Miptv 2018 news 4

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NEWS 4 Thursday 12 April 2018

MIPTV DEALS Endeavor’s Killing Eve sells to Canal+.

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IN DEVELOPMENT The inaugural Cannes Drama Creative Forum

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WINNERS New series and talent are honoured at the first CANNESERIES festival

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2018

Four industry luminaries received the 2018 MIPTV Medailles d’Honneur from Reed MIDEM’s Paul Zilk yesterday.

Colleagues and friends joined the honourees at a gala lunch at the Carlton hotel

Youku/Alibaba’s Yang Weidong (left), Global Agency’s Izzet Pinto, Bambu Producciones’ Teresa Fernandez-Valdes and Federation Entertainment’s Pascal Breton, on stage with their 2018 MIPTV Medailles d’Honneur

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Sidse Babett Knudsen, patron of the inaugural CANNESERIES

Audrey Fleurot, star of the closing series, Harlan Coben’s Safe

Talent, jury members and festival organisers walked the pink carpet to the CANNESERIES closing gala where the winners accepted their prizes Cacciatore: The Hunter’s Stefano Lodovichi (left), Francesco Montanari and Davide Marengo

Michael C Hall, star of the closing series, Harlan Coben’s Safe

Safe’s Marc Warren (left), Amanda Abbington, Harlan Coben and Michael C Hall

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The winners

Francesco Montanari, star of Italy’s Cacciatore: The Hunter, from Cross Productions, Beta Film and RAI Fiction, accepts the award for Best Performance

Synnove Horsdal, co-creator of Norway’s State Of Happiness, produced by Maipo Film, accepts the award for Best Music on behalf of Jan Inge ‘Ginge’ Anvik

The team from Israel’s When Heroes Fly, produced by Spiro Films, accepts the award for Best Series

The team from Israel’s Miguel, produced by Movie Plus Productions, accepts the award for Special Performance on behalf of Miguelito Sojuel

Metta Bolstad, co-creator of Norway’s State Of Happiness, produced by Maipo Film, accepts the award for Best Screenplay

The team from Dominos accepts the CANNESERIES Digital Short-Form award

MIPTV News 4 •

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Driving the content economy

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‘No logo’ is the key to success of branded-content winner Carmilla CARMILLA, the global popculture phenomenon that started life as a modestly budgeted Canadian web series about vampire lesbians, was named as Brand Content Of The Year during a special keynote session at MIPTV yesterday.

The award reflected the role that the Shaftesbury-produced series has played in driving brand engagement and sales of the Kimberly-Clark sanitary products brand U by Kotex.

The remarkable thing about the Carmilla series, said Shaftesbury’s head of branded entertainment, Kaaren Whitney-Vernon, is that there is no reference to U by Kotex anywhere in the show, despite the fact that it is funded by Kimberly-Clark.

“There is not one logo or tampon in the content. The key is

Shaftesbury’s Kaaren Whitney-Vernon

Spectacular sports pushing the limits THE SPECTACULAR Sports And Action In Ultra-HD panel yesterday provided a forum for an emerging style of niche programming that exploits UHD’s astonishing visuals to the maximum by featuring some of the most dangerous and spectacular sports, in astonishing locations.

Introducing the show Drone Wars, Jon Smith, CEO of Hoplite Entertainment, admitted that contestants were not told beforehand that their expensive drones would end up being destroyed by some of the challenges they were about to face.

“In fact, that’s where the comedy element of the show came from, and luckily they were crazy enough not to care that their wonderful flying machines were going to end up trashed,” he said.

Ananda Media’s Pascoe de Glanville

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to create content that people love and then use the halo effect outside the show, for example, by producing content with the stars for distribution via social media.”

Whitney-Vernon said the growth of branded content is a response to the fact that young audiences are not interested in spot ads. “Because they can control ads by blocking them or skipping them, giving the audience entertainment they care about is the way to reach them.”

Shaftesbury CEO and chair Christina Jennings said the emergence of branded content is also a great opportunity for producers: “It’s getting harder to finance content, so in a sense we created a new model by going back 50 years to the idea of soap operas. As a producer, what I’ve learned from Carmilla is the power of global fandom.”

Carmilla has been so successful that it has been adapted as a film and is now being developed as a mainstream TV series.

“But we really wanted to push the limits of what drones can do, to go beyond just racing them to setting the people controlling them really difficult tasks.”

The series was filmed in Croatia and at one point the Croatian Navy got involved. “A drone, plus its UHD camera, fell into the sea and they provided a ship with a crane to help us recover it — something that would not have happened in the US, where we would have had to call the Coast Guard,” he said.

Pascoe de Glanville, CEO of Ananda Media, presented Pushing The Limits, which tells the story of sporting exploits that are right on the limit of what can safely be achieved.

“We carried out safety checks for avalanches for the skiers, and for the surfers we have lifeguards on jet skis; but for the wingsuit flyers, you just have to let them get on with it.”

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International Emmy Kids Awards Star presenters, nominees and winners enjoyed a gala evening in Cannes on Tuesday where awards for this year’s International Emmy Kids Awards were presented

Eva Radlicki celebrates with the ZDF team on winning the Kids Factual category for Berlin Und Wir (Berlin And Us), from Germany’s ZDF and Imago TV Film & Fernsehproduktion. The prize was presented by British classical crossover band Ember Trio after their electrifying performance

Miss Supranational, Jenny Kim, presents France’s Emmanuele Petry-Sirvin with the Kids Preschool award for her company Dandelooo’s La Cabane A Histoires (The Treehouse Stories)

Star of Carmilla, Natasha Negovanlis, presents Bernd Reichart, from Germany’s Vox Television with the Kids Series award for Club Der Roten Baender (Red Bracelets)

Director Matt Bloom and Kindle Entertainment’s Anne Brogan accept the Kids TV Movie/ Mini-Series award for Hank Zipzer’s Christmas Catastrophe, from the UK

WDR kids presenter Clarissa Correa Da Silva presents Martin Pope (left) and Michael Rose with the Kids Animation award for the UK’s Magic Light Pictures’ Revolting Rhymes, watched by WDR’s Die Maus

MIPTV News 4 • 11 • 12 April 2018

Beate Rendahl (left), Anne Wisloff and director Stine Buer, the team from Norway’s NRK, received the Kids Digital award for Jenter (Young Girls)

Canadian actor and musician Emile Schneider accepted the Kids Non-Scripted Entertainment award on behalf of Andrea and Mitch Gabourie from Canada’s Forte Entertainment for their show Snapshots

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Helping producers get the message about Instagram FOR A platform you cannot monetise, Instagram has become an essential tool for boosting business in today’s content business, speakers said during the session called How To Produce A Series For Instagram.

Sharing the lessons acquired using the Facebook-owned messaging platform which has 800 million-plus users worldwide were Hyppe Salmi, executive producer at Finnish public broadcaster YLE, and Joanna Wells, vice-president, digital at MTV International and Comedy Central (Viacom International Media Networks) in the UK. “We were early adopters because we wanted to be ahead of

the curve, especially at MTV. We want to be everywhere the audience is. It is about understanding what the platform requires,” Wells said. “My advice to producers is not to be afraid. Hire people who are making content for themselves.”

Wells sees Instagram as ideal for content that is more intimate and visual. “For every post, you are taking the viewer to your home page to get them to follow you.

Then, learn how to cross promote that on other platforms.”

YLE had used Instagram for mostly marketing purposes, such as promoting the shows on its linear platform and VOD service Areena.

Karma, on the other hand, was the first time the broadcaster had commissioned an Instagram-only series. It was a bold experiment shot with only a smartphone and transmitted in real time over three days.

“The three actresses in it lived together over the three days and used the viewers’ real-time comments in the story’s development,” Salmi said. “Karma was real-time drama so there was no trailer to market its launch.”

“You have to think about the audience and how they will use the content too,” Salmi told the audience. This meant the length of each episode varied depending on the storyline.

Stop selling short-form short

SHORT-form content makers need to do more to market their shows and push them out to new viewers, a leading writer on the genre has said.

Speaking at a special session of MIPTV yesterday afternoon, Joel Bassaget, editor of Web Series Mag, part of French current affairs publication Liberation, said that makers of short-form TV content were still not achieving their potential audiences or monetisation.

Bassaget said: “We are talking about marketing and monetis-

ing content. From a marketing point of view, the market for short-form isn’t there yet. The

audiences don’t know that this short-form exists. We need to be more creative when it comes

Web Series Mag’s Joel Bassaget

DIRECTOR OF PUBLICATIONS Paul Zilk MARKETING DIRECTOR Mathieu Regnault

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YLE’s Hyppe Salmi

“When Karma was shot in real time, we did not know when the viewers would be using their Instagram. At the time of transmission, you don’t know who is still watching or who has gone off to do other things. That makes a huge difference to the way you approach your script.”

to distributing the form to the audience.

“One of the ways we can do that is to use popular things online that are out there, like gaming. We need to talk about the strategy.”

Bassaget presented clips from last year’s Web Series World Cup, a competition which he created in 2015. Included in the range of shows were: German comedy Gut Holz (Good Wood); a tense Russian drama about a young woman missing in London; a new German puppet show comedy, TubeHeads; and a powerful drama about violence towards transgender people.

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MIPTV News 4 • 12 • 12 April 2018

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Head-mounted device sales up but more VR content is needed

Juan Bossicard, EUVR.org, addressing the summit

THE SECOND annual Immersive Content Leadership Summit took place yesterday at the Majestic hotel, uniting different parts of the nascent industry to discuss progress, and the challenges still ahead.

Consumer uptake of HMDs (head-mounted devices) is still healthy, especially in the leading markets such as China, Korea, the US and western Europe, reported analyst Clifton Dawson, CEO of Greenlight Insights.

THE SOCIAL buzz intensified in the Debussy Theatre when Spanish superstar vlogger El Rubius (real name Ruben Doblas Gundersen) took part in the Next Gen Showcase, Virtual Hero: When A World Leading Influencer Becomes An Animated Hero. With more than 36 million followers on YouTube and Twitter combined, he is also the action hero in the first Spanish anime series, Virtual Hero. Commissioned

by Movistar+ (Telefonica’s subscription platform), it is aimed at the fanatical millennial and gen-Z gamers who follow the YouTuber. Ismael Calleja, head of production and business affairs, series and movies, said Movistar+ is now looking for distributors.

YouTube star El Rubius

Hardware prices were coming down and the industry was better understanding the potential for growth at home, he said, as well as “out of home” in different contexts — for example, in malls, cultural venues, theme parks and cinemas.

However, “we need to find the game-changer for mass VR adoption,” according to Juan Bossicard of EUVR.org, who moderated the morning. “What is missing is the mass production of content that will help bring VR to the world.”

The way forward, the participants agreed, over the course of round-table sessions and a panel discussion, was an unwavering focus on quality content.

“In 2018 we’re in a very ripe time: the focus will start shifting from hardware to content,” said Alina Mikhaleva, of Russia’s Spherica VR Studio.

Better content might mean working with bigger partners

MIPTV News 4 • 13 • 12 April 2018

and bringing in big, recognisable stars. But it also means helping partners understand that immersive content must not be an afterthought: it must offer something truly VR-specific and special — to deepen and extend the story in a movie, maybe.

In addition, to increase appeal — and revenues — producers must extend their range to include different forms, chiefly family-focused content. “There are only so many people that want to wake up having to escape from a mental asylum, or play first-person shooters. A mass market needs mass-market content,” said panellist Jonathan Flesher of Baobab Studios.

Other action points included making good content more discoverable, and watching the user while they’re using immersive reality, in whatever form that may be, to refine and develop their experience.

“The content we see today is not the content we will see in three years’ time. And it will be driven by consumers,” Dawson said.

“Immersive reality is now a respected art form. People are struggling with monetising the content because of the fragmented landscape, but this is resolving itself,” he added.

Clifton Dawson, Greenlight Insights

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Visionary editors and creators lead the charge with 4K factual FACTUAL programming is driving the growth of the 4K UHD market, with visionary commissioning editors and content creators leading the charge, delegates were told at the conference Factual In Ultra-HD, Winning Critical And Public Acclaim.

“In the old days, they used to say 4K put an extra third on your budget,” Ed Sayer, head of original commissioning, Discovery UK, said. “But now it’s around a quarter. We have crews that are getting more experienced with data wrangling, there’s better storage capacity in the edit, and post-production houses have 4K suites they want to use, so the costs are coming down there too.”

Showcasing clips from Discovery’s upcoming documentary Above And Beyond: NASA’s

Journey To Tomorrow, Sayer indicated the superior level of detail — “you can even see the contrails across Earth from space” — but said that the challenges of 4K were still emerging.

“We’re currently making the first ever survival show to be shot in 4K, featuring our survival expert Ed Stafford, who takes on a different competitor each week in very challenging environments in a race for extraction,” said Sayer.

“However, the big lesson for us here was not to rush out and do everything in 4K, as we soon realised that all the high-movement stuff was almost too much in 100 frames per second. So we have cameramen doing wide shots, cut with Ed’s almost-4K GoPro POV material.”

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Other panellists, Olivier Chiabodo, team leader, The Explorers and Emmanuelle Bouilhaguet, general manager, Lagardere Studios, described their latest project, a hugely ambitious attempt to map the world’s natural and anthropo-

logical wonders in 4K, called The Explorers.

“There are only 25 or 30 4K channels around,” said Bouilhaguet, “but we’re creating high-quality footage with a longterm vision.”

“We’ve shot 100,000 hours in 4K raw as we really believe in this format,” Chiabodo said.

“For the wider industry, 4K is also a way to sell screens and premium content and, as consumers respond, demand for content will increase.”

Ed Sayer, head of original commissioning, Discovery UK

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Drama producers determine just what makes a kids’ live-action hit WHEN you ask a successful kids’ producer what makes their show sell, the stock answer — ‘great characters and great stories’ — doesn’t tell you much.

So on Wednesday, three drama producers drilled down to discover what makes a kids’ live-action show into a global hit.

“Hire American writers to zero in on that shiny, bright, American look,” said Joan Lambur, founder of Lambur Productions — a Canadian. “We have a wonderful talent pool in Canada, but US writers are better at getting the right balance of tears and laughter. And they’re more visual storytellers.”

Universal themes help. For kids, that means storylines about a new school, homework problems, classmates, the head teach-

Joan Lambur: “Hire American writers”

er, and often fantasy.

“Make the story super bold and super clear,” said Steven Andrew,

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creative director of Zodiak Kids Studios. “In the UK, we tend to want to make the audience think.

It’s a nice way to tell a story, but it may not work internationally.”

“Casting is very important,” said Brenda Maffuchi, head of acquisitions and property development, De Agostini Editore. “We spend a lot of time getting the casting right.”

“They have to be pretty, though,” said Lambur. “Kids like looking at good-looking kids.”

And then to budgets. Do the bigger budget shows travel better?

“Great production values certainly put you ahead of the pack,” said Andrew. “A live-action show needs to look fundamentally interesting, or sunny, or in a fantasy world. And that takes resources.”

Funding is tight for most kids’ commissioners. But not at Netflix, apparently.

“Netflix wants a global audience,” said Lambur. “They don’t want to hear that you can do it for $300,000 per half hour.

They won’t believe you.”

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The Greenhouse which became a test bed for a Netflix pick-up LEADING executives from the kids TV business discussed the relative merits of tape sales versus formats in a session entitled: Selling Live Action Series As Scripted Formats.

Nicola Andrews, head of Keshet International’s kids division, said going down the format route is more time-consuming and expensive than making a tape sale, but is often preferred by broadcasters because they are able to stamp their mark on a show. “Often, you also need to make changes for a show to be accepted in a different market,” she said.

She cited the example of The Greenhouse, which was made for Nickelodeon and Yes TV in Israel and then adapted by

Netflix. “There were elements in the Israeli show that couldn’t be used in an English-language show, such as child characters having access to knives.”

Despite these cultural differences, Andrews said Israel is a good test bed for kids shows: “Formatting Israeli shows is always an option because the rat-

ings tell you if the show is good, but very few people outside the market have watched the original Hebrew version.”

Justus Riesenkampff, Beta Film international sales manager, responsible for Scandinavia-Benelux, agreed that the format business is very drawn out “but broadcasters like it because it is a way for them to get a proven concept and skip the development process”.

It is, he added, possible to speed things up if you have a hot show. In the case of NRK Norway’s Skam (Shame), demand has been so strong that Beta Film has been able to insist that producers and broadcasters move straight into production if they want the rights to the show.

So far, the company has secured seven format deals for Shame.

Session moderator Anke Beining-Wellhausen of UTOFilm (left), with Keshet’s Nicola Andrews and Beta Film’s Justus Riesenkampff

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MIPTV News 4 • 16 • 12 April 2018

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Cannes offers educational experience for the TV professionals of tomorrow FIFTEEN students from Queensland University of Technology have been at MIPTV this week as part of their degree programme. Joe Carter, QUT lecturer and study area co-ordinator, entertainment industries, told the MIPTV News: “We’ve been doing this for four years. The students participate in sessions and do placements with Australian companies. They then write an assessment which goes towards their degree.”

One of the students, Eric Abraham, was lucky enough to ask a question at the Why Series Travel? Keynote Show- The team from Queensland University of Technology case, featuring Michael C Hall and Harlan Coben. Abraham Another student, Rachel Ellis, senior professionals in action.” said: “I’ve been constantly said it has been “really useful to All of the student delegation amazed at the quality of talent sit in on business meetings. You commented positively on the at MIPTV. Harlan Coben is a really get the chance to immerse range of learning experiences yourself in the industry by seeing available at MIPTV, with workhero of mine.”

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shops and sessions on everything from social media and VR to 4K. “I enjoyed attending the kids’ live-action pitches,” said Carmen Bensley, who is thinking about post-production as a career. “I was really interested in the way the judges interacted with the pitchers during that process.”

Sabina Fernandez, who would like to be a script editor when she graduates, said her trip to Cannes has given her the confidence to pursue her ambitions: “I was probably a bit hesitant before I came, but I feel a lot more comfortable about entering the industry now.”

All of them reported that they had been warmly received by MIPTV’s busy delegates. But they agreed that maybe there was more the industry could learn from them — because they are the target audience that the television industry spends so much time talking about. That sounds like an idea for a session at MIPTV 2019 maybe…

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Delegates debate the rise of the screenwriter robots

ScriptBook’s Nadira Azermai

Azad Films’ Claire Lemarechal

LLimn’s Marina Pavlovic Rivas

A PASSIONATE debate about whether computers and robots can supplant human creativity took place during the In Development session: Up And Coming: Could AI Replace The Traditional Creative Process?

“What is impossible to replace is the creator’s vision and voice,” said Claire Lemarechal, a writer at France-based Azad Films. “How you see the world and why you want to tell a story about it is a human vision. A computer has no vision.”

Marina Pavlovic Rivas, consultant/founder of LLimn, a Canada-based specialist in AI tech, countered: “It might be possible to create without a vision.”

“But do we really want that?”

Lemarechal said. At which point, Nadira Azermai, CEO of ScriptBook, a Belgium-based AI company focusing on automated scriptwriting, intervened and said: “There are a lot of shitty movies out there, so I agree some human intervention will

be needed.”

Ironically, ScriptBook’s mission is to revolutionise the film-making business. “In the future, it would make sense to produce beautiful artistic movies that are 100% machine-engineered and specifically targeted.”

Azermai then explained the problem with today’s film-making system. “We’re in a busi-

Nadira Azermai:

ness where we’re working in the same way we did 100 years ago; 87% of movies lose money at the box office; and the European sector is falling hard and fast. Until now, we had no means of analysing a script’s potential apart from reading it line by line, which is time-consuming.”

And while she was there to advocate why AI, deep-learning and algorithms will one day be able to produce original hit-making creative scripts, she said the tech was still embryonic.

Pavlovic Rivas noted the significant progress already taking place with AI able to recreate human faces used in videos.

Furthermore, AI-created original music might be used as movie soundtracks in the next few years, she added.

Writer Lemarechal said she welcomed any computer-assistance as opposed to computer replacement.

“Of course, experience and what has been done before is basis of writing by humans. What comes next is the creation of original characters and giving life to them. Maybe, the computer can help us, but as a co-writer with no egos.

THE VR speed-matching at the Participants’ Lounge gave VR producers the chance to meet potential investors. Max Sacker, creative director of AnotherWorld in Berlin used it to pitch to Lanny Albina Huang of investor VR Educate. She loves his work, and they arranged to reconvene at his stand for a more in-depth meeting.

“There are a lot of shitty movies out there, so I agree some human intervention will be needed” ScriptBook’s cloud-based platform is able to process and analyse one script in less than five minutes and as many as 10,000 scripts daily. Moreover, the analysis is also able to help producers predict how well the film will perform in terms of viewing figures.

MIPTV News 4 • 18 • 12 April 2018

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Endeavor Content/IMG’s Killing Eve in sales spree FOLLOWING its star-studded screening at the inaugural CANNESERIES, Endeavor Content/IMG has sold its spy-action thriller Killing Eve to France’s Canal+ Group.

The series, based on the novels of Luke Jennings, was produced

by Sid Gentle Films (The Durrells) for BBC America, where it launched on April 8. Written by Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag), it stars Sandra Oh (Grey’s Anatomy; Sideways) and Jodie Comer (Doctor Foster; Thirteen), all of whom were in Cannes this week for the drama’s international debut.

The Canal+ deal is the latest in a string of sales for Killing Eve. The series has already been acquired by HBO Europe for Scandinavia, CEE, Spain, RTP Portugal and Portuguese-speaking Africa; Hot for Israel; and TVNZ for New Zealand.

Killing Eve centres on two fiercely intelligent women: Eve (Oh), a desk-bound M15 security officer; and Villanelle (Comer), a mercurial psychopathic killer.

Equally obsessed with each other, the two women embark on an epic game of cat and mouse.

Gary Marenzi, head of entertainment sales and partnerships at Endeavor Content, said Kill-

ing Eve had met with “incredible” interest following its BBC America premiere and CANNESERIES screening. “There is an overwhelming sense that this project has come along at just the right time,” he added.

“It proudly showcases the work of immensely talented women, both in front of and behind the camera.”

Jodie Comer (left) and Sandra Oh in Killing Eve

Asian expansion for Fix&Foxi

THE FIX&FOXI Channel is continuing its Asian roll-out with the channel now available in Hong Kong. Fix&Foxi also recently launched in Indonesia on SMV FreeSat TV, and in the Philippines on Agilasat. The channel features a blend of 2D, CGI animated and live-action shows for kids and families, and includes classic characters, first-run, and brand new shows.

Fix&Foxi is hosted by the twin foxes and is aimed at three-to 13-year-old kids, teens and the whole family.

“Fix&Foxi Channel’s blend of high-quality and learning-based programming with good positive values and a strong family appeal will be a great fit with audiences in Hong Kong and across Asia,” said Stefan Piech, CEO of Your Family Entertainment, the operator of the Fix&-

Foxi Channel.

Fix&Foxi is represented in Asia

by Hong Kong-based Lightning International.

“Asia has a tremendous appetite for quality family entertainment,

and Fix&Foxi Channel fulfils that completely, with shows that are both entertaining and educational, and suitable for all the family,” Lightning International CEO James Ross said.

KEW MEDIA SIGNS UP FRANTIC FILM DISTRIBUTOR Kew Media Group has migrated the Frantic Films library onto its platform and, as of this market, is representing it internationally.

The deal involves more than 450 hours of content, including true crime series In Plain Sight (52 x 30 mins).

The whodunit documentary series explores disturbing real-life cases of murder where the culprit featured on TV news reports, was interviewed by the media, posted in social media or newspaper reports, or otherwise brazenly showed their face while all the time they had blood on their hands. Further Frantic Films’ content now available from Kew includes lifestyle series Til Debt Do Us Part, Pitchin’ In and Buy It, Fix It, Sell It. Frantic Films’ CEO and executive producer Jamie Brown said: “Kew’s track record in maximising the potential of each and every title across multiple channels and platforms worldwide is very impressive. Being part of the group has enabled us to expand our global ambitions.”

Greg Phillips, president of distribution at Kew Media Group, said the deal “will enable us to deliver an impressive array of new and existing high-quality content to our global clients.”

NEW HIT FACTORY MONTREAL’s Hitlab Media launched Hitlab-The Show at MIPTV. The company’s project combines tech and industry expertise — creatives, record companies, publishers, producers, media, venues and promoters — to turn a song into a hit.

Lightning’s James Ross (left) and Your Family Entertainment’s Stefan Piech

MIPTV News 4 • 19 • 12 April 2018

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Balancing the risks and rewards of multi-lingual CREATING an international co-production in multiple languages can be risky, but “it is a risk worth taking,” according to Isabelle Bertrand, head of content acquisition France, Amazon.

Bertrand was talking on a panel showcasing a new cross-border production called Germanized (Deutsch-Les-Landes) as part of In Development, the two-day event dedicated to fast-tracking drama production on an international level at MIPTV. Germanized, Amazon’s first French production, Deutsche Telekom’s first original creation and the first collaboration between Newen and Bavaria Fiction, tells the story of a mayor in a fictional town in the south of France who can’t manage local finances.

She sells half the town to a German businessman, who brings over 200 new settlers

Moderator Raphael Porier (left); Deutsche Telekom’s Arnim Butzen; Newen/ Telfrance, Elephant Story’s Sandra Ouaiss; Bavaria Fiction’s Moritz Polter; and Amazon’s Isabelle Bertrand

from Germany, with hilarious consequences.

“We thought that the idea was

interesting and creative, and comedy is relatively under-represented on the platform,”

Novel pitches from French agents A TRAGI-comedy set in a French embassy in a fictional country; a cache of love letters telling the moving real-life story of a love affair between a French officer in the Algerian War and the author’s mother; 100 years of Chinese history seen through the eyes and lives of one family; and a comedy set on the legendary Paris-Venice train — these were among the stories pitched to delegates during yesterday’s In Development creative forum, From The Bedside To The Screen: Books Awaiting Legacy-Level Adaptation.

Introducing the session, financier Serge Hayat of Cinemage and 123 Capucines, said that, in honour of the inaugural CANNESERIES, the pitch would focus on French literary properties.

Literary agent Olivier Rubinstein said that, when he receives a manuscript with adaptation potential, he will send it on to producers, actors or directors that he feels might be interested. He cited a

book about a cosmetic surgeon that he recently sold to a French producer on the basis of the first 50 pages. “But that doesn’t happen very often,” he added.

Guillaume Allary of publisher

Allary Editions’ Guillaume Allary (left) and literary agent Olivier Rubinstein

MIPTV News 4 • 21 • 12 April 2018

Bertrand said. “Amazon Video launched worldwide in December 2016, initially with English shows, but we’re trying to localise content now and source original projects in France and Germany.”

“Linguistically, we’ve chosen a complex route,” said Moritz Polter, executive producer international TV series, Bavaria Fiction. “We have two French writers and a German writer, and each writer creates an episode in their own language. Then the scripts are translated so the other writers can give feedback.”

“In the final show, the French and German characters speak in their own languages, but are dubbed for the respective French and German markets,” added Sandra Ouaiss, executive producer on behalf of Newen/ Telfrance, Elephant Story.

“We’re not that experienced in co-production, so we were looking for a partner that could manage that, and I think we found that partner,” said Arnim Butzen, vice-president commercial management TV & Entertainment Deutsche Telekom.

Allary Editions took a different stance: “I never think about adaptation. When I read a manuscript, I never ask myself whether it would make a good film or TV series. I only ask myself whether it’s a good book.”

Rubinstein explained that the literary agent is a relatively new phenomenon in France: “Five years ago, there was one agent in the country. Now, there are about 15 of us, which is still nothing compared to the US or the UK.” Allary said he liked dealing with agents such as Rubinstein who worked closely with their authors and pitched relevant concepts that are edited and ready for publication. “But if the agent is only there as a go-between to help negotiate terms and copyright and royalties, then I’d rather work with lawyers,” he added.

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Pitch hopefuls take on abortion, teen drug use and Nordic noir THREE fledgling drama series were held up for scrutiny at the third Oh My Pitch! Key Decision Makers session at the In Development creative drama forum.

First up was Angelica, in which the cosy Midwestern world of apple pies and milkshakes meets the high emotions and incendiary politics of the abortion debate, when a small town becomes the last place in the state to offer abortions.

“It was important to us to strike a balanced story,” said writer Eliza Lee. “We don’t want to turn this into a debate, it needs texture and nuance — this is a character study.”

The duo behind it, Eliza Lee and Jen McGowan, project a four-season run of 10 x 60 mins, and are looking for finance and partners.

They were followed by Class A. Billed as ‘Breaking Bad meets the In-Betweeners’, it follows teenager Kurtis, a social nobody

Jen McGowan (left) and Eliza Lee, co-creators of Angelica

who parlays his Bitcoins and mastery of the dark web into real-world infamy as the school drug lord. It addresses big un-

acknowledged issues around the internet, where you can now buy drugs delivered to your door and where 16-year-olds can be-

Turning bestsellers into must-see hits MOVE the action of Elena Ferrante’s global bestselling novel My Brilliant Friend from Italy to Brooklyn? Not likely. The FremantleMedia adaptation was set in southern Italy as Ferrante, who had full approval, intended.

It became HBO’s first full-on co-production with a terrestrial broadcaster (RAI) and also its first in a foreign language. “I think this is an important moment for all of us in European television,” said FremantleMedia’s Sarah Doole.

Sydney Gallonde transposed Harlan Coben’s No Second Chance to Paris, and the lead from male to female. “The difficulty was not the language change, it was keeping Harlan’s DNA in the process,” Gallonde

Make It Happen Studio’s Sydney Gallonde is a Harlan Coben fan

MIPTV News 4 • 23 • 12 April 2018

come millionaires — and does so authentically, having been written by the same generation it portrays.

“It’s Scarface in a school uniform,” said Oliver Deacon, one of the young British creators, along with Charley Packham and Simon Schneider. “But it’s not just about drugs or money, it’s about acceptance.”

The trio had pitched 8 x 30 mins but were also open to making a web series.

The Machinery, meanwhile, was described by its intended director, Richard Holm, as “taking Nordic noir to the next level”.

Its protagonist wakes up after a night out on a ferry between Sweden and Norway with a gun and a bag of money and no memory of how he got there — and he must take on shadowy forces to prove his innocence.

However, the Swedish coastal backdrop would set it apart: “We don’t intend this to look dark, we wanted something lighter to it, thanks to its beautiful setting,” he said.

The project has about 80% of its €6m budget, and confirmed partners in TV3 and Viaplay, as well as regional funding.

said. “I was a big fan of Mr Coben. My role was to protect what I loved in this novel.”

In his opinion, it is easier to adapt older books where audiences might not remember the plot: “New books can be disappointing because your head can have more money than my production!” he said.

Perrin Chiles’ Adaptive Studios took source material from unoptioned scripts, graphic novels and digital properties, and sometimes even turned them back into books: “Everything we develop, we develop for the purpose of making TV or film,” said Chiles. “But that might include ground-up franchise-building, or starting conversations with the public,” he said. They were all speaking at the In Development Turning Bestsellers Into Must-See Hits session.

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Strong early sales for Japanese comedy drama from Fuji TV

The Confidence Man (Fuji TV)

FUJI TV is presenting a new entertaining comedy about a bizarre plan by three con artists to steal a large sum of money from unscrupulous company bosses and Mafia dons. The 10part series, which has just aired in Japan, sees these partners-incrime cheat and be cheated as they conjure every trick in the book to rob their targets.

Ten deals for the new series were signed before it first aired on Monday, while remake deals had already been concluded

with China and South Korea.

The finished programme deals cover 80 countries across Asia, the US and Europe.

“Recently we are trying not only to sell finished drama series, but also to sell remake rights as a scripted format outside Japan,” said Fumi Nishibashi, deputy director, international department, Fuji Creative Corporation.

The series was created in collaboration with scriptwriter Ryota Kosawa (Always: Sunset On

Third Street), with the intention of being adapted. It is a new approach for Japanese broadcasters who tend to streamline productions for the domestic market.

“Confidence Man is different because from the start we thought about Japanese, Chinese and Korean versions,” said So Fujinuma, director worldwide production and business management, Fuji TV. “The scriptwriters were thinking how the programme could be localised in different cultures.”

Chi Chi chimes as co-pro deal is inked TOONZ Media Group (India), Neon Creation (Korea) and Backbone Entertainment (Malaysia) have signed a co-production deal for Chi-Chi, The Apprentice Sorceress, an 11 x 52 mins 3D CGI animation series, based on the pop-up book of the same name. The show is due to be ready in mid-2019.

Chi-Chi, aimed at four- to sixyear olds, is the story of a cheerful and curious young girl who, ever since she found a book of magic, constantly tests out new spells and potions. Toonz Media Group CEO, P Jayakumar said: “Chi-Chi is an amazing show that will entertain and enrich kids across the world. I am very happy that Toonz found the perfect partners in Neon Creation and Backbone Entertainment.”

The series will be distributed in Korea, Greater China and Thailand by Neon Creation, in Malaysia by Backbone, and for the rest of the world by Imira Entertainment, part of Toonz Media Group. Paul Robinson, Imira’s CEO, said the series “takes

kids on an imaginative problem-solving journey through which they can learn the importance of friendship, tolerance and solidarity, universal values that kids can relate to. We will be showing the first episodes at MIPCOM this year.”

Backbone Entertainment’s Evelyn Lee (left); Toonz Media Group’s P Jayakumar; Neon Creation’s Sara Kyungwon Han-Williams; and Imira’s Paul Robinson

MIPTV News 4 • 25 • 12 April 2018

FROM GOURMETS TO GHOSTS WITH GRECO’S TGTV CANADIAN producer-presenter Frank Greco is a regular attendee at MIPTV. Through his company TGTV, he is in Cannes this year with three aspirational food and travel-based series The Travel Guy, Gourmet Escapes and The Mangia Cake Boys. Also on the slate is the new six-part Paranormal Destinations, the first episode set in Newfoundland.

According to Greco: “My primary focus at MIPTV is to promote my productions to various global networks, VOD services and airline inflight entertainment. I’ll also assist my distributor, Canamedia, to get the episodes and trailers in front of acquisitions executives.”

Greco’s work is generally light-hearted — and he says this carries through into the new Paranormal Destinations series. “The series will explore the mischievous, fun and funny side of the paranormal who inhabit homes, businesses and public places. The funny and quirky side of ghosts is revealed by the people who ‘live’ with them.”

Canamedia was generating strong interest in the series in the opening two days of the market, said Greco.

“We are putting a few deals together and have met with interested parties. There is good interest from the US, Canada and a few European countries so far for the paranormal series, as well as the other lifestyle shows.”

Frank Greco aka The Travel Guy

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EYECANDYLAB’S IMMERSIVE APP GERMAN company eyecandylab is in Cannes with a new AR technology that it says will redefine TV viewing. Michael Ruhe, head of business development EMEA, said augmen.tv app allows broadcasters to complement their programming with second-screen content that makes the viewing experience more immersive. For example, a viewer can watch a football match on their main screen while browsing related data on their mobile or tablet.

Other possible AR embellishments include home shopping, games, or infotainment overlays that can support factual programming. It’s also possible to build interactive elements to make advertising more engaging. According to CEO and co-founder Tom Orzikowski, the effectiveness of augmen.tv has already been demonstrated through a link-up with German broadcaster ProSieben around its primetime science magazine Galileo. Spread across five days, 120 minutes of AR content helped Galileo achieve record-breaking levels of interaction, with more than 360,000 unique users getting involved across the week. The team is now in discussion with leading broadcasters in the US.

GAME ON FOR KIDS APP PLAY-along kids series Holy Baloney (10 x 3 mins), from Toronto’s marblemedia is launching on the CBC TV app, as well as on CBC Kids.

The show features three kids who answer a question about everyday things, each with a different answer that’s funny or poignant. Distribution360 handles rights.

Japan’s Kansai forges closer bonds in Turkish drama deal TV COMPANIES from Japan and Turkey are forming increasingly close ties through cross-border collaborations and joint development initiatives, the international sales head for a Japanese drama producer has said.

Kazuhiro Sato, of Tokyo-based Kansai TV, said historical ties and a “similar mentality” between the two countries, both of which are previous MIPCOM Country Of Honour holders, meant that a strong working relationship was emerging.

Celebrating a second major deal with Turkish production company MF Yapim, Sato said: “Japan and Turkey are building a very good relationship; the two countries have a similar mentality. We think this relationship will keep growing, and it has improved since we have each been Country Of Honour at MIPCOM.” The deal between Kansai TV and MF Yapim, reached during

this year’s MIPTV, marks the two companies’ second joint adaptation project.

The latest agreement will see MF Yapim adapt a Kansai revenge drama, Final Cut, for broadcast in Turkey. It follows a major collaborative development between the two companies, in which MF Yapim adapted Kansai’s popular drama My Dangerous Wife for

Turkish audiences.

Kansai TV general manager Miho Okada and MF Yapim CEO Faruk Bayhan met in Cannes yesterday to celebrate the Final Cut deal.

In 2016 Japan was the holder of the Country Of Honour at MIPCOM, MIPTV’s sister conference. Turkey was awarded the honour the previous year.

Kansai TV ‘s Miho Okada (left) with MF Yapim’s Faruk Bayhan

Taiwan producers out in force A HOST of Taiwanese TV makers are in Cannes as part of an initiative to showcase the country’s television content to the international market.

Producers are at MIPTV with a range of content from Taiwan, from drama to real life to food shows and kids TV. Among the companies in Cannes is Magic 9 Productions, which is based in Kaohsiung city but also has operations in the US. Derrick Wu, executive director at Magic 9 Productions USA, said MIPTV represented a major opportunity for Taiwanese companies looking to gain better exposure internationally.

He said: “We want to promote our content to other countries; there are a lot of good people here and I’ve been very

happy about the number of countries that have come forward to talk to us.”

Among the other companies with a presence at MIPTV are Asia Digital Media, which produces kids’ fantasy shows, Sequoia Entertainment, the com-

Magic 9 Productions’ Derrick Wu

MIPTV News 4 • 26 • 12 April 2018

pany behind a popular LGBTQ drama in Taiwan, and Taipei drama producer Da Ai Television.

The companies are inviting producers and broadcasters to come to meet them in Cannes to discuss potential cross-border opportunities.

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