have dipped dramati cally, with citizens unwilling to return through fear of being hurt or caught in a raid. With the advertising sector collapsing and staff numbers down 25%,

Left: President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Servant of the People ; below: Kateryna Vyshnevshka.

Pakholchuk audited all of 1+1’s projects for a six-to-nine-month period and had to be extremely selective, with staff taking pay cuts for several months.

Documentaries have been a focus and, to mark both Ukrainian Indepen dence Day and the six month anniversary of the war, the likes of Mariupol Unlost Hope aired across Ukrainian TV channels and abroad, while 1+1 has also hosted charity telethons and football matches.

“The most difficult thing is production,” explains Pakholchuk. “Before the war we could recover 50% to 60% of a $100,000 budget through advertis ing but now it’s virtually nothing. So, how do we cover that cost?”

To solve this conundrum, the Ukrainian industry has turned to the west and, in many cases, the call has been answered.

Driven by a President who used to be the star of Servant of the People—a now globally-popular sitcom—the last few months have seen what could best be described as the speeding up of an ‘internationalization’ of the Ukrainian sector, one that Media Resources Management CEO Kateryna Udut says began with the 2014 annexation of Crimea.

“After 2014, the market changed dramatically as we stopped cooperating with the Russians,” she says. “We used to have one common market but that market has moved westwards and the whole world is now open to us.”

This has conversely had a negative impact on the Russian TV and film industry, says Den Tolmor, Academy Award-nominated producer of Netflix’s Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight For Freedom, who says that prior to 2013, Rus sia was making roughly 25% to 30% of its projects in Ukraine and selling many into the territory.

The likes of Udut, Vyshnevska and Sinkevych have led the charge in Ukraine’s mega international funding drive over the past months and have attended multiple film festivals, TV markets and conferences extolling the virtues of Ukrainian content and will be present with a pavillion at Mipcom.

Leading the way has been the Ukrainian Content Club, a lofty initiative that Vyshnevska has been shopping in LA to the biggest global studios and streamers. The scripted, drama, animation and factual fund, which operates as a charity, is seeking investment for projects early in the production pro cess in order to get them to screen, and these projects will be unveiled in the coming months.

Vyshnevska, who is producing a series for Red Arrow Studios International about those who stayed in Kyiv at the start of the war, hopes the initiative will show Ukraine as a nation where “adversity has led to creativity”.

“Necessity is the mother of invention. You become better filmmakers

when you have to figure out solutions to martial law, curfews and sirens.”

Vyshnevska has been bowled over by global support and says the growing Ukrainian refugee population has made this support even more necessary. Almost one-tenth of Poland’s population is currently comprised of Ukrainian refugees, while resettlement schemes have been implemented in the UK, France and Germany, among others.

“There are 10 million Ukrainians spread across Europe and they have to be addressed,” she says. “Project financing has been helped by the appetite for Ukrainian stories from people who have welcomed refugees into their home.”

Sinkevych is also Chairwoman of the Ukrainian Institute’s Supervisory Board, which is responsible for cultural diplomacy, and she says the Institute has pivoted strategy recently to not only promote Ukrainian culture but also explain why it is so necessary to overcoming conflict.

Russian activity at film events has been a consistently thorny issue, and the Ukrainian Institute has criticized festivals like Cannes for including Rus sian titles like Kirill Serebrennikov’s Tchaikovksy’s Wife, which was funded by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich.

“There is no independent filmmaking in Russia, it’s that simple,” says Sinkevych. “We’ve been in conflict with Russia for eight years and I don’t recall any Russian films saying anything about the terrible acts being com mitted in Ukraine.”

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Institute recently slammed an emergency Ger man filmmaker program for “perpetuating an outdated Soviet perspective” by inviting Russians and Belarussians as well as Ukrainians, which Sinkevych says showed a “lack of understanding of historical context”.

But despite these teething problems, Sinkevych believes international support is crucial at the very least until the war ends, while the brains behind the Ukrainian culture industry work out a longer-term strategy that will get the sector back to something resembling the heady pre-war days.

For self-described optimist Tolmor, one cannot underestimate the importance of film and TV and, since the war broke out, he has overseen Ukrainian-shot comedy From Ukraine with Love and started prepping a fea ture inspired by Canadian ‘lone wolf’ sniper Wali provisionally titled The Good Fight, who spent two months fighting Russia in Ukraine.

“Hospitals, roads and schools will take years to rebuild so we need the production of local TV shows and movies to lift people’s spirits up,” he says. “They need to feel they live in a normal society, so my biggest goal is to help rebuild this industry [and put] it back on the map.” ★

THE VIEW FROM RUSSIAN DISSIDENT, AUTHOR, SCREENWRITER, AND JOURNALIST DMITRY GLUKHOVSKY

I was outside of Russia when war broke out and de ciding to speak out took several seconds. I knew that I was likely denying myself a route back home but I was thinking of my friends in Ukraine, and pretending that nothing happened would be a direct betrayal of those who were sitting in their shelters in Kyiv under the Russian shelling. Now I am accused of “discredit ing the Russian army” and am facing up to 15 years in jail.

In spite of the looming blockade and numer ous sanctions imposed on Russia by the West, the biggest surprise to me after speaking with friends in Russia is that life in Moscow and St. Peters burg is disguised in normalcy. The restaurants are

overcrowded, the pro-war symbols of ‘Z’ and ‘V’ have mostly vanished from the streets, and even the police presence has thinned out.

Any attempt to have an honest discussion of

Russia’s real problems—authoritarian ism, total corruption of the political elite, political murders, poverty of the population, growing ethnic tensions in Russia—is com pletely impossible. Moreover, the President’s administration has blacklisted creatives who spoke up against the war, and they’re being de facto banned from the profes sion, fired from productions and denied new jobs unless they publicly atone for their anti-regime statements and endorse the regime’s policy and propaganda. Even before war broke out, I saw my film projects closed down in Russia for speaking in support of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Putin has tried to make the nation com plicit in this war. But when he’s gone, there will be no reason to pursue. ★

PASSAGE TO INDIA

By Liz Shackleton

Meet any high-profile Indian director or producer these days, and the talk is all about bibles, writers rooms and showrunners, rather than making films.

Driving down Mumbai’s main artery, the Western Express Highway, most of the billboards are promoting new premium drama series from Prime Video, Netflix and Disney+ Hotstar, rather than the latest Bollywood release.

Of course, the shift of talent from film to episodic is happening every where in the world, but in the fast-paced, opportunistic environment of the Hindi-language content industry, these trends have become supercharged. Netflix and Amazon moved in here around 2016, local broadcasters fought back with their own streaming services—Hotstar (now Disney+ Hotstar), SonyLiv, Viacom18’s Voot and ZEE5—and the demand for premium drama series started to skyrocket, as competitors tried to differentiate themselves in an overcrowded field.

Most of the big international TV producers and distributors have a pres ence in India, producing Hindi versions of unscripted formats including The Voice India, India’s Got Talent and Bigg Boss, but when the streamers started raining budget on scripted series, they quickly moved into that space.

So far, a large proportion of these shows have been Hindi-language

remakes of U.S., UK and other international properties.

Banijay Asia, a joint venture between Banijay and Indian TV veteran Deepak Dhar, recently worked with Sameer Nair’s Applause Entertainment on the Bollywood version of Call My Agent! for Netflix, and is cur rently producing Hindi-language remakes of both The Night Man ager and The Good Wife for Dis ney+ Hotstar.

Sister company Endemol Shine India, a joint venture between Banijay and CA Media, has also produced shows for Hotstar, including Aarya, a Hindi remake of Dutch series Penoza

BBC Studios India is also active in this space, working with Applause on Hindi versions of Criminal Justice, Luther (Rudra: The Edge of Darkness) and Guilt (Bloody Brothers). Separately from Applause, it has produced local remakes of Doctor Foster (Out of Love) for Hotstar and Press (The Broken News) for ZEE5.

The proliferation of remakes is not surprising, as both the streamers and producers are currently focused on speed and volume. “There’s so much demand for premium content, and everybody wants it fast, so formats become an easy turnaround for the streamers,” explains Sameer Gogate, head of BBC Studios India’s production business.

In most cases, this means the potential for international distribution of these shows is limited, due to holdbacks in markets where the original English-language or other language versions are still on air.

“The U.S. is always a big challenge, although you want your Hindi content

DISNEY+ HOTSTAR; D. DHAR

How international companies are involved in India’s premium drama boom

A still from Disney+ Hotstar’s Aarya

Deepak Dhar

in that market, because there’s a massive Indian diaspora sampling those shows,” says Dhar.

But even Indian shows based on original material are unlikely to be syndicated in the international mar ket, because their buyers—whether they’re global or Indian steamers—all have a global footprint and scoop up worldwide rights. This means that very few inde pendent production companies have built a business in this space as IP-owning producers, as opposed to producers-for-hire or basic content vendors.

Applause, backed by Aditya Birla Group, is the big exception as it has enough capital to finance its own shows and then shop them to the streamers. It made a splash with Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story, which it financed then sold to SonyLiv, and has con tinued with this model. It’s understood that SK Global, producers of the Emmy-winning show Delhi Crime, financed the show before selling global rights to Netflix. But while these companies may be retaining some IP or equity, they’re still not involved in exploiting interna tional rights.

For the market to mature, and export more shows that work internationally, the next step would be for producers to package and produce shows based on original material that they could then exploit them selves, in markets outside of India. Applause is probably the closest to achieving this, but others are trying: SK Global, Lionsgate’s Indian outpost; LA and Mumbaibased Locomotive Global, which is partnered with Applause on Gurinder Chadha’s Seeker; Contiloe Pic tures, also working with Applause on historical epic Taj: A Monument of Blood; and Ronnie Screwvala’s RSVP

“There’s room to do this, so long as you can figure out the financing in India,” says Locomotive Global cofounder Sunder Aaron of the opportunity in the space. “But the banking sector is very conservative and we don’t have deficit finance.”

The big formats companies are also starting to develop shows based on original material. Banijay Asia has Donkey Route, a drama series about Indians attempting to migrate to the U.S. on foot, along with two unannounced shows based on historical incidents. Says Dhar: “We’re building out a bunch of shows we feel could really travel outside of India, because while we’re blessed with the Banijay catalogue, with the growth of streaming, we think it’s time to start develop ing Hindi IP.”

Fremantle and BBC Studios India say they also have shows based on original material in the pipeline, while Endemol India recently wrapped a series based on the book Trial by Fire: The Tragic Tale of the Uphaar Fire Trag edy, co-produced by former Hotstar executive Sidharth Jain, who is now active in the book adaptation space.

But even these producers acknowledge there are many obstacles to overcome. India’s film and TV industries have always worked on fast turnarounds, so don’t have much of a development culture, and while a showrunner and writers room culture is developing, it’s still early days.

There are also issues on the buyer’s side. Creative executives at the streamers usually come from a Bol lywood or traditional television background, so tend to be risk-averse. But more importantly, the Indian media market is consolidating through a series of mergers, so the number of streamers is contracting, while at the same time international parent companies are scaling back costs. HBO Max is understood to be delaying its launch in the market and Disney+ Hotstar is moving towards ‘TV Plus’ rather than premium content, in an attempt to retain the mass audience after losing IPL cricket rights.

“There’s still high demand for premium content, as the audience has tasted blood, but some level of con solidation and price rationalization is likely to happen,” says Gogate. Indie producers and talent agents say there are only four buyers to pitch big-budget shows to: Netflix, Amazon, Disney+ Hotstar and SonyLiv.

Another issue is achieving scale when developing one’s own slate. Says one veteran producer, “If you develop three or four shows, there is a high probability a few may not get sold, and the cost will not be bal anced out by profits from all of the others. Even if you sell them all, the markup is only around 10%, and that’s what you get without the risk of funding them. The IP might come back to you in 10 to 15 years, but is that really worth the risk?”

All of this will sound familiar to producers in many markets in the world. But those same issues that increase risk, could also open up the market to outsid ers to come in and co-finance. “We may see some of the big streamers back away from doing a global deal,” says Datta Dave, co-founder of talent management company Tulsea. “They’ll be OK with paying 50% of the budget and letting you keep some of the rights to sell around the world.”

Sameer Nair is already in pursuit of this strategy: “We want to do more adventurous and ambitious projects, and partner with more global co-producers, compa nies out of LA, London and Israel who are active in co-productions.”

If this international participation ends up happen ing at all, it could be some time in the future. With China now out of the picture, India is looking like the next potentially huge media market, and has frontiers that have yet to be explored. Gogate points out that, while the premium series space is booming in Mum bai, it’s only just starting to take off in the four content industries (Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam) in the south. There’s also growth in original Indian con tent, rather than remakes, across docu-series and unscripted shows.

Dhar points to the development of the Korean TV market as something that could eventually happen in India: “They’ve matured over 10 to 15 years of making premium dramas, while our market is just four to five years old. We have to give it time, but there are already a bunch of ambitious producers who are starting to think about how Indian content can evolve.”

LIMITLESS LANGUAGES

As a result of India’s streaming boom, local audiences have become much more language agnostic. Not only are they sampling content in Indian languages other than the one they grew up speaking, they’re also more receptive to non-Indian language shows.

Stanley Fernandes, BBC Studios’ VP of distribution, South Asia, explains that while the market share of Englishlanguage content is still small, compared to Indian-language content, the growth of streaming has made it more accessible.

“We’ve seen a transfer of that Eng lish audience that used to sit on linear across to the digital space, and in the past couple of years there’s been growth for us amongst the digital platforms,” he says. “Whereas linear had to be generic viewing, because most households only have one television set, we’re now up on Netflix, Hotstar or Discovery+, catering to individuals rather than the whole family.”

Earlier this year, BBC Studios sealed a content deal with AVOD service MX Player, which with 300 million users is considered mass market rather than a premium service. In August, Fernandes signed a TVOD deal with BookMyShow, for series including Sherwood, Ragdoll and Unforgotten, which will be available as part of a BBC branded space.

Meanwhile, Ganesh Rajaram, Gen eral Manager/EVP, Asia, at Fremantle International is seeing more acceptance of non-Indian content in languages other than English, selling Spanish-language thriller Senorita 89 to Lionsgate and Italian-language drama My Brilliant Friend to Viacom18. “Of course English content is still the most accepted [amongst ‘foreign’ or non-Indian content], but with streaming we’ve seen audiences more focused on the storytelling, the acting and production values, rather than the language,” Rajaram says.

Additionally, unscripted formats are now being produced across multiple Indian languages. “We were probably the first to realise the potential when Viacom18 didn’t pick up the Tamil rights for Big Brother, then [Tamil star] Kamal Haasan came on board and it became such a big hit for Star Vijay,” says Rashmi Bajpai, Executive Vice President, Asia at Banijay Rights. ★

John Boyega is busy mapping out his television ambitions. Baz Bamigboye learns more...

Photos by Chris Chapman

JOHN BOYEGA

is one of a diminishing number of Hollywood film stars that hasn’t yet dived properly into the world of high-end TV drama. The 30-year-old actor has made several appearances on television—most notably winning plaudits for his sear ing portrait of a London policeman in Steve McQueen’s multi-award-winning BBC/Prime Video anthology Small Axe—but his career has largely been defined by roles in movies like Attack the Block and the third Star Wars trilogy.

This may all be about to change if closely held plans come to fruition: Boyega’s production company, UpperRoom Productions, has, in his words, “something potentially big brewing”.

“The project has got a big commercial footprint—I mean that in the best way—and I’m circling it now,” he hints. “It’s something as secretive as hell, but it’s something that’s a potential project if we can pull it off. All I can say is that it’s at the develop ment stage.”

It’s a teasing prospect, but no doubt producers, distributors and streamers will be desperate to hear more as it emerges. Boyega himself has plenty of homework to do and he openly admits he hasn’t done enough small screen work to pinpoint exactly the fundamental differences between television and cinema.

“To a certain extent, I don’t know because I’ve never been the lead of an ongoing TV series,” he says. “I’ve never done a season of a show. The spot in 24 doesn’t count in that respect because I was just a guest for four episodes.”

Interestingly, it is that role in Fox’s 24: Live Another Day, the 2014 limited series that resurrected Kiefer Sutherland’s Jack Bauer character, that Boyega is most grateful for as it helped him out of a spot of financial bother. He chuckles as he recounts the “glorious spin” he had back in 2014 working with Suther land on the four-part season, set four years after the original 24 storyline ended.

“I came in as guest as a young drone pilot who got into a jam and gets locked up. Jack Bauer bails him out. It was so cool.” Not so cool was the fact that Boyega’s car had been placed in a police car pound in London. “It was going to cost £600 ($680) to get it out and I didn’t have the money. I started shooting 24, and I got the car out. Result.”

By that point, Boyega had already starred in Joe Cornish’s horror satire Attack the Block, which became an international cult hit after its SXSW premiere, as well as Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens where he stars as reluctant stormtrooper Finn. While he’s increasingly keen to explore the TV world,

the London-born star is adamant that he will continue with work that ends up on a big screen. On that front, he has recently starred in director Gina Prince-Bythewood’s scorch ing, kick-ass movie The Woman King (released last month) and Breaking, which sees him summon up the internal grief and scars of a Marine veteran who served his country in foreign wars but finds himself facing the threat of homeless ness when he’s back home on U.S. soil.

Notably, it was the film’s co-writer Kwame Kwei-Armah, an actor, playwright and artistic director of London’s Young Vic Theatre, who gave him his first big break as a teenager in the UK back in 2009. Kwei-Armah cast him in a trilogy of plays under the umbrella title of Not Black and White at the then Tricycle Theatre, now known as The Kiln, in Kilburn, north-west London. (I personally played a miniscule role in this story, signing off on the Not Black and White season as a trustee and board member of the Tricycle.)

On the day we talk via Zoom, Boyega is holed up in Brook lyn and has been following the news from London about the killing of Chris Kaba, an unarmed 24-year-old Black man shot dead by an officer of London’s Metropolitan Police. The actor sighs.

“This hits a deep chord for people because there have been stories of Black men killed at the hands of the police while in custody, behind closed doors, that have gone unanswered for years.”

At the time of writing, the officer has been suspended from duty while a thorough investigation of the shooting takes place.

Boyega is cautious in his response. “You don’t want to get caught up in the crescendo of the media frenzy. We sometimes know how the British press can be to a certain extent. I want everyone to just listen to the facts as much as possible so we can reach a more nuanced and detailed reaction that can be about solutions rather than danger, or anything that’s going to distract from getting answers to a very serious situation.”

Black lives matter to Boyega, on and off screen. He was notably filmed giving an impassioned speech at a George Floyd protest in London, which he has said cost him friends, and was critical of how Disney marketed his Star Wars

Boyega with the team behind The Woman King

character. However, he says, there is evidence of more diversity in the industry. “There’s been steady growth, and each time we grow and get the opportunity to get into more [important] positions, we learn about those positions and about more opportunities for diversity.”

Learning what each position of responsibility means equals more experience and understanding, especially as an actor, he adds. “When you get to that stage you learn of the opportunities you have: that you develop certain roles, that you now have access to producers and directors. Then it’s an individual choice of how you spread that knowledge and those opportunities.”

Boyega speaks like a man who has chewed over this topic many times. Warming to the theme, he adds, “It’s a good thing that it’s happening to us, especially people of my generation who say, ‘We don’t want to leave this industry the same way we found it and we don’t want to exist in this industry being anything other than ourselves.’ We have to make it work. We must.”

NEXT STEPS

Boyega can be seen next in The Woman King, in which he plays an African monarch protected by an elite, all-women force including Viola Davis (How to Get Away with Murder), Lashana Lynch (No Time to Die), Sheila Atim (Bruised) and Thuso Mbedu (The Underground Railroad). Other upcoming projects include Netflix’s They Cloned Tyrone and a sequel to Attack the Block.

The actor believes prestige TV shows are competing with their film counterparts on an artistic level. Indeed, his starring role in the Small Axe episode Red, White and Blue, appeared on several critics’ top 10 movies of 2020 lists.

“They’re not single episodes anymore, they’re one-hour movies,” he says. “That’s about the scope of what’s put into a TV show on television. It could be the CGI, the story or epic quality. These one-hour movies definitely have cinematic elements, but I definitely feel at the same time that there’s nothing like going to the movie theater, for sure. Now we have two ways to experience one thing.”

Boyega acknowledges the “creative opportunity” TV offers and observes long running series give actors the “opportunity of being able to stretch out a character over a certain amount of time”, creating a level of familiarity “you can’t always create with one movie”. He muses this could be why feature film producers are increasingly seeking to create franchises out of characters.

In that sense, Red, White and Blue ticks both boxes. Direc tor McQueen, making his first TV series, was adamant that his creations were films to be shown on both large and small screens, with Boyega’s film debuting at the New York Film Festival before its TV bow. However it’s watched, Small Axe stands as a landmark production.

Boyega says he would have happily auditioned for the role of police officer Leroy Logan but McQueen had invited him to a lunch to talk through the job. “We ate and we spoke, and he explained to me the message of the story, about what he wanted to do as a director, and how he wanted to look into the elements of Black British history that we don’t normally explore. It felt so good that he even thought of me for something like that.”

Red, White and Blue began shooting in September 2019, almost a year before the global reckoning that was Black

We don’t want to leave this industry the same way we found it

Lives Matter. “A lot of people thought it was shot after the BLM summer, like it was shot because of that, but it was down to crazy timing,” he recalls.

Another seminal TV show documenting the Black experi ence first drew him to possibilities of prestige television when he was still a teenager: David Simon’s Baltimore-based crime drama masterpiece The Wire. He noted British actors Idris Elba and Dominic West in their starring roles as Stringer Bell and Detective Jimmy McNulty.

“I saw an opportunity, man. I saw all different types of actors putting on these American accents and getting out to the States—and getting at that money,” he says gleefully.

Always savvy, Boyega started to look for opportunities to study and hone his chosen craft. “I knew how to do those over-the-top fake American accents, but I didn’t know how to do one that would hold an audience and convince them consistently for two hours where your voice is enhanced by Dolby,” he says. He’d soon enrolled at drama school and essentially watched everything he could, whether it be on stage, TV, or cinema to improve his skillset. Around a decade later, he is appearing opposite Michael K. Williams, the actor he’d seen playing stick-up man Omar Little on The Wire, in Breaking. Williams tragically passed in September last year, having left an indelible mark on his younger counterpart.

Boyega chuckles as he recalls first entering the business. “I loved it,” he says. “I didn’t fully understand what was

going on as I was picked up off the stage, but that energy was dope. I was still living in Peckham at home and I was still getting used to being in the professional working environment. Now I had to be professional.”

The catalyst for Boyega was being plucked from the Tricycle Theatre to be the star of director Cornish’s cult classic Attack the Block, in which he played a teenager who defends his housing estate from aliens. “That was my first professional gig,” he says with pride, recalling how he would study the script backstage in between scenes during the Not Black and White season in Kilburn. Attack the Block 2’s production timestamps how far he has come: his UpperRoom production company is now among the producers, alongside Cornish’s Complete Fiction Pictures, Studiocanal and Film4.

The film will pick up the story of Boyega’s Moses as he nears 30. Boyega observes London has “changed between the first movie and now”, citing the London Riots that happened the same year the original movie landed, and widespread gentrifica tion of the UK’s capital. “We go back and look at the locations where we shot the first movie [Southwark and Walworth in south London]—once dodgy areas—and we find that it’s all gleaming, high-end apartments and Starbucks. There’s a whole world that we’re about to explore here with a whole new take on that universe, building and revisiting those characters.”

As we continue the interview, Boyega is prompted to remember his first television appearance, which he recalls was 2011’s BBC3 supernatural teen drama Becoming Human, a spin-off of Being Human. “I didn’t know what I was doing,” he confesses. “I was probably trying to pay some bills.”

Having zero interest in joining the Marvel Universe as recently rumored, Boyega says he and his executive team at UpperRoom are more focused on developing their TV and film projects. “I want to see how that goes for me. I would like to have a schedule that makes me work with Gina Prince-Bythewood, Juel Taylor [They Cloned Tyrone] and Steve McQueen all in the space of two to three years. You can’t do that necessarily when you’re stuck to a franchise, unfortunately enough.”

No doubt, the TV and films worlds will be looking on at his next moves with the utmost interest. ★

Above: Boyega as Moses in Attack the Block .

Left, from top: Nicole Benarie, Boyega and Selenis Leyva at a screening of Breaking ; and as Leroy Logan in Small Axe

When you’re deep in among the cocktail parties and dinners or meeting up with much missed contacts at Mipcom, it might be easy to forget why we’re all here: the shows. To help you remember, we bring you Deadline’s The Hot Ones, our guide to some of the best TV being sold in Cannes in 2022. You may hear whispers along the Croisette about the next big global hit, and The Hot Ones is our pick of a wealth of programing, featuring some of the biggest names in television, from the top players in distribution. From a Tim Roth-starring Australian drama about a clubbing kingpin, to cheeky mystery formats and one of the most powerful tell-all docs of our generation, featuring Olympic star Mo Farah, the next few pages will ensure you have your finger on the pulse when sniffing out the big deals at the market.

SCRIPTED

The Following Events Are Based

on a Pack of Lies

BBC Studios

Length: 5 x 60’ Producer: Sister

As the cameras were preparing to roll for BBC drama The Following Events Are Based on a Pack of Lies, a plethora of jaw-dropping conman docs dropped on Netflix to much acclaim.

The timing of the release of the likes of The Tinder Swindler, The Puppet Master and Inventing Anna was purely coincidental, says Following Events exec Alice Tyler, but should lend the five-part series a lot of interest from audiences when it debuts next year.

“The pathology and psychopathy of conmen is out there in all shapes and sizes,” she says. “We’re all just so interested in what makes someone do it and in what makes someone fall for it. We have all encountered one of these people or we have been conned in some way before.”

This “universal experience” gives Tyler hope that the show will perform well outside of the UK and she is particularly confident that buyers in the U.S. will bite. Along with Blue Lights, Six Four and The Consul, distributor BBC Studios is pushing The Following Events Are Based on a Pack of Lies hard at this year’s Mipcom.

From the minds of playwright Penelope Skinner and her sister, the graphic novelist Ginny Skinner, the show stars Sex Education’s Alistair Petrie as Rob, a conman who traps two women, Cheryl (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) and Alice (Rebekah Staton), in a triangle of epic proportions.

The show is produced by Chernobyl and The Power outfit Sister and it

exhibits themes of lying, weakness and the rapid ascent of the modern fraudster, amongst others.

Scripts arrived at Petrie’s house just an hour after he’d finished watching Netflix’s The Puppet Master, about British conman Robert Hendy-Freegard. Petrie says that doc “opened up this world of identifying individuals and spotting whether they had appeared in one’s own life at some point.”

He also read Minna Lyons’ The Dark Triad of Personality: Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and Psychopathy in Everyday Life to prepare and was given an enormous background document penned by the Skinners on his character’s past.

Having worked on an eclectic mix of Sister projects, the show came about through the company’s desire to work with the Skinners, says Tyler, and their image-driven, graphic novel-led approach comes at a time when similar shows such as Netflix’s Heartstopper are garnering worldwide acclaim.

“So much of what you see on screen is visual and that all started in the writing process,” adds Tyler. “We’re constantly looking for new sources and amazing shows come from these worlds. A visual world can really set uniqueness and tone.”

The writers and producers also looked to the thrillers of the 1980s and 1990s for inspiration, as well as playfully skewering the genre for introducing colorful terms such as ‘bunny boiler’ into the everyday lexicon.

Max Goldbart

The Rookie: Feds

Entertainment One

Length: 13 x 60’

Producers: Entertainment One and ABC Signature

Entertainment One (eOne) is taking

The Rookie: Feds to Mipcom, the latest instalment from The Rookie universe, starring Niecy Nash-Betts.

The 13-part series follows Simone Clark (Nash-Betts), who has traded in her job as a guidance counselor in Washington D.C. to become a Special Agent in the FBI. Simone sets her sights on joining a new special unit being created by Supervisory Special Agent Matthew Garza (Felix Solis), a band of so-called ‘misfit toys’ who will break from the Bureau’s rigid tradition to take on unique cases and solve them with unorthodox methods.

“Like its predecessor, this new instalment in the franchise was introduced as a two-part event during the fourth season of The Rookie,”

explains Spyro Markesinis, eOne’s EVP and Head of Sales, EMEA and Asia. He adds that the show will see NashBetts “help solve high-profile crimes all around the United States, and will include some enjoyable crossover moments with Nathan Fillion’s Nolan [from the main Rookie series] when her investigations take her to LA.”

The Rookie: Feds was created by Terence Paul and Alexi Hawley, who also serve as co-showrunners. Executive producers are Mark Gordon, Fillion, Nash-Betts, Michelle Chapman, Corey Miller, and Bill Norcross.

eOne owns all rights to the series excluding those initially granted to ABC in the U.S., and is therefore pushing the show with gusto at Mipcom.

Running for five seasons, the original Rookie series has become one of eOne’s most successful titles, selling in more than 180 territories, a large audience that Markesinis believes will help propel Feds to global success.

“With a similar broad appeal, The Rookie: Feds has a built-in audience in those same territories,” he says. “We anticipate it traveling every bit as well, so we’re pushing it for everywhere.”

And as with the original series, eOne is aiming to land the show on both linear and SVoD clients.

“Given the volume of episodes, the show leans towards pay TV and SVoD slightly more than free TV, but it does appeal to broadcasters and platforms alike,” he adds.

“With every year that passes, more linear services are building in VoD, so we can imagine plenty of clients would look to take a mix of rights.” —Zac Ntim

El Hijo Zurdo (The Left-Handed Son)

Movistar Plus+ Internacional Length: 6 x 30’ Producers: Movistar Plus+; Atípica Films Spanish SVoD operator Movistar Plus+’s international arm is head ing to its first Mipcom with the Seville-set drama El Hijo Zurdo (The Left-Handed Son). Based on the novel by Rosario Izquierdo, the show follows Lola, an upper-class mother who impotently watches the drift of her youngest child, Lorenzo, towards the darkness of a neo-Nazi group. In an attempt to understand and

The Following Events Are Based on a Pack of Lies

help her son, Lola befriends Maru, another mother of a different social class, whose situation is similar to her own.

“If you’re looking for something unique and different, this is the one for you,” says Domingo Corral, Director of Original Fiction at Movistar Plus+. “We don’t like formulas, so we don’t do formulaic stuff, but at the same time, our approach to storytelling is really very universal.”

Written, created, and co-directed by La Peste scribe Rafael Cobos, the show began production in Seville in July and wrapped shooting last month. Paco Baños (The Plague) directed four episodes, Daniela Cajías (Schoolgirls) is the series cinematographer, and María León (The Sleeping Voice) stars.

Movistar Plus+ Internacional, the streamer’s in-house global sales division, is handling international distribution on the project. Corral says that despite the show’s local scope, he believes it will prove popular with international audiences thanks to its high production value and performances. “You’re going to see a Seville that you would never see if you visited like a tourist,” he says.

However, Corral adds that while pre-sales are important, he will be most focused on finding an international partner that he believes compliments Movistar Plus+’s creative ambitions.

“We want to do business with people who share the same vision and understand what we are trying to achieve—that’s the most important thing,” he says, citing HBO, Canal+, Arte and Sky as ambitious companies that make “high-quality” television.

“Business is important, but I’d rather make less money and be in the right place than make more money and not be in the right place,” he adds. “If you’re in the right place, then your show is going to be treated in a different way. It’s going to get more love.”

Movistar Internacional Plus+ GM Maria Valenzuela adds that the Spanish company’s growing reputation as a highend content creator will help aid sales.

“Six years ago, people did not have the storyline references they do now from us,” she says. “It’s been a beautiful trip and now it’s easy to communicate what we’re doing.”

As Long As We Live

Eccho Rights

Length: 6 x 60’

Producer: Glassriver

It’s a sign of the times that Mr. Robot actor Martin Wallström has taken on a role in a thoughtful, dramatic Icelandic drama series. The actor will star opposite creator Aníta Briem in As Long As We Live, which Iceland-based producer Glassriver is making for local broadcaster Stod 2 and Swedish streamer C More. Production began in the summer.

Another Swedish partner, Eccho Rights, will be in Cannes with early rushes of episode one for buyers. Its participation in the series comes through its London-based Director of Co-Productions, Acquisitions and Development, Adam Barth.

“Even though it’s loosely based on Aníta’s life and experiences, it’s quite an international story,” he says.

With her writing variously described as “immaculate and sensual”, “outstanding” and “engaging” by the program bosses behind As Long As We Live’s order, Briem has penned a script that describes the condition of Beta, a former pop queen who is now struggling in a stale marriage and longing for the thrills of her previous life. Unhappily married, she and husband Thomas (Wallström) are introduced to dangerous sexually-charged games when a young man enters their home. Though their relationship is rekindled, it is placed under great strain.

Eccho Rights’ recently retired Managing Partner Nicola Söderlund has taken to calling the genre Briem has created ‘Nordic Love’, as companies in the region try to shake off the ‘Nordic Noir’ association that has both helped and hindered shows launched over the past decade.

Barth explains Söderlund was referring to the liberal and straighttalking sensibilities of Scandinavian broadcasters and streamers that mean the show is quite unlike romantic or relationship stories available from other parts of Europe and the U.S.

“Anita’s script asks what drives us to make the choices we make,” he adds. “Martin caught that when he met her. This is her story and it’s from a place of self-reflection, looking at gender roles

but not through the usual Nordic prism of a murder or a conspiracy plot.”

The international version includes more English than the Icelandic version, with the split coming out at about 70/30 thanks to wide use of internal monologue that’s easily recorded in both languages. As such, several buyers are understood to be in the closing stages of deals, though Barth assures buyers there will be still plenty to discuss in Cannes. Jesse Whittock

The Gymnasts

All3Media International

Length: 6 x 60’

Producer: Indigo Film Oscar-nominated producer Indigo Film and All3Media International were seeking a zeitgeisty young adult show to hit the market and the world of gymnastics sprung out at them.

Coming-of-age thriller The Gymnasts centers on a team of elite teenage athletes as they compete at an international tournament high up in the snowy, atmospheric Italian mountains. So far so good, but as tensions and obsessions begin to escalate within a team desperate for victory, a competitor suddenly dies, and the police suspect murder.

The Gymnasts’ director is Cosima Spender (Palio, SanPa: Sins of the Savior) and the writing team includes Chiara Barzini (Arianna), Ilaria Bernardini and Ludovica Rampoldi (Exterior Night, The Traitor, Gomorrah), the author of the novel from which the show is adapted.

The thriller comes just a few months after a translated version of the book is due to be released in the UK and this will no doubt help drum up interest.

Stephen Driscoll, All3Media International EVP, EMEA, compares the tone of The Gymnasts to popular young

adult dramas including Skins and BBC Three’s Clique, and says All3 felt the young adult market was underserved, especially in local broadcasting.

“We felt the focus on the experiences of young women in the gymnastics sporting arena would have broad appeal,” he adds.

Women’s gymnastics has hit the headlines in recent years for all the wrong reasons after U.S. team doctor Larry Nassar was convicted of sexually assaulting hundreds of children and young women, but Driscoll says the focus is more on young women competing in sport, which has also been popular of late.

“People are incredibly interested in power dynamics and these will play out in the drama.”

The show has an interesting coproduction model, having been financed by Paramount+ for territories including Italy, France, Canada, South Korea, Australia and Latin America, along with public broadcasters Rai and ZDFneo, who take second window.

“The SVoDs have been great on YA but traditional broadcasters have been caught on the backfoot, so it’s great that we’ve managed this funding model,” says Driscoll.

As Paramount+ already holds rights in numerous territories, All3 is mainly targeting the U.S., Scandinavia and Iberia, with buyers set to be shown the first two episodes at Mipcom.

Given its co-production model, Driscoll believes the show will work equally well on a linear broadcaster, SVoD platform or pay-TV network.

All3 is set for a busy Mipcom and is also taking high-end Emily Bluntstarring Hugo Blick Western The English and psychological adventure reality The Unknown to the Croisette. —MG

The Gymnasts

Dark Hearts

Newen Connect

Length: 5 x 52’

Producer: Mandarin Télévision

Action-thriller Dark Hearts follows the exploits of French Special Forces deployed to Iraq on the eve of the 2016 Battle of Mosul, in which Iraqi government troops and Kurdish fighters supported by an international coalition took back control of the city from the Islamic State.

Nicolas Duvauchelle stars as the leader of an elite French commando unit who captures a high-ranking jihadi in the build-up to the campaign.

The latter cuts a deal offering intelligence in return for the safe passage of his daughter and grandson. The catch is that her location is unknown, leading to a dangerous reconnaissance and extraction mission with an open-ended conclusion that leaves the door open for more seasons of the show.

Dang Thai Duong and Corinne Garfin, whose credits include The Bureau, co-created the six-part drama, which is lead-produced by Paris-based Mandarin Television, a subsidiary of Eric and Nicolas Altmayer’s cinema-focused company Mandarin.

Lebanese filmmaker Ziad Doueiri directs. He began his career in feature film with award-winning, Arab-language classics such as West Beirut and The Insult and has successfully branched into serialized drama in recent years, with credits including Canal+’s Baron Noir and Arte’s Inhuman Resources

Leona Connell, EVP of Distribution at Newen Connect, suggests the combination of Doueiri’s sensitivity to Arab culture and the different operational style of France’s Special Forces makes for a fresh take.

“There are lots of shows about elite units operating in the field, but this is the first time there has been a series specifically about French Special Forces,” she says. “They have a more immersive approach, which connects them to the local people. There’s also the fact that Ziad understands both French and Arab culture.”

Prior to the shoot in Morocco, the cast spent a week living with a Special Forces unit and Connell says this “anchors” the show in reality. “You can see a tremendous amount of research has been done,” she adds.

The show marks the first collaboration between Prime Video and state French broadcaster France Télévisions.

Under this structure, the platform will launch in France as well as Belgium, Switzerland and Luxembourg later this year and France Télévisions will premiere nine months later in France.

Newen Connect is handling world rights excluding France and is also selling the second window in French-speaking Belgium and Switzerland after the Amazon launch but has not revealed the window duration for those territories.

Connell believes the show has broad worldwide appeal but deals out of the UK and the U.S. are high on the priority list.

Ahead of Mipcom, recent Newen hire Phil Sequeira was due to shop Dark Hearts in New York and LA and, heading into the market, Connell expects to have one episode available in English for buyers.

—Melanie Goodfellow

Cristo y Rey Mediawan/All3Media

Length: 8 x 52’

Producer: Good Mood for Atresmedia Studios

Spanish drama Cristo y Rey explores the

marriage of real-life circus impresario Angel Cristo, a flamboyant figure who lived life in the fast lane, and his second wife Bárbara Rey, a former Miss Spain who went on to carve a career as a popular film and TV actress.

Their showy lifestyle and turbulent relationship regularly made it onto the pages of the local Spanish tabloid papers throughout their eight-year marriage, which spanned most of the 1980s.

The eight-episode drama packs star power with Money Heist cast members Jaime Lorente and Belén Cuesta in the titular lead roles.

Daniel Écija at Madrid-based Mediawan subsidiary Good Mood— whose credits include supernatural crime drama Estoy Vivo—is the creator and showrunner on the drama, which has been commissioned by the production arm of Spanish media group Atresmedia for Antena 3. Écija also takes executive producer credits on the show alongside Montse Garcia, head of fiction at Atresmedia Studios. David Molina Encinas (Paradise, Paco’s Men, Estoy Vivo) and Manu Gomez (Once Upon A Time In Euskadi) co-direct.

Écija says the initial idea had been to focus on Cristo, until a close associate of the circus owner highlighted the importance of Rey in his life. “An assistant director brought us a lot of documentation on Ángel Cristo and we soon discovered how fascinating his life was. We started to work and having talked to his close friend, Payasito, we realized that Bárbara Rey was also an extraordinary character in the story.”

After traveling to meet Rey in Marbella, the producers were convinced they needed to show both characters.

Cristo was not high profile outside of Spain, although he was well known in France where he travelled with his show, but Écija still believes the Spanish-language drama has strong international potential.

“Cristo y Rey is a story about love, violence, sex, drugs, and the king of Spain,” he says. “I really think it has the perfect ingredients to travel. We hope it will resonate with Lat-Am audiences and those who are close to our understanding of the story, but the series has the intention of reaching an international audience.”

The show is already generating

considerable buzz back home where a teaser was released in early September. A launch date has yet to be set, with the shoot only just wrapping in the middle of last month.

“We are very pleased with the expectation it sparked. It’s a true story, related to the recent culture of our country, and we’re extremely lucky to feature two of the most important actors in Spain,” says Écija.

Melanie Goodfellow

The Swarm

ZDF Studios/Beta

Length: 8 x 45’

Producers: Schwarm TV Productions (JV of Intaglio Film & ndF International Production), Bravado (co-producer), in association with Viola Film

Two German distributors are headed to Cannes with one major European drama project: Indie vendor Beta and ZDF Studios, part of public broadcaster ZDF, have pooled resources on The Swarm, the first project from Game of Thrones executive producer and director Frank Doelger and his Intaglio Film, which is co-producing with Eric Welbers’ ndF International via a joint venture, Schwarm TV. (Intaglio itself is a JV between Beta and ZDF Studios.)

Doelger created the English-language eco-thriller series with Oscarnominated producer Mark Huffam (The Martian, Saving Private Ryan) and Ute Leonhardt (Killing Eve). It stars Cecile de France, Alexander Karim and Leonie Benesch, is directed by Barbara Eder, Luke Watson and Philipp Stolzl and is based on Frank Schätzing’s book.

A host of overseas broadcasters and streamers have already snapped up local rights as pre-buying coproducers but Oliver Bachert, Beta’s Chief Distribution Officer, says this won’t impact the editorial: “There’s a big advantage here, in fact: we have preset IP, not an original storyline for TV, and Frank as the key showrunner with a creative vision everyone supports.”

The story begins with a series of strange happenings around the world’s various oceans that culminate in a species of ice worms emerging from the sea. The United Nations decides to make a preemptive strike against whatever is conducting the occurrences deep in the water, though scientists

Dark Hearts

MIPCOM

BY KARIN FAHLÉN

MUNICH

BY ROMAN SHUMUNOV

BY BETTINA OBERLI

BY ELMO NÜGANEN

believe it is a suicide mission.

“We’re always focused on quality and name alone doesn’t sell a show, but Frank Doelger gives us the whole package and we’ve been stunned by what we’ve received so far,” says ZDF Studios Vice President of Drama Robert Franke.

ZDF Studios and Beta are jointly distributing the show and have each taken on specific territories. Buyers have been tracking the slowlygestating show’s progress since its announcement in 2019, so a slew of deals are likely to follow soon. Both sides are working to maximize revenues and have unified their marketing efforts at Mipcom, but they have been careful not to work anti-competitively.

“On a production level, the partnership is about scale and translating that to international sales,” adds Bachert.

“It’s hands down the biggest package we’ve been involved in,” says Franke. “Buyers can expect a thrilling drama show that keeps you on your toes. It’s wrapped in a topical theme—climate change and the global ecosystem in danger—but this approaches it in an entertaining way that uses genre to make concepts about complex interconnected ecosystems digestible.”

JW

Last King of the Cross

Cineflix

Length: 10 x 60’

Producer: Helium Pictures

Paramount+ has made much of its international prowess and this buzzy Australian drama is testament to what the streamer is trying to do outside the U.S., with some serious star power to boot.

While landing on Paramount+ Australia soon, distributor Cineflix Rights has the rest of the world to pitch

the gangster thriller to, in what looks set to appeal to a wide range of buyers.

Tim Roth recently replaced Ian McShane as lead Ezra Shipman for the show, which is inspired by John Ibrahim’s bestselling autobiography about how the author rose from being a poverty-stricken immigrant with no education to Australia’s most infamous nightclub mogul. Kieran Darcy-Smith is writer/director and Mark Fennessy is producer for Helium Pictures.

Last King of the Cross starts with the arrival in Australia of two Lebanese teenagers, John (Lincoln Younes) and Sam (Claude Jabbour).

They quickly enter an underworld and make a name for themselves as the cocaine wave hits Sydney’s Kings Cross nightclub scene, spinning the region into chaos. The brothers are forced to battle the reigning King of the Cross, Shipman, played by Academy Awardnominee Roth, along with motorcycle gangs and corrupt police, for control of Kings Cross.

James Durie, Cineflix Rights Head of Scripted, says the show’s global selling points include being “epic in scope and operatic in tone”.

“There are so many elements that make it an incredibly rich story,” he adds. “From the brilliantly diverse characters to the thrilling and multi-layered plotline, to the period its set in and the world... Kings Cross, a character in itself, is barely half a mile long but has every form of criminality on offer.”

Durie lists a plethora of other intriguing themes that will catch buyers’ eyes, including the ‘rags to riches’ nature of the tale, being a “classical crime story of gangs” and the bringing together of “crooked cops and a broken justice system.”

Cineflix is already pitching the script in certain key territories and “exciting deals” will be unveiled soon, adds Durie.

He believes the show, which “takes risks and is realistic in its depiction of gangster life”, would work best on an SVoD or pay-TV platform, as it is bingeable and could be converted into a franchise.

It fits neatly alongside a bulging Cineflix scripted catalog that includes the BritBox /ITVX adaptation of Irvine Welsh’s Crime, Apple TV+ hit Tehran and CBC’s Coroner. —MG

Colin From Accounts

Paramount Global

Length: 8 x 30’

Producers: CBS Studios and Easy Tiger Svelte romcom Colin From Accounts arrives at Mipcom with the aim of offering a new slice of Aussie life.

Produced by CBS Studios in association with Easy Tiger Productions, the show follows Ashley and Gordon, two single(ish), complex people who are brought together by a nipple flash and a wounded dog.

The series was created by and stars Patrick Brammall (No Activity) and Harriet Dyer (Wakefield), and received funding from Screen Australia and Screen NSW. The real-life couple portrayed may have writing credits on the show, but the real inspiration came from a blindspot they identified within the Australian TV industry.

“I had this idea about an accident that brings two people together,” says Dyer, who is also exec producing the project. “[It’s] a sort of romantic comedy set up because Australia has zero romcoms.

“We sat and thought about it more and found that Australia is really good at drama, it’s pretty good at workplace stuff, but we just don't have a romcom culture. It makes us excited to create something of that ilk.”

Paramount Global Content Distribution is distributing the series outside Australia and New Zealand, and Dyer says the response from the global market has been incredibly positive, with some international sales already lined up.

She adds, “Everything is so international in the world right now. Shows like Fleabag and Derry Girls made such a splash. All these idiosyncratic pieces that belong to a

non-American dialect seem to work but we felt like Australia didn't have that. The nation didn’t have a piece that was hitting a global market.”

Dyer said the response to ColinFrom Accounts has left her feeling “blessed and humbled”.

“We didn’t know if this would work, but we thought we’d give it a go. There are more sales coming and we’re just pinching ourselves because we truly made something that makes us laugh.”

Directors are Matt Moore and Madeleine Dyer with Trent O’Donnell, Alison Hurbert-Burns and Brian Walsh serving as exec producers.

Paramount is hoping for a busy Mipcom and is also taking Rian Johnson’s TV debut Poker Face starring Natasha Lyonne, Adrien Brody and Chloe Sevigny, which launches on Peacock next year, along with the Max Thieriot-starring Fire Country. —ZN

Gray

Lionsgate

Length: 8 x 60’

Producers: AGC Television, Lionsgate Television

With Killing Eve having completed its final mission, buyers will be eager to see what the world of espionage might bring them next. Lionsgate is hoping Gray will be the answer as it brings the project to Cannes for the first time.

Producer AGC Television, which originated the project, is handling U.S. distribution, represented by CAA, in tandem with co-financier Lionsgate.

The drama represents a highquality coming together of partners, with Lionsgate known for the likes of Orange is the New Black and the Power companion series and AGC behind Epix’s War of the Worlds and Australian drama Troppo among others.

Last

of

Cross

Colin

They’ll be selling the drama series starring Emmy winner and Oscar nominee Patricia Clarkson (The Station Agent, Sharp Objects) as CIA spy Cornelia Gray, who comes in from the cold when a mole in her former spy network is discovered, 20 years after she escaped from captivity when her peers wrongly accused her of a crime. It’s a Sin breakout Lydia West, who replaced Game of Thrones actress Nathalie Emmanuel due to scheduling clashes, and Rupert Everett (My Best Friend’s Wedding, My Policeman) will also star as part of what Lionsgate President of International Television and Digital Distribution Agapy Kapouranis calls a “diverse and fantastic cast of likeable characters”.

Wendy Crewson (Pretty Hard Cases), Shawn Doyle (Star Trek: Discovery), Tim Rozon (Wynonna Earp), Jamaal Grant (Chucky) and Benjamin Sutherland (Billy the Kid) are among that set, with John McLaughlin (Black Swan) writing, based on an idea from author David Baldacci.

Tonally, Lionsgate is positioning Gray as a “cat and mouse” format, with antihero and murder mystery undertones. Kapouranis adds it is “not as severe as traditional espionage; this is more fastpaced, almost like a Killing Eve.”

Herbert L. Kloiber’s Night Train Media was unveiled as a distribution partner earlier this year, but Deadline understands it has since stepped back. Production is now close to wrapping in Toronto and, as a result, Kapouranis says Mipcom comes just too soon for a pilot episode to be available, though she expects to have a sizzle. However, she says it will be “front and center in Cannes this year”.

“It’s going to be a premium, starstudded show,” she adds. “You want escapism that keeps you on the edge of your seat.” —JW

FORMATS

Le Plus Grand Karaoké de France

Banijay Rights

Length: 2 x 120’

Producer: DMLS TV

In these difficult times, fun, playalong formats are all the rave and Banijay Rights has tapped into the zeitgeist with this French event series.

Gray

M6’s Le Plus Grand Karaoké de France starts with a whopping 6,000 contestants, each of whom belt out a song at the same time, leading to some amusing moments.

Only 1,000 will be equipped with headsets and microphones and this is where it gets interesting, as behindthe-scenes experts judge the budding singers’ ability over four rounds.

The stakes get higher throughout, with finalists performing a duet on stage with a music star before one contestant is named the best karaoke singer.

Filmed by producer DMLS TV in France’s prestigious Roman Theatre of Orange, Le Plus Grand Karaoké de France recently debuted and won the slot for 25-49 year olds, becoming M6’s third best music entertainment show since January 2018 behind The Secret Song and Mystery Duets, according to Banijay Rights.

The distributor has worldwide rights outside of France and the show is one of its flagship Mipcom titles, with Banijay’s Global Head of Content Development James Townley saying it takes advantage of the renaissance for uplifting entertainment as audiences seek upbeat shows, and buyers strive to attract broad, co-viewing audiences.

Le Plus Grand Karaoké de France taps into this trend as it is fun, highenergy, and sees audience members get on their feet and belt out songs beloved by the nation,” he says. “The sheer number of those joining together to sing creates a unifying atmosphere, which we certainly missed during the lockdowns.”

With its “warm tone, high energy and family-friendly” approach, Townley believes the format has international potential and can easily be adapted to a particular territory’s needs by choosing locally relevant songs and presenters.

Banijay is targeting Europe and Latin America in particular, with versions of Your Face Sounds Familiar and All Together Now (Canta Comigo) working well in the latter, and Townley believes the format could work on both linear broadcasters and streamers, serving the latter’s desire for entertainment content.

The distributor is also pushing Dutch balloon format Blow Up and ITV’s Stars in Their Eyes-style Starstruck.

On the scripted side, hopes are high for Canal+’s Marie Antoinette, Steven Knight’s British SAS drama Rogue Heroes and Australia’s Bali 2002, amongst others. —MG

Blowing LA

Fifth Season (Formerly Endeavor Content)

Length 8 x 60’

Producers: Fulwell 73 in association with Fifth Season

Blowing LA is part of the resurgence in interest in glossy reality TV typified by shows such as Selling Sunset “Aspirational, glamorous and fun, with incredible talent in front of and behind the camera,” is how Liz Tang, Executive Director of Acquisitions at distributor Fifth Season, describes the concept.

The show follows the professional and personal lives of Ted Gibson and Kim Vo, two of LA’s best-known celebrity hairdressers. Their businesses thrive on styling the stars, where they can charge up to $2,500 per cut. Each of their stores comes with a cast of colorful characters adding value.

“The show is naturally full of jeopardy as it looks at two of California’s hottest rival salons—both home to the top stylists in LA—and they are very much aware of one another,” says Tang. “The rivalry is fierce and the desire to be on top is even fiercer.”

Blowing LA was commissioned out of Paramount+’s UK office, with British outfit Fulwell 73 (which counts James Corden as a co-owner), attached to create as part of a wider push into reality TV that also includes The Kardashians for Disney+. “Buyers know they’re in a safe pair of production hands,” says Tang.

The show, which also launches Fifth Season’s push into luxury lifestyle formats, has several key beats: jeopardy and drama between the stylists, big reveals of high-end beauty makeovers and sweeping drone shots of sunny LA adding glamor. “It’s the escapism everyone is currently seeking,” says Tang.

Buyers concerned the show is all drama and no heart shouldn’t worry either, she says. “Against this competitive backdrop, there’s a lovely element of comradery between the cast. They are competitors, but they are friends and peers, too.” She also notes Vo and Gibson’s real-life partners play significant roles, giving the content a “very warm, watchable and real angle”.

To boot, Tang says the concept is “very international,” adding: “LA is an obvious first choice because these two salons are iconic and the celebrity clientele is on tap, but we could totally envision Blowing London, Blowing Sydney and Blowing Dubai down the line.”

The show will be sold in Cannes as part of Fifth Season’s first slate since rebranding from Endeavor Content last month. That followed South Korean firm CJ ENM acquiring 80% of Endeavor’s scripted business for $775 million. —JW

Now What

Warner Bros. International Length: 90 x 10’

Producer: Warner Bros. International Television Production Belgium

Now What is social experiment TV for Gen-Z. Aimed at young adult audiences who’ve completely turned their backs on linear television, the show’s unusual format is “a trojan horse for getting those people on to streaming platforms at a very appealing price”, says Ed Levan, Warner Bros. International Television Production’s Vice President of Creative, Format Development and Production.

The concept is simple enough: seven people aged 18-22 will move in

together for three months. However, unlike Big Brother and other reality series set in similar precincts, the characters are free to come and go as they choose, with cameras following them on the streets and in their lives away from the group. Only the communal living spaces will be rigged.

Furthermore, there is no competition element or prizes. Instead, personal stories create the narrative and the jeopardy necessary to hook the audience, whether they involve achieving a career goal or relationships with outsiders.

In Belgium, the series goes into production in late September, with 10-minute episodes releasing daily on broadcaster SBS’s GoPlay streaming platform for the following three months. The shows will lag about a week behind the actual date, providing a sense of familiarity and immediacy and creating what Tom De Baerdemaeker, Managing Director, WBITVP Belgium, calls a “feedback loop”.

“This is daily appointment TV on a non-linear platform, which is new,” adds co-creator De Baerdemaeker. “Co-habiting is very big for this generation, as it’s too expensive to live alone, and the only thing the characters get from us is accommodation. All other expenses are their own, so they continue to live their lives. It’s very far from Big Brother.”

De Baerdemaeker and Belgian indie Authentic Fiction developed the format through a scripted show, Thirtysomethings, which they created together for public broadcaster VRT. While it had been created for linear broadcast at 24 episodes, VRT chose to put it all online and carved out two distinctive audiences: what De Baerdemaeker calls an older “soap”

base on TV and binge-watching younger viewers online. “This made us think there must be something we could do for 20-somethings,” says De Baerdemaeker. After initial development of a scripted series format was dropped, the producers turned their attention to a reality format and Now What (previously Eighteen+) emerged.

Levan says WBITVP will be targeting format sales to all streaming platforms, convinced the unusual format will provide a key USP. “If you have a hit— and I believe this will be a hit—people will find space for it on their platforms,” he says. “It’s a program budget sliced in 90 ways rather than nine. We have to show streamers what this can do.”

JW

Exchange

CJ ENM

Length: 15 x 60’

Producer: CJ ENM South Korea pumps out formats faster than Squid Game kills off competitors, and this year’s Mipcom haul is no exception. The nation that brought the world the now globally-recognized Masked Singer and I Can See Your Voice will have a strong presence in Cannes this year, with CJ ENM’s Exchange leading the charge.

The 15-part show from Lee Jin-ju aired last year on the Korean broadcaster and is already attracting serious global attention.

Reminiscent of Big Brother but with a juicy twist, eight men and women with their own stories gather in a house to reunite with past lovers. Without revealing who their ex is, the contestants spend their days taking part in challenges, while hosts keep an eye on them from the studio.

As with the best reality shows, Exchange is part entertainment, part social experiment, posing questions to contestants and the public over whether they will find new love amongst old flames or reunite with ex-partners.

“Exchange is unique in its story and how it is told,” says CJ ENM Head of Format Sales Diane Min. “There have been dating shows where ex-couples meet but this is the first that tells the story by hiding who the ex-couples are.”

It is this uniqueness, believes Min, that has piqued global buyers’ interest since launch and already led to a number of deals being closed.

The show is in development with an as-yet-unannounced U.S. studio and is being developed in another 15 countries as part of a deal struck with Banijay, including the Nordics, Spain, Portugal, Germany, and Australia. It is therefore one of the more mature formats traveling to Cannes.

Min is also pleased with the way in which Exchange fits within the bulging CJ ENM catalog.

While this catalog is replete with singing and dancing formats, in which Korea specializes, it is rare for CJ to push a dating format and Min partly credits this expansion with the show’s early success in the market.

She believes Exchange will work best on OTT platforms, as this gifts producers the flexibility to play around with episode length, duration and how much they decide to include from the edit.

Elsewhere at Mipcom, CJ is shopping My Boyfriend is Better, a singing contest with a twist which is the latest format from Masked Singer creator Park Won-woo.

My Boyfriend is Better follows five girlfriends who want to show off their boyfriend’s singing skills, placing bets to see who is the best singer. —MG

Snake in the Grass

NBCUniversal Formats

Length: 6 x 60’

Producer: Renegade 83 Espionage-themed reality shows are all the rage in global unscripted TV right now and NBCUniversal Formats brings another twist on the genre to Cannes this year. Snake in the Grass takes the athleticism and action of Ninja

Warrior, the underhanded scheming of The Mole and social experiment isolationism of a Bear Grylls show and packages them up in a high-octane challenge to win $100,000 by surviving 36 hours in the wild.

In the USA Network format, four contestants are dropped in the middle of a Central American jungle, where they must face a series of gruelling and mindtwisting challenges, while trying to figure out which of them is the saboteur trying to undermine them every step of the way. ‘The Snake’ will attempt to hide their identity to win the cash, but each successful game provides the players with a clue to who the cheater is—if they’re not caught, they bag the cash. The games include retrieving game pieces suspended on high wires over a 500 ft canyon as well as scaling cliff faces and solving puzzles.

Ana Langenberg, Senior Vice President of Format Distribution and Production at distributor NBCUniversal Formats, says the show is “intense, action-packed and fast-paced, and not for the faint-hearted,” challenging viewers to find The Snake for themselves. Each episode provides a quick introduction to the contestants before the action immediately takes hold. “The obvious thing that sets this apart from other espionage and mystery formats is there is an episodic conclusion. There’s a pay-off for the viewers. This element of deceit is one that is fascinating.”

Langenberg says the competitors need to be “adventurous, up for a challenge, and physical,” but notes there’s no survivalist element, and that the format works better if there isn’t a male skew. “It can also lend itself to celebrity episodes,” she adds.

The show was USA Network’s biggest new launch in two years, according to Langenberg, whose company NBCUniversal developed the format alongside Naked & Afraid producer Renegade 83, which worked up the initial idea.

Structurally, the format uses fixed-rig cameras for certain games, with roving cameras following the contestants around the vast jungle area. USA’s show has been produced out of a hub two hours from where the action takes place in more luscious scenery. Cost-

wise, Langenberg describes Snake in the Grass as “not ridiculously expensive but also not cheap”.

The format will be a big focus for NBCUniversal in Cannes, with Langenberg’s team already fielding several offers and many more buyers reaching out to learn more. —JW

DOCS

The Elon Musk Show

Fremantle

Length: 3 x 60’

Producer: 72 Films Barely a week goes by without Elon Musk dominating the world’s media coverage.

The world’s richest man continues to intrigue the public and with The Elon Musk Show, 72 Films, the prolific producer behind the likes of The Trump Show and Netflix’s Jimmy Savile: A Very British Horror Story, has honed in on this fascination. BAFTA Craft-winning Defending Digga D director Marian Mohamed is directing with A&E in the War Zone’s Jeremy Llewellyn Jones.

Fremantle is distributing the threeparter, which promises to “get to the heart of who Elon Musk really is”. It’s set to air on the BBC next year, telling the intimate story of his journey to becoming the globe’s richest person... and one of its most controversial.

Revealed exclusively by Deadline earlier this year, The Elon Musk Show uses extensive and unseen archive from the Tesla founder’s time in Silicon Valley, analyzing key moments including, most recently, the botched Twitter buyout, a saga that the producers swiftly folded into the documentary.

Angela Neillis, Fremantle’s SVP, NonScripted Content, is bullish about the show’s prospects globally.

“Elon Musk is undeniably fascinating,

and we know that he is someone who generates a lot of media attention,” she says. “There are so many perceptions about Musk: Is he a tech genius? A selfimportant provocateur? An internet pioneer? This film delves into who the real Elon Musk is and will encourage viewers to make up their own mind about the billionaire.”

Neillis is full of praise for 72 Films and thinks the indie’s involvement will be a boon when shopping the show to potential buyers.

Over the past few years, the company has nursed a reputation for producing thoughtful and awardwinning documentaries such as BBC’s Rise of the Murdoch Dynasty and A Dangerous Dynasty: House of Assad

“Few producers make documentaries that are as authoritative and compelling as 72, who are also known for bringing a bit of fun to their shows,” she says.

Fremantle holds worldwide rights and has already struck an “armful of sales across Europe and Asia”, with the U.S. now the key focus, according to Neillis.

She believes the show’s “journalistic integrity and completely universal targets” will make it work on either linear or streaming platforms, many of whom will be aware of 72’s reputation.

Fremantle is also shopping CTV drama Sullivan’s Crossing and BBC celebrity reality show Unbreakable in Cannes.

MG

Selling Super Prime

ITV Studios

Length: 6 x 60’

Producer: South Shore

Fans of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills are sure to be aware of British property tycoon Paul “PK” Kemsley and his wife—and main cast member— Dorit. The duo, who are well-known

for their lavish lifestyle in the Golden State, are now turning their heads to a new UK-based, luxury space-meetscompetition program.

Selling Super Prime is a six-part series in which PK and his wife team up with Rokstone estate agent owner Becky Fatemi to open a London-based real estate agency. The trio will mentor eight wannabe brokers, who will compete against each other to juggle clients, utilize sales tactics and make deals in the world of multi-million pound property.

Dorit Kemsley, who is known on RHOBH for her bold and, at times, outlandish fashion sense, will style the brokers while PK will train them to handle some of the most exclusive properties in the UK.

PK is no stranger to the property space having built a $2 billion empire between 1995 and 2009, which spanned more than 750 buildings including The Ned Hotel and the Burberry Building in London.

“This is absolute escapism,” says Cecile Olsen, ITV Studios’ SVP of Global Content, Non-Scripted. “It’s aspirational television viewing at its very best with a sprinkling of Hollywood.”

London and Cardiff-based indie South Shore, the company behind non-scripted offerings such as Freddie Flintoff’s Field of Dreams and Worst House on the Street, is producing Selling Super Prime The series is exec produced by Melanie Leach, Andrew Mackenzie and Caroline Davies and is set to air on Channel 4 in the UK next year.

Given the recent boom of luxury property shows such as Selling Sunset, Olsen is confident the project will sell “really well” in Mipcom. She’s keen to point out how different it is from a scripted reality show and notes “it’s got all the ingredients for success”. ITV

even launched a promo last month to whet buyers’ appetites in advance of the market.

Olsen is holding out to sell the series on the Croisette, noting that this isn’t the kind of show that she would pre-sell too much ahead of time.

“People will want to see what it is first and now that we’re in production, we can talk about the fact that it’s happening, and we can talk about the characters and talk about them as a driving force,” she says. “This is so new and it’s coming up in a time where there seems to be this bubble of property shows in the ether.” —Diana Lodderhose

Porn King: The Rise & Fall of Ron Jeremy

Abacus Media Rights

Length: 2 x 60’ (1 x 90’ feature also available)

Producer: BriteSpark Films

Following on from the global success of the Michael Jackson docuseries Leaving Neverland and the acclaim of political doc Four Hours at the Capitol, Abacus Media Rights is bringing a new two-part documentary series on the life, career and alleged misdemeanors of infamous porn star Ron Jeremy to Mipcom.

Titled Porn King: The Rise & Fall of Ron Jeremy, the docuseries charts the life of Jeremy, a former leading performer in the American porn industry who successfully crossed over into the mainstream. Despite his diminutive frame, he became a porn icon who rubbed shoulders with Hollywood stars and performed in over 2,500 films. In June 2020, however, Jeremy was arrested in Los Angeles and charged with 35 counts of rape and sexual assault against 23 women.

As he awaits trial, the series digs deeper and reveals the inside story of Jeremy’s time in the industry with access to alleged victims, key players and archive footage.

“Porn King falls into this category of the shock doc space, looking at the dark side of a dark industry,” says Jonathan Ford, Managing Director at Abacus. “This is very much a story about a man who has walked across the boundaries of his industry and celebrity and become known as a major star: He’s appeared in everything from the Swedish Celebrity Big Brother to

The Elon Musk Show

Snake in the Grass

For all the latest happenings on the international film and television scene, Deadline is your source. From box office numbers, to television premieres, to renewals and festival coverage, and everything in between!

Hollywood films. And while you might already think porn is a dark industry, you learn about the further abuse that was going on.”

Through Jeremy’s story, the doc also charts how the internet has transformed the porn industry from the Boogie Nights era of the 1980s to the contemporary world of Pornhub and OnlyFans.

Abacus holds worldwide rights on the doc, which screened on Channel 4 in the UK in August and averaged 530,000 over two nights, with further viewing likely added through streaming service All4. Sales have already been struck in the U.S., Canada, Israel and the Nordics and Abacus is next targeting key European territories, Australia, New Zealand and Latin America. “The deals we've done so far have been a good mix of linear television, including some in the free environment and SVoD platforms,” says Ford.

—

ZN

The Real Mo Farah Red Bull Studios

Length: 1 x 60’

Producers: Atomized Studios; Red Bull Studios

Most people will know the name Mo Farah, but virtually none will have heard of Hussein Abdi Kahin. They are, in fact, the same person, and this BBC and Red Bull Studios documentary tells the extraordinary story of how that’s the case.

Farah—among Britain’s finest ever long-distance runners, a knight of the realm and a multiple Olympic and World champion—will use the program to reveal how he was trafficked to the UK from Somaliland aged nine and forced into child labor, years before he became a beloved household name in the country.

After escaping, he had applied for British citizenship under a false name

and then kept the shocking secret for more than 30 years.

“We immediately knew this would be the film to lead Red Bull Studios’ slate of feature documentaries and unscripted series, which we will be rolling out throughout 2022 and into 2023,” says Red Bull Media House Head of Partnerships and Commercial Strategy Sebastian Burkhardt.

The show documents the traumatic period when Farah, who spoke no English at the time, was forced into domestic servitude before being spotted for his incredible running talent. He visits his family village in Somaliland, where he bravely interviews his mother and twin brother.

Back in the UK, he meets several people who have kept his secret safe over the years, and returns to London’s Somali community.

Producing the film delicately, and keeping it a secret before broadcast, was objectively an incredible task, and Burkhardt notes only three people on his team knew of its content before it aired in July. BBC commissioner Emma Loach was forced to sign an NDA to just hear Atomized Studios’ original pitch, while Farah was talked through the potential legal ramifications of admitting his actions. Several contributors came forwards late in production, meaning editing continued until just weeks before it aired.

The resulting show performed well on BBC Two, taking 4.3 million (live +7), making it a top-five doc across all UK channels in the first half of the year. It attracted a healthy 370,000 16 to 34s and currently has 7 million views overall.

Red Bull has secured 36 deals in an initial batch of sales, meaning those interested at Mipcom should jump in quickly or risk missing out. —JW

EVEN MORE OF THE HOT ONES

So many great shows are heading to Mipcom this year that we thought it cruel to stop at 20. Below are even more of the best being pitched at the Croisette

CHARLES: THE NEW KING (Beyond Rights)

This timely doc series is being taken to Mipcom at an opportune moment for Beyond Rights, with global buyers seeking shows about Britain’s recently appointed King Charles III. The two-hour series is told through ITN Productions’ exclusive collection of royal archive footage, featuring interviews with those closest to the former Prince of Wales. It speaks to pivotal moments in his life that have shaped him from infant to King. Charles became king after Queen Elizabeth II’s death and her funeral has since become one of the biggest UK TV broadcasts of all time, making now the perfect time to sell docs on the monarch.

CLAIM TO FAME (Red Arrow Studios International)

ABC’s latest format asks intriguing questions about the nature of fame and people’s curiosity. In Claim to Fame, from Kinetic Content, 12 ‘ordinary’ people with famous relatives are challenged to keep their identities a secret while exposing others. They live together in a house, surrounded by hints and red herrings all over the place, giving the show a Big Brother feel with a twist. Guessing game shows are all the rave at present and this one will no doubt spark intrigue after the success of the likes of This House and Rat in the Kitchen

FASTEST FINGER FIRST (Sony Pictures Television)

Who Wants to be a Millionaire? has consistently proved a hit for British broadcaster ITV over two decades and the network has come up with a way to showcase in full how contestants get to that hotseat. In Fastest Finger First, which is played at the start of all Millionaire rounds but now turned into a separate show, contestants face off in a general knowledge buzzer round. Whoever wins moves up the ladder, ending in a head-to-head before winning the ultimate prize, a place on Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Stellify Media’s show-within-a-show format will no doubt be able to play off the success of its predecessor.

KRAPOPOLIS (Fox Entertainment Global)

Fox’s return to the international distribution game will no doubt be the talk of the market, with the new sales unit’s launch coming at Mipcom under MarVista Entertainment boss Fernando Szew after three years out. Fox is bringing three shows to Cannes, with Jon Hamm’s Grimsburg and midseason comedy Animal Control joining animated comedy Krapopolis, the latest big hitter from Rick and Morty creator Dan Harmon. Krapopolis follows King Tyrannis, who is trying to build one of the first cities from scratch. Set in mythical ancient Greece, the show is centered on a flawed family of humans, gods and monsters and will air next year. Certain to keep the Cannes crowd interested.

THE NIGHT LOGAN WOKE UP (Studiocanal)

Xavier Dolan’s debut TV series sits somewhere in between psychological thriller and drama and will likely turn heads on the Croisette. Canal+’s show is set 30 years after protagonist Mimi is raped by her best friend Logan, when she was just 14. She travels home to take care of her mother’s corpse and is sent on an unstoppable pursuit of reconciliation and truth. Dolan also stars, writes and produces this fiveparter, which comes from Productions Nanoby for the French streamer.

The Real Mo Farah

IN-PERSON