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TVDRAMA
WWW.TVDRAMA.WS
APRIL 2017
MIPTV & SERIES MANIA EDITION
Creative Alliances / Turkish Drama / American Gods’ Bryan Fuller & Michael Green Walter Presents’ Walter Iuzzolino / FremantleMedia’s Sarah Doole
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CONTENTS FEATURES
Sign of the Times
30 TALENT SCOUTS Leading distributors weigh in on the hunt for scripted talent.
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In the opening scene of the new CBS All Access series The Good Fight, Christine Baranski as Diane Lockhart looks shellshocked as she processes the unimaginable.
Ricardo Seguin Guise Publisher Anna Carugati Group Editorial Director Mansha Daswani Editor Kristin Brzoznowski Executive Editor Joanna Padovano Tong Managing Editor Sara Alessi Associate Editor Victor L. Cuevas Production & Design Director Phyllis Q. Busell Art Director Simon Weaver Online Director Dana Mattison Senior Sales & Marketing Manager Nathalia Lopez Sales & Marketing Assistant Andrea Moreno Business Affairs Manager
Ricardo Seguin Guise President Anna Carugati Executive VP Mansha Daswani Associate Publisher & VP of Strategic Development TV Drama © 2017 WSN INC. 1123 Broadway, #1207 New York, NY 10010 Phone: (212) 924-7620 Fax: (212) 924-6940 Website: www.tvdrama.ws
Yes, America did elect a billionaire reality TV star with a tenuous relationship with the truth as its 45th president. Robert and Michelle King, the creators of the show—a spin-off of The Good Wife, which ended its acclaimed run last year—have been saying for some time that they are eager to explore life in Trump’s America. At a conference in New York last fall, Robert King noted, “The Trump cultural shift gives a strong rationale for the show. It will address all the cultural shifts that have come about because of not just Trump as president but also the possible acceptance of a cruder culture.” And they’re not the only writers and producers tackling head-on these strange times we’re living in. Bryan Fuller and Michael Green, with their adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s brilliant and timeless American Gods, boldly celebrate the notion of America as a melting pot—an idea that seems to have lost favor with the current administration. An interview with that creative duo appears in this edition of TV Drama. But in these times, people also want a bit of fun, escapism, fantasy and uplift. “The stories we’re looking to tell in the next 18 months are very warm, they have love, redemption and hope in them,” Sarah Doole, the director of global drama at FremantleMedia, recently told me. The great irony of the shift towards nationalism that is showing its ugly head across the globe is that audiences are loudly proclaiming that borders and walls don’t matter. Viewers are devouring series from everywhere, a trend that Walter Presents has capitalized on over the last year. Walter Iuzzolino, the co-founder of the foreign-language drama platform, shares his approach to curation in this issue. And speaking of popular foreign-language drama, we also explore the latest trends in Turkish scripted in this edition. In the booming global drama landscape, talent is at a premium, and another feature in this issue hears from a range of distributors about how they are aligning with leading writers and producers. Whatever their origins, writers across the globe are eager to distill our fears and hopes, delivering shows that reflect our angst, help us understand it and, with any luck, make us feel optimistic about the days ahead. —Mansha Daswani
38 TURKISH FLOURISH Distributors of Turkish drama reveal how they are looking to keep the genre in the global spotlight.
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INTERVIEWS
46 American Gods’ Bryan Fuller & Michael Green
48 Walter Presents’ Walter Iuzzolino
50 FremantleMedia’s Sarah Doole
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all3media International Clique / Safe House: The Crow / Innocent Bryan Elsley and his daughter, writer Jess Brittain, followup the award-winning hit Skins with the new six-parter Clique. “There is a deficit of quality drama in the youth space,” says Sally Habbershaw, the executive VP of sales and co-productions for North America at all3media International. “Clique is a thriller in its constitution, but the underlying theme that is most riveting is the volatility and intensity of female friendships.” True Blood’s Stephen Moyer stars in the prime-time drama Safe House: The Crow, the next chapter in the event series. The four-parter debuts on ITV in May. Also a four-part ITV drama, Innocent deals with themes of love, lust, jealousy and betrayal, as one man fights to rebuild his shattered life and a family struggles to find out the truth behind the murder of their loved one.
“Following the success of Safe House: The Lake, the drama returns with a new cast, location and story line.” —Sally Habbershaw Safe House: The Crow
Banijay Rights Rebecka Martinsson / Baroness von Sketch Show / Dear Murderer Based on Åsa Larsson’s best-selling crime novels, Rebecka Martinsson is set in the remote landscape of northern Sweden and centers on a lawyer who has yet to find peace with herself. It comes from the Scandinavian producers Yellow Bird. “Having had global success with previous adaptations The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Wallander, this new series offers the same visceral landscapes and thrilling narratives that audiences crave from the Nordic noir genre,” says Chris Stewart, VP of sales at Banijay Rights. The company is also presenting Baroness von Sketch Show, which satirizes daily life, and Dear Murderer, produced for TVNZ. Dear Murderer brings to the screen the story of New Zealand’s most high-profile criminal lawyer, Mike Bungay, who famously defended more than 100 homicide cases.
“This year’s MIPTV lineup once again demonstrates the breadth of the Banijay Rights catalog.” —Chris Stewart Dear Murderer
Caracol Television Surviving Escobar, Alias JJ / A Carnival Affair / Pursuit of a Dream The story in Surviving Escobar, Alias JJ spotlights John Jairo Velásquez (alias JJ) after he became the last survivor of the Medellín cartel. Prior to it being developed, the series was presold to Netflix, Telemundo for the U.S. Hispanic market and WAPA for Puerto Rico, “which shows the confidence that clients have in our stories and production values,” says Paloma Garcia, Caracol Television’s sales executive for Western Europe and Africa. The company is also showcasing A Carnival Affair and Pursuit of a Dream. The latter centers on Consuelo Araújo, a woman who challenges Colombian society to make the music of her country known to the world. Garcia says, “2016 was a successful year for Caracol TV in terms of quantity and quality of international sales, and we are confident that with this year’s catalog, 2017 will be even better.”
“Our series have breathtaking story lines and are produced with the highest quality standards and great casts.” —Paloma Garcia Surviving Escobar, Alias JJ 322 WORLD SCREEN 4/17
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CJ E&M Tomorrow with You / Tunnel / Lovely Love Lie A time-traveling married man is the main character in Tomorrow with You, on offer from CJ E&M. The company is also presenting the dramas Tunnel and Lovely Love Lie. “Tunnel centers on two detectives who are from 1986 and 2016,” says Jangho Seo, the general manager of the global content business division at CJ E&M. “Having two very opposite approaches to solving crimes, they find their ways in working with the differences. Lovely Love Lie is originated from Japanese manga with the same title, telling us the younger and fresher love story.” CJ E&M is also hoping to drum up interest for the upcoming titles Chicago Typewriter and Stranger, both of which have strong casts and appealing story lines, according to Seo.
“Seasoned with fantastical features in the story lines, our dramas are very strong and unique.” —Jangho Seo Tomorrow with You
Eccho Rights Phi / Heart of the City / Maria Wern Fredrik af Malmborg, the managing director of Eccho Rights, calls Phi a “really exciting and very revolutionary project.” He continues, “Everybody in the industry knows about Turkish drama now, but we see Phi being a huge crossover hit with buyers of premium content for Western broadcasters and other OTT platforms at 20x60 minutes.” From the Turkish drama producer Ay Yapim comes Heart of the City, which has a script by Ece Yörenç, the same writer as the hit series Fatmagül and Forbidden Love. The drama Maria Wern has been airing in Sweden for many years already. “Now we are distributing the latest eight episodes produced by Warner Bros. for TV4 in Sweden, and a further eight are set for later this year,” af Malmborg says.
“Maria Wern is a new title for us but is very well known in the marketplace.” —Fredrik af Malmborg Maria Wern
FremantleMedia American Gods / Kim Kong / Reformation Old and new gods prepare for battle in the upcoming book-based drama American Gods, a FremantleMedia North America production for Starz. “Brought to the screen by executive producers Bryan Fuller, Michael Green and Neil Gaiman, American Gods features a starstudded cast, including Ricky Whittle, Ian McShane, Emily Browning, Pablo Schreiber, Gillian Anderson, Crispin Glover and Kristin Chenoweth,” says Sarah Doole, FremantleMedia’s director of global drama. Another highlight is Kim Kong, which comes from the makers of Baron Noir. “Kim Kong combines a legitimate action series with a comedic satire on the movie industry,” says Doole. There is also Reformation, which tells the story of religious reformer Martin Luther.
“FremantleMedia is increasingly becoming a home for ambitious, international scripted series.” —Sarah Doole American Gods 324 WORLD SCREEN 4/17
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Global Agency Eternal / Grand Family / Evermore The new Turkish drama Eternal comes from TIMS Productions, which is behind such hits as Magnificent Century. Senay Filiztekin, the head of drama acquisitions at Global Agency, describes the series as being “one step beyond” what has come to be expected of Turkish dramas. The show stars Engin Akyürek (Fatmagül) and Fahriye Evcen (Lovebird). “Eternal is an exciting, highly charged love story that starts with a crime committed years ago and the increasing feeling of guilt as the years pass that continues when the main character is set free and pursues the truth,” Filiztekin says. “This drama shows how far [one] would go for the sake of love, conscience and justice.” Grand Family tells the story of Hizir, who is part of a group that smuggles weapons and is one of the strongest members of this “grand family.” The women in his life are important to him, even though he is balancing having both a wife and a girlfriend. Romance is at the center of Evermore. “In this breathtaking love story, we watch what happens when two people from different backgrounds meet and fall completely in love,” Filiztekin says. The central characters are Faruk and Sureyya, who get married and move to the hometown of Faruk’s mother. Sureyya is constantly trying to win over her mother-inlaw, who has never left the walls of her mansion.
“Eternal is an exciting, highly charged love story.” —Senay Filiztekin
Eternal
Global Screen Welcome to Hindafing / ZombieLars / Redemption Road Set deep in the Bavarian backwoods, Welcome to Hindafing follows the rise and fall of a gutsy provincial mayor. The show takes a “Fargo-style look at the dark underbelly of our Western society,” says Alexandra Heidrich, the head of TV sales and acquisitions at Global Screen. The series combines “dark humor with a range of sappy and odd yet truly likable protagonists,” she adds. The dramedy ZombieLars focuses on a 12-year-old halfzombie and his friends with certain supernatural characteristics who have a series of strange adventures. “This is one of these rare live-action series for kids 8 to 12 and adults alike,” Heidrich says. “With a classy Scandinavian look, it is fearless when it comes to poop jokes in order to reach the younger audiences with its more than relevant underlying topic of xenophobia and social marginalization of others,” says Heidrich. She also notes that the show is the “optimal format and content for online platforms,” as the episodes are 15 minutes in length. The movie Redemption Road is about a German-Jewish judge and his family who are torn apart by the Nazis and WWII. “This is not the classic Nazi piece,” Heidrich says, as the epic family saga spans decades and continents. The story begins in the early 1930s and deals with the destiny of a family under the Nazi terror.
“The two-part epic movie Redemption Road casts a fresh light on the Nazi period.”
—Alexandra Heidrich
Redemption Road 326 WORLD SCREEN 4/17
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Legally Blind
GMA Worldwide Envy / Legally Blind / Destined to Be Yours GMA Worldwide is offering international buyers three of the latest drama series that launched on GMA Network in the Philippines: Envy, Legally Blind and Destined to Be Yours. Envy is about a couple who are torn apart by the death of their daughter. Legally Blind follows a law student who loses her vision after being drugged and raped. Destined to Be Yours chronicles the love story of Benjie, a serious architect with lofty aspirations, and Sinag, a happy-go-lucky radio DJ devoted to her family. The drama stars the on-screen power couple Alden Richards and Maine Mendoza. “Themes like romantic love, filial piety, revenge and betrayal are ones that viewers can easily relate to,” says Manuel Paolo J. Laurena, the senior sales manager at GMA Worldwide.
“GMA is the premier source of Filipino dramas.” —Manuel Paolo J. Laurena Mohawk Girls
GRB Entertainment Day 5 / Crunch Time / Mohawk Girls Over the past few years, GRB Entertainment has been building up its scripted offering. Day 5 is set in the aftermath of a fatal sleep epidemic. Jake sets out with a scrappy teenager, an overnight doctor and a red-eye pilot to figure out what happened. The company’s slate also includes Crunch Time, which Michael Lolato, the senior VP of international distribution, calls “a great combination of sci-fi and comedy. It’s The Big Bang Theory on steroids (and not asteroids), following a group of young scientists who create a VR dream machine and in the process accidentally create a potentially world-ending black hole.” Mohawk Girls, meanwhile, is a scripted dramatic comedy about four young Mohawk women who are trying to find two things: their place in the world and love.
“We are expanding our scripted section with the addition of three unique series.”
—Michael Lolato
Inter Medya Endless Love / Hayat / In Between A young man and woman from different social classes in a seaside neighborhood in Istanbul fall for each other in the drama series Endless Love, produced by Ay Yapim. The show airs on Turkey’s Star TV. Inter Medya’s slate also features the dramedy Hayat, about a handsome businessman and a clumsy young woman. Despite the chaos in their lives, love is waiting for them. In Between is another love story, this one about Neriman, a young woman who has big dreams for herself and begins to question whether the man she is expected to marry is the right choice for her. “The production quality of our titles is world-class and the strength of their stories is quite well accepted worldwide,” says Can Okan, the founder and CEO of Inter Medya.
“The Turkish dramas in our catalog are fast-moving and very exciting.” —Can Okan Endless Love 328 WORLD SCREEN 4/17
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Wounded Love
Kanal D Wounded Love / Family Secrets / Crossroads The real-life couple Halit Ergenç and Bergüzar Korel star in the Kanal D drama Wounded Love, which has already been licensed into 50 countries around the world. Kanal D will be looking to add to this roster of broadcasters with new sales at MIPTV, where the company will also be showcasing Flames of Desire, Crossroads and Family Secrets. A new drama launch for the market is Masum, which stars Haluk Bilginer. The series marks the first Turkish drama to be produced specifically for an OTT platform, BluTV. Ezgi Ural, Kanal D’s head of sales for MENA, Europe and Asia, says that the company has licensed programming into nearly 150 territories, “and our dramas are watched in various languages.” She notes that the Far East is a particular focus for exploring new sales opportunities.
“Demand for Turkish drama has increased dramatically in the last decade.” —Ezgi Ural
Keshet International Loaded / The A Word / Fallet (The Case) The series Loaded centers on the lives of four tech entrepreneurs and friends who turn mega-rich overnight when they sell their gaming company. “Amid a raging hurricane of money, excess and emotion, the series is about friendship, ambition, gluttony and how money can put even lifelong friendship to the test,” says Keren Shahar, the COO and president of distribution at Keshet International. The company is also bringing to MIPTV the second season of The A Word, which Shahar calls a “funny and thought-provoking series about parenthood and childhood.” The crime dramedy Fallet (The Case) is a “Nordic noir like you’ve never seen before,” Shahar says. “It is equally thrilling and funny, and we are happy to have it in our library as it breaks new ground in the continuing success story of Scandi crime.”
“In a crowded marketplace, the quality of the content and the caliber of those attached speaks for itself.” —Keren Shahar Loaded
MISTCO The Last Emperor / Resurrection (Ertugrul) / TRT miniseries The cast and producers of the new drama series The Last Emperor will take part in a special screening on the first day of MIPTV. The period piece tells the story of the Ottoman emperor Abdulhamid Han and stars Bülent Inal (Under the Linden Trees, Tatar Ramazan) and Özlem Conker (Black Rose). “There is no doubt that it will be a new phenomenon from TRT’s library in 2017,” says Aysegul Tuzun, the VP of sales and marketing at MISTCO, which represents programming from TRT. The drama Resurrection (Ertugrul) has been drawing high ratings for three seasons in Turkey, and MISTCO reports interest in the series from a varied range of broadcasters globally. There are a number of miniseries from the TRT catalog that will be on offer from MISTCO, among them The Legend of Destan.
“Resurrection (Ertugrul) has been receiving interest from all over the world from day one.” —Aysegul Tuzun Resurrection (Ertugrul) 330 WORLD SCREEN 4/17
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Red Arrow International Cleverman / Einstein / Farang Set in the near future, Cleverman is back for a second season. The genre drama, which stars Iain Glen (Game of Thrones) and Frances O’Connor (The Missing), proved to be a hit for ABC in Australia and SundanceTV in the U.S. The crime procedural Einstein, a Sat.1 original, has also been commissioned for a second season. The series focuses on a young professor named Felix, who is the great-grandson of Albert Einstein. Tom Beck (Alarm for Cobra 11) is in the lead role. Meanwhile, Ola Rapace (Skyfall, Section Zéro) stars in Farang, a new action-infused thriller. “We see continued demand for distinctive, character-driven fiction across an eclectic mix of genres, which is something that we have tried to reflect in our lineup for MIPTV,” says Henrik Pabst, the managing director of Red Arrow International.
“Red Arrow’s focus remains on being a home for ambitious drama that has international appeal.” —Henrik Pabst Einstein
Russia Television and Radio/Sovtelexport Ekaterina / Anna Karenina / Demon of the Revolution Karen Shakhnazarov, one of Russia’s most renowned film directors, has given new life to a classic tale in Anna Karenina. “No detail has been spared to achieve the atmosphere of true luxury and authenticity of the surroundings,” says Julia Matiash, the director of Sovtelexport, which sells programming from Russia Television and Radio. The company is also offering the market Ekaterina, centered on the eponymous Russian empress. “It dives into the empress’s love perils, constant betrayals that she had to withstand and the challenges and contradictions of being a woman and a monarch,” Matiash says. “Global viewers will find it captivating and mesmerizing.” The film Demon of the Revolution focuses on the historical figures Vladimir Lenin and Alexander Parvus, who played pivotal roles in the Great October Socialist Revolution.
“Our mission has always been to introduce top Russian TV products to the world.” —Julia Matiash Anna Karenina
ZDF Enterprises Maltese / Before We Die / Tempel Produced for Rai Fiction, Maltese tells the story of a man fighting against the mafia. The ZDF Enterprises (ZDFE) highlight is getting a special screening at the market on Tuesday, April 4. “It combines sophisticated horizontal storytelling with cinematic camerawork and a great cast,” says Robert Franke, the VP of ZDFE.drama. “We are extremely proud of this series and have already received a lot of positive feedback for it.” The company is also showcasing the crime series Before We Die, a Stockholm-set Nordic noir, and Tempel, which takes place in Berlin. “Tempel is an exciting new series from Germany that breaks the traditional commercial-hour format of serialized drama and repackages it in a fast-paced, on-the-spot 30-minute format,” Franke says.
“Maltese is a great example of the new wave of topnotch Italian serialized drama.” —Robert Franke Maltese 332 WORLD SCREEN 4/17
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Red Arrow’s Cleverman. 334 WORLD SCREEN 4/17
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Andy Fry checks in with leading distributors about the hunt for scripted talent and the art of successful collaboration. emand for TV drama in 2017 remains as rampant as ever, so it’s no surprise to see that international distributors continue to invest significant sums in producers and writers. Some are lucky enough to have access to in-house talent, either from related production divisions or through the group level acquisition of independent labels. But even such access doesn’t diminish the competition for third-party content creators. For every equity investment, there is a complex array of first-look and development deals. Explaining the importance of these relationships, Liam Keelan, the director of scripted content at BBC Worldwide, says it’s all about the pursuit of great stories that can work on an international stage. “We have strong in-house relationships, but we want to work with the best creative talent we can get hold of, wherever it is.” Inevitably, the types of deals being done by distributors vary according to their scale in the market. Pancho Mansfield, Entertainment One (eOne) Television’s president of global scripted programming, says that his firm’s activities range from the $133-million acquisition of a 51-percent interest in The Mark Gordon Company to the recent multiyear overall TV first-look deal with Olive Productions, the company founded by actors/directors Steve Buscemi and Stanley Tucci and executive producer Wren Arthur. Such is the range of commercial and creative relationships that it’s hard to distill eOne’s requirements down to a simple formula, says Mansfield. “If I had to summarize it, I’d say it’s about access to material and talent.” FremantleMedia’s activity in drama has involved a string of investments, among them Kwaï in France, Wildside in Italy and Miso Film in Scandinavia, and the revival of Euston Films in the U.K. Christian Vesper, executive VP
D
and creative director of global drama at FremantleMedia, observes, “The companies we are involved with are among the best at what they do. But what they also have in common is a desire to grow internationally. My job is to work with each of them to achieve that in ways that suit their cultures.”
HEAD START Rola Bauer, the managing director of STUDIOCANAL TV, oversees a similarly complex set of relationships. Her view is that recognizable talent can give projects a boost right at the outset. “We have long-standing relationships with bestselling authors Harlan Coben and Ken Follett. Having wellknown and universally admired creative names or brands to tap into means that you already have a strong international fan base at the start.” That producers are willing to go along with more involved arrangements with distributors is, in part, a reflection of the changing complexion of the international drama business, says David Ellender, the president of global distribution and co-productions at Sonar Entertainment. “Companies like Sonar aren’t just distributors. We have sales teams that feed intelligence back from the international market, but our partnerships with producers are more complex than that. We’re a studio, providing production support at every level.” The international nature of the business means that the search for first-look and development relationships is now a global pursuit, says Caroline Torrance, the head of scripted at Banijay Rights. “We are looking everywhere,” she says. “We have a relationship with U.S./U.K. producer Arise Pictures, but we are not limited to English-speaking markets. We have distribution deals with the likes of Haut et Court in France and Entre Chien et Loup in Belgium, for example.” “Producers and writers with proven track records are in strong demand, so a big part of our job is finding new voices,” observes Amelie von Kienlin, the senior VP of scripted 4/17 WORLD SCREEN 335
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Entertainment One signed on to collaborate with Canada’s Sienna Films on the book-based crime drama Cardinal.
acquisitions and co-productions at Red Arrow International. “A lot of our efforts go into talking to feature film and theater talents that are interested in moving over to TV series. Or maybe looking at markets where the talent isn’t so well known internationally.” These fresh voices can then be partnered with talent that is already found within the Red Arrow family. A good example, says von Kienlin, is Embassy Down, a co-production between Red Arrow International and MTG Studios in Scandinavia. The show is a political thriller created and written by Anders Frithiof August, marking his first English-language project. One of the executive producers on the show is Henrik Bastin, who heads Red Arrow’s U.S. production division Fabrik Entertainment (producers of Bosch). “We are able to take Anders’ vision and help him create something that will work on the international stage,” von Kienlin says.
TALENT CHECKLIST Content Media is keen to expand its network of drama producers, following successful partnerships with the likes of World Productions on Line of Duty and several other shows, including The Secret Agent, The Bletchley Circle and The Great Train Robbery. “We have also recently partnered with Deadpan Pictures on an exclusive first-look deal,” says Greg Phillips, Content’s president of distribution. Deadpan’s lineup includes the RTÉ hit series Can’t Cope, Won’t Cope, which Content licensed to BBC Three in the U.K. “We look for quality, innovative and exciting ideas,” says Phillips. “A twist, something that will have resonance with audiences throughout the world. Things that are universal and yet individual enough to pique the audience’s interest. When there are so many other things out there, you have to give every project something special. [You want] characters who viewers want to watch on a week-by-week basis or who, frankly, make them want to sit up all night and lose sleep! That’s a fairly tall order, and for that, you need to find
a balance between writing, execution, talent, ideas and sometimes you need to go out on a limb for things. We look for what we believe will be excellent. For us as an independent, it’s just much more necessary to pick winners.” Similarly, Keelan says that third-party producers need to bring an editorial focus that fits BBC Worldwide’s strategic goals—without replicating existing partnerships. “They also need to be collaborative. Go back a few years and companies like ours would wait for shows to come off the production line. But now we expect to have a much closer relationship during development and production—to make sure that the end result is right for the international market.”
STARTING EARLY Among BBC Worldwide’s portfolio of partnerships is Cuba Pictures, the production arm of literary and talent agency Curtis Brown. Initially signed in 2014, the partnership was renewed in 2016 and now involves an equity investment from BBC Worldwide. “Cuba gives us great access to new literary properties as they come to the market,” says Keelan, “so that’s a relationship where we talk about projects at the earliest stages of development.” One Cuba project that has come to fruition is McMafia, an eight-part underworld thriller based on the book of the same name. With a star-studded writing team and James Norton (War & Peace) in the lead, the show has recently secured AMC as a co-production partner in the U.S. For Ellender at Sonar, “The key to third-party relationships is finding talent that can rise above the competition. You have to have the best talent and the best projects, because if you get stuck in the mid-range, your project probably won’t get seen.” Examples of Sonar projects include Taboo, the BBC One/FX series starring Tom Hardy and produced by his Hardy, Son & Baker and Ridley Scott’s Scott Free London. Sonar also has development deals with George Clooney and Grant Heslov’s Smokehouse Pictures and Robert Downey Jr.’s Team Downey.
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STUDIOCANAL’s RED Production Company first collaborated with acclaimed author Harlan Coben on The Five, and has since established a production company with him.
Hardy, Scott, Clooney and Downey are obviously eyecatching names, but Ellender stresses that relationships of this kind are not just about badging projects. “We approach every relationship very diligently—regardless of who is involved. You have to be certain that you share a creative vision and philosophy, and that they have specific projects in mind that will work for the international market. There’s no room in this business for vanity deals.”
MATCHMAKING At MarVista Entertainment, new creative pacts are enabling the company to move into the series space after building a thriving TV movie business. For CEO Fernando Szew, a key development has been “the growing amount of film talent looking to work in TV and digital. We are working with John Singleton [Boyz n the Hood, Shaft] on Rebel, a police drama for cable channel BET. John brings experience, marketability and rich storytelling skills. In addition to all of that, he is the right person to specifically target the audience that BET is trying to attract.” MarVista’s push into series has also seen it join forces with the U.S. production firm Piller/Segan on Sea Change (working title) for Lifetime in the U.S. “Relationships with established U.S. showrunners are core to our business because there is such a rich array of talent,” says Szew, “but we are also looking to the international market for partnerships. We’re very comfortable in Latin America and have worked with leading players there, such as Caracol in Colombia.” Echoing the trend toward global drama, Mansfield says eOne has U.S. and international relationships that are managed out of L.A., Toronto, London and Sydney. “Sometimes we are working on projects that have been generated inhouse and sometimes by third parties. In the case of Sharp
Objects, we are the producer. We secured the rights to Gillian Flynn’s novel and that has now been placed as an HBO series with Marti Noxon as showrunner, Jean-Marc Vallée as director and Amy Adams in the lead. That’s different than a project like Cardinal, where Sienna Films had the rights to the books and we came on board because we liked them.” Torrance says that Banijay is always interested in working with producers who have good relationships with writers, “but we’re also looking for companies that have a real desire to work with a distributor. Some producers are very focused on their domestic market, but we need partners who are creatively interested in the international market, not just the upfront distribution advance.” She cites the example of Banijay’s relationship with Racine Media. “We are working with Racine on a new detective franchise. We are helping them shape and orient the project to the international market. We think there will be huge interest in a new detective franchise.”
TRACKING PROGRESS Distributors’ level of involvement in the creative process differs by company and by nature of the deal. “Whatever the setup, we are very involved in the material,” says Mansfield at eOne. “You have to trust and believe in the talent, but you also need to stay connected to the casting, the choice of director and so on because that’s how you ensure a return on your investment. You have to have a point of view.” That said, Mansfield notes that it’s important not to micromanage projects. “You want to be very involved at the start to make sure it has been set up in a way that works for everyone. But if you are too involved in the specifics after that, it’s probably a sign that things aren’t going as well as they should.”
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Productions with Callie Khouri (Nashville) and music producer T Bone Burnett on Deep City. Also out of TANDEM is Brazza, which is a co-production with Save Ferris Entertainment in association with Idris Elba’s Green Door Pictures. Keelan reports that BBC Worldwide wants to be “as involved as we can be, without being prescriptive. It’s about ensuring that the production is progressing well without giving notes on every page of the script.” As an example of Sonar’s involvement with its creative partners, Ellender cites Das Boot, a venture with Bavaria Fernsehproduktion and Sky Deutschland. “We have global distribution rights (outside of Sky’s European territories), but we’ve also been involved during the early stages of the production to ensure that the show can work in the U.S. and globally. One way we have done this is by bringing in American writers to support the show’s lead writer.”
TEAM SPIRIT Expanding into the series space, MarVista is working with director John Singleton on his BET series Rebel.
“The intrinsic integrity of a project has to be maintained,” states Content’s Phillips. “For us as sales agents or distributors, we’ve got to be interested in a project for what we believe it will be. We signed up for it on the basis that on a macro level, and hopefully on a micro level, it will meet our customers’ needs. Through the process, it’s necessary to give input where you think what’s going on is affecting the commercial integrity of the piece. The commissioning broadcaster is paying the lion’s share of the bill and they have highly experienced and highly creative people on the case. We don’t want to come down to the set and tell someone how to light it; we trust that they know how to do that. We’ll give a comment if we think it makes sense. As things go along, we are interested in looking at rushes, first cuts and rough cuts from the point of view of marketing. The earlier that we see what we’re getting, the earlier we can make our plans and get the word out there that this is something special and here’s why. Being involved throughout and being aware helps us do our job in the end.”
BALANCING ACT Banijay’s Torrance agrees that distributors have to find the right balance between trusting a producer’s instincts and setting specific goals for them. “Some visionary authored pieces become massive hits, so you have to find room for producers who have passion projects. But we also look for partners who want to work with us in response to the market’s needs. Part of our development with Arise, for example, is looking at how we can reinvent the procedural, which is in such demand in Europe.” Much of STUDIOCANAL’s relationship-building is handled at the level of its individual production companies, explains Bauer. “Our production companies have deep alliances and connections with the writers and creatives they work with.” Examples include RED Production Company with Danny Brocklehurst, and TANDEM
FremantleMedia’s Vesper says that it’s important to be involved in scripting and casting decisions, to ensure that the project is progressing in the right way. He cites the example of Picnic at Hanging Rock, a FremantleMedia Australia production for Foxtel that will star Natalie Dormer. “We were able to introduce Australian writer Beatrix Christian to Canadian director Larysa Kondracki, who has worked on series like Better Call Saul and The Walking Dead. That’s the kind of creative connection that we are well-placed to initiate.” There can be a perception—perhaps as a throwback to the days of drama Europuddings—that distributors will force-fit cast members into TV series to appeal to buyers in that country. “You can’t shoehorn actors into shows, but I think the situation has become more flexible because today’s audiences are more comfortable with actors from different countries or the use of subtitles in dramas,” Banijay’s Torrance says. Red Arrow’s von Kienlin says that the right casting decision from a distributor can also improve a show’s prospects on the international market. For example, it was Red Arrow that first suggested Iain Glen (Game of Thrones) for Cleverman, the ABC Australia and SundanceTV U.S. co-pro set in a futuristic dystopia. In the early days of development, Glen’s involvement became the hook for promoting the series to international buyers. An emerging mandate for distributors is discovering new talent. “It’s about having a mindset that makes room for new talent and encourages diversity,” says eOne’s Mansfield. “We do that through a scriptwriting competition that we support and by creating opportunities for people to join writing rooms on shows.” “Our approach would be to bring talent up through longrunning series,” says Banijay’s Torrance, “because it’s a great way to learn the realities of production. It’s something all of us need to think about as producers and distributors, because you can wait 18 months or two years for the top writers to become available.”
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Mansha Daswani checks in with leading Turkish drama distributors about how they are sustaining the genre’s moment in the spotlight. he last few years have certainly been challenging times for Turkey. Amid slowing economic growth, political unrest, security concerns and an attempted coup, tourism took a hit last year. However, the dizi industry—the prolific drama production sector— continues to fire on all cylinders, with scripted series airing daily on all of the main networks. Distributors, meanwhile, are stepping up their efforts to keep the Turkish wave going, penetrating new territories, selling format rights and finding innovative ways to edit and market their shows in an ever more crowded business. It has, after all, been a very long road to international success. “It all started with Gümüş in 2006,” says Özge Bulut Maraşli, the executive VP of international and corporate strategy at Doğan TV Holding, the parent company of Turkey’s leading broadcast group, Kanal D. That was the show that pan-Arab broadcaster MBC licensed, aired as Noor and sparked a viewing phenomenon. “At first there was no demand, and we created the demand,” Bulut Maraşli says. “In the ’90s we were watching telenovelas in Turkey, but now Latin Americans watch Turkish dramas. They give Turkish names to their children from our drama characters. In the MENA region, women take our characters as role models and they change their lives for good. These things make us happy. Now when we launch a new drama, broadcasters come to us and demand it before we air it on TV.”
PIONEERING A GENRE Turkish distributors do indeed have to thank Middle Eastern audiences for creating the foundations of a dizi export sector. “The increase in sales prices, hand in hand with the economic status of the MENA region where Turkish drama series first gained popularity, have definitely been a trigger in the exportation of Turkish content,” reports Can Okan, the founder and CEO of Inter Medya, an independent outfit
that began selling Turkish series in 2008 after first serving as a film distribution venture. And while the Middle East remains a key territory for the genre, it’s been the boom in Latin American demand that has really boosted the sector. Chile, for example, has emerged as a voracious consumer of Turkish series, with leading broadcaster Mega recently inking an output deal with Kanal D covering Wounded Love, Time Goes By and Fatmagül. “Kanal D has licensed approximately 1,200 commercial hours to Mega until today,” reports Doğan’s Bulut Maraşli. “The MENA region has always been the largest importer of Turkish TV series, however, the weight has shifted to Latin America as Turkish dramas continue to break viewership records in that region,” agrees Beşir Tatli, the managing director at Calinos Entertainment. “They now fill prime-time slots in a number of countries, including Chile, Peru and Argentina.” Inter Medya’s Okan adds, “Although there have been some declines from time to time, Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia are still territories where good quality productions always find a buyer.”
NEW HORIZONS And now, even more markets are opening up, among them India and Malaysia, says Izzet Pinto, the CEO of Global Agency. “India has such a rich local market, so for them to be buying foreign content is a big thing. Also, there are some new territories in Africa. There’s still not much, unfortunately, in Western Europe. It will open up. I will be happy if I can enter territories like Portugal and Spain this year.” Sweden’s Eccho Rights took a gamble on Turkish series back in 2009 when it started representing Ezel from Ay Yapim. “Nobody had any idea where it would go at the time, so we tried it and it has been working ever since,” says Fredrik af Malmborg, managing director at Eccho Rights. “Ezel is still selling. We just sold it to Malaysia and Mongolia. It has been a success everywhere, it’s incredible. And we built on that. We were early in the genre and believed in it. It was not just opportunistic—I watched it and really liked it.” For af Malmborg, the opportunities for selling Turkish drama continue to expand. “We’re selling a lot to India, 4/17 WORLD SCREEN 343
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Eccho Rights has a broad distribution deal with leading producer Ay Yapim that includes the brand-new Phi.
we’re starting to sell series into Italy and we just sold Brave and Beautiful to Spain to a major channel. There is some competition coming in from Indian drama in some countries, like Indonesia. Malaysia is opening up. Some countries in the Balkans weren’t airing Turkish programs for a while, but they’re coming back. When the Turkish series come in everybody goes crazy, and they buy everything because the first one worked so well. And then it doesn’t work so well, and they try other things, and then they come back.”
strong market for Turkish drama, but we’re now seeing it in places like Pakistan and Indonesia, and we’re moving into the Far East. SVT has picked up a couple of Turkish dramas. It’s now slowly wriggling its way through Western Europe too. We’ve done a couple of sales in Italy. We want to try and get into some new markets.” Inter Medya’s Okan says that his company has started to receive requests from Southeast Asia and SubSaharan Africa. “I believe that we will quickly spread in these newer markets just like we did in all the countries and regions where Turkish content has been broadcast.” Aysegul Tuzun, the VP of sales and marketing at MISTCO, which represents the slate of pubcaster TRT, is similarly bullish about the future of Turkish drama given the industry’s increasingly high production values and the fact that Turkish actors have “become ‘brands’ in the international arena. The interest towards Turkish drama from all over the world will continue rising just like last year.” What’s helping to drive the sector is the volume of production and the range of genres available. “Our catalog is huge, it’s very varied, so there’s always something for any need: short series, action, drama, etc.,”
GLOBAL PLAYERS FOX Networks Group Content Distribution (FNGCD) has also taken on Turkish drama, given its connection with the FOX broadcast outlet in the country. “It’s been two years now since we brought in the Turkish drama to the overall catalog,” says Prentiss Fraser, executive VP and managing director of content distribution. “It has completely skyrocketed the business for us. It’s been fantastic. These were assets that were being created for the channel in Turkey anyway and then being monetized by third parties. Protecting the brands and doing our own distribution, we’ve been able to secure a lot of revenue for the production community and the channel business, it’s been really great.” Like so many other distributors, Fraser has found Latin America and U.S. Hispanic to be the best markets for Turkish content at present. “It’s hands down where we see the most amount of money coming from. The Middle East has always been a
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Emperor, another historical epic. “While illuminating the recent past of Turkey, it is also drawing a [connection] between history and modern day,” Tuzun says. “The story sheds light on the last 14-year reign of the strongest Ottoman Emperor in the 19th century, Abdulhamid Han. The Last Emperor has a great cast of celebrities, such as Bülent Inal, who attracts tremendous interest from the international audience, and Özlem Conker, who is a very well-known Turkish actress.” While historical epics are still big ratings winners in Turkey, there are some new trends emerging. Calinos’s Tatli is seeing “a greater appeal for detective and revenge-themed plots. Crime and vengeance have been widely incorporated into the dramatic narratives, mainly to attract male audiences, which helps attract different types of advertisers.” At FNGCD, romantic comedies and dramas led the slate for a while, Fraser says, but she sees that starting to change. “We’re seeing some things in the development slate that are more crime-based and heavier drama, which is an interesting shift for the business. I think it will open up more opportunities for the content.” At MIPTV, Eccho Rights is launching Phi, a 20x60minute drama created specifically for a digital platform by Ay Yapim, with two additional seasons planned. Hour-long episodes are rare in Turkey, as are limited episode counts.
MAKING THE CUT
Global Agency continues to expand its Turkish drama slate, launching Eternal this MIPTV.
Turkish television is super competitive, and things can get axed after just a few episodes, leaving distributors with a delicate balancing act when it comes to deciding when to showcase new series internationally. At ATV, Hanilçi says that if the ratings for the first five episodes are positive, the show can start being introduced to foreign buyers. “But it’s always good to wait until episode 13—if a title goes past 13, then it will work.” Eccho’s af Malmborg reports that presales are increasingly prevalent now, given how competitive the business is, but it depends on the region. “In Latin America, they normally need 100 45-minute episodes before they can
says Müge Hanilçi, the content sales deputy manager at broadcaster ATV. Global Agency’s Pinto cites “modern-day dramas with big casts, well-known faces and big budgets from leading production companies” as those getting the most interest. “For Turkish dramas, clients always look for famous, familiar faces—that’s a priority. Also, the story is very important, of course.” Doğan TV’s Bulut Maraşli identifies “love and family stories” as being key sellers, particularly “impossible or forbidden love, a missing child or a mother trying to hold her family together. Combining these stories with beautiful scenery of Turkish cities, of course, makes it much more desirable.” Reflecting a similar sentiment, Calinos’s Tatli observes that “impossible love stories teamed with dramatic narratives have always had the largest demand. [Stories with] strong and independent female protagonists who challenge patriarchal social structures and fight in the name of love are the types of dramas that sell the most. When it comes to love and passion, betrayal and intrigue, there seem to be no geographical boundaries.” MISTCO is home to TRT’s top-rated Resurrection (Ertugrul), a historical drama about the establishment of the Ottoman Empire. At MIPTV, the company is presenting a world premiere screening of The Last Calinos represents a variety of series as well as feature films, among them Love, Just a Coincidence. 346 WORLD SCREEN 4/17
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Inter Medya represents titles from several Turkish production companies, including Bi Yapim with Hayat, which airs on Show TV.
make a decision. We’re having quite some success now in Italy. We had Cherry Season running well on Mediaset this summer and that was a shorter run. It’s becoming more diversified, but traditionally the Turkish dramas have been long runners.” Turkey also makes very long episodes, which means distributors are often re-cutting series into more conventional durations. “Our original duration is more than 2 hours per episode,” says ATV’s Hanilçi, “so we edit them into 45 minutes. We are very careful when we cut the episode because it has to be done in a good way, so the audience sees that the episode is ending.”
sound edit. In many Turkish series the storytelling is much slower, so sometimes we speed it up. That is also done with many Turkish series in Chile. There, the first five to ten episodes are cut down by 30 percent.” To broaden their customer bases, Turkish distributors are also looking at format opportunities. Eccho Rights is among the leaders in this space, with notable examples that include The End being reversioned in the Netherlands and Spain. More recently, Fatmagül has been adapted for Star Plus in India. “In 2017 we are bringing format sales to the forefront,” says Doğan’s Bulut Maraşli. “Some broadcasters want to reshoot the series with their own drama stars in their own cultures, which is a very good opportunity to spread our stories to different regions. It is also a good way to make the stories timeless and borderless.” ATV’s Hanilçi says that she’s starting to see more format requests, particularly from Latin America and Asia. At FNGCD, Fraser notes that localization deals have been done in Latin America, “and now the project is to try to get some of our Latin American productions produced in Turkey.” MISTCO is also looking at format opportunities, following the sale of the TRT drama Little Miss to Latin America for potential adaptation. Another area of future growth is co-productions, notes Doğan’s Bulut Maraşli, a view backed by Calinos’s Tatli. “We still need a couple more years in order to enter a stage that would enable us to co-produce with some of our clients, but we would certainly wish to. We are actually in talks with a Mexican company that we have been negotiating with for some time now.” Tatli is also keen for Calinos to start representing some of its own productions, pointing to an emerging issue for independent distributors: access to product. It’s a situation that’s being played out in the rest of the global drama landscape, as distributors worldwide battle it out to be aligned with the top producers in any given territory. As Turkish drama continues to find new slots internationally, you can expect the landscape of sellers trying to access that product to become even more competitive.
EDITING ROOM “We are putting great effort into cutting them into 45 minutes,” Eccho’s af Malmborg says. “For Insider, we’re even creating a new ending for each one to make it follow the style of the series. In Sweden with SVT we started with The End from Ay Yapim, and now we have a second series that’s been picked up, Broken Pieces from Endemol Shine. We’re cutting it down, so we’re going scene by scene to make each episode 30 percent shorter, and we make a new
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By Mansha Daswani
FULLER
In 2001, British author Neil Gaiman’s American Gods hit the bookshelves. The sprawling tale of a conflict between the “old gods” of all faiths, brought to the U.S. by immigrants, and the “new gods” of media, technology and other obsessions, won a slew of accolades and millions of fans. Among them were Bryan Fuller—known for his work on the visually striking Hannibal and Pushing Daisies—and writer and producer Michael Green. Together they have crafted an adaptation of American Gods with FremantleMedia North America for Starz in the U.S. Snapped up by Amazon for the first window globally, American Gods is set to make its debut this April, unspooling the story of ex-con Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle) and his journey across America with Mr. Wednesday (Ian McShane)—Norse mythology’s Odin—corralling the old gods for a faceoff against the likes of Media (Gillian Anderson) and Technical Boy (Bruce Langley). Fuller and Green tell TV Drama about their approach to bringing Gaiman’s book to life and share how its core themes are more relevant today than ever. TV DRAMA: How did you approach writing the script and devising a look for the series? FULLER: It’s very loyal to the novel. We began with page one of the book and started going from there. As we GREEN progressed further and further into the story, there were characters that had relatively minor roles in the novel and we started asking ourselves, Wouldn’t it be cool to see
what they were doing when they weren’t being covered in the pages? And that got us very excited. GREEN: And then we just sat and asked each other, What are your favorite things in the novel? We earmarked a few things that we wanted to put into the first season, just to make sure we could see them on screen no matter what happened. FULLER: We came into this imagining how to tell the story and how many seasons it would take and how to divvy up the story to spread it out over those seasons. We were not necessarily just thinking about season one, but about the approach to covering this book and where we deviate. Where do we remain absolutely loyal to the word on the page? How do we expand story lines to fill up a television season and make it about a lot of characters, not just Wednesday and Shadow? TV DRAMA: Fans of the book all have their own ideas of what Wednesday, Shadow and the other characters look like. What was your casting process like? GREEN: It was long! It was fun because the characters crystallized when we found the right people, and in television that’s always one of the most rewarding parts of the process. When you read a book, you hear a certain voice in your head and you enjoy it and then you start writing it and it changes slightly and then you hear it performed by the person who is going to inhabit the role and then they bring it to life in a whole new way. They add depth and precision to the words that inspire you to take the character in different directions as the episodes go on. TV DRAMA: Tell us about your partnership. I understand you first worked together on Heroes? FULLER: It was a very quick, collaborative bonding of like minds on how to approach genre stories with enough emotional authenticity to make them relatable. We had been talking about how to work together again for a while and then American Gods sprung up and seemed like the ideal situation. And it’s just a matter of splitting things up and sharing each other’s work and then shipping it off to the network and the studio for feedback. TV DRAMA: And what kind of creative environment have you found at FremantleMedia North America and Starz? GREEN: Both those entities are taking an enormous chance with this show. It’s because they came at it as fans—they all love the book, they all love the potential they saw in the book, they have tremendous faith in Bryan and me to adapt it, and they are very excited to have Neil [Gaiman] there to be a barometer of things being right. You can’t mount a show this ambitious without all your planets aligned and gravity pulling in the right direction. FULLER: It’s a challenging, sprawling story that doesn’t have a tremendous amount of standing sets to rely on.
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FremantleMedia’s American Gods launches on Starz this April, with a global window outside of the U.S. on Amazon. A traditional staple of how to pull off a television schedule is you have standing sets. And you’re able to depend on them. But we’re doing a roadshow. What’s fascinating for Michael and me as we’re in the post process every day approving visual effects shots and crafting the final aesthetic of the show is that everybody has gotten on board to do something that doesn’t exist on any platform right now. That has us very excited, but also we don’t know what to expect.
fear of the other, but it’s also something that is uniquely celebratory of America’s reputation as a melting pot, where people can come and celebrate their differences as opposed to walls being built between them. GREEN: Two years ago when we started working on this, I don’t think either of us would have ever imagined that the idea of immigration would be as divisive as it is now. The idea of America as a melting pot, as an international country, as a place built by immigrants, was always heartwarming and something to be proud of. No one could have predicted that it would be such an anathema right now. FULLER: So many themes sprout beneath the umbrella of that immigration headline. It feels like they all boil down to people trying to find their way in a place that is not their home and that they are trying to make their home. Who can’t relate to that? GREEN: It makes us especially glad that we worked as hard as we did to produce the coming to America sequences that are in the novel. On a production level they were very, very challenging and expensive, but we felt they were important to the show and they’re important to us.
TV DRAMA: Media and technology have changed so much since the book was published. Did you have to update the traits of any of your new gods to fit with the times we live in today? GREEN: We were fortunate in that Neil’s take on media and technology in the book was predictive. He had his finger on the right pulse. It has all gotten richer and more pervasive. The largest change we’ve made is that the literal face of technology in Technical Boy has gone from someone marginalized and made fun of and often called “the fat kid” in the book—who was very much inspired by the turn-of-the-century The Matrix and the kid-living-in-his-grandmother’s-basement aesthetic—to a much hipper form. Those on the cutting edge of technology now are industry titans, are the admired people, are the dating catches, and that brings a certain amount of swagger. In our take on it, there’s also the desire to constantly reinvent oneself. The instant evolution of media and technology is something we brought into the literal faces of [those characters], so every time you see them they are new shades of themselves and constantly striving to be something fresh and unique and new.
TV DRAMA: And now you have Amazon taking it to some 200 countries all at once. FULLER: It is exciting to not only have this seen in America but all over the world. The world’s eyes are on America right now for all the wrong reasons and I think [the show is] sort of a message from the inside. GREEN: We are blinking to the policeman at the door! [Laughs]
TV DRAMA: What themes from the book do you think are most applicable to this very strange and disturbing political time we’re living in? FULLER: The book is based on the notion of thoughtform: that if you believe in something enough you can manifest it into reality. There’s something about that idea that feels very fair and honest with regard to the equality of faiths. It’s exciting for us to be able to tell stories about faith that are mythological and magical and yet somehow very human. That feels like a rich place to explore, not only for themes of immigration and religion and race and homophobia and just the general
TV DRAMA: What’s the collaboration with Neil Gaiman been like? GREEN: I remember on our third day of production, Ian McShane’s first day, Neil had come to watch. Mousa [Kraish, who plays The Jinn] brought his well-thumbed copy of American Gods and asked Bryan and me if it would be OK to ask Neil to sign it. Neil overheard that and said, “Give me the book!” and wrote him a very nice note. So many people came to this project as fans and there are some people who became fans of the book due to their relationship with the project. It shows how enduring the novel is. 4/17 WORLD SCREEN 351
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In an on-demand world where your viewing choices are increasing defined by scary-sounding recommendation algorithms, Walter Iuzzolino is taking a stand for good, old-fashioned curation. The co-founder and curator of Walter Presents has eclectic tastes when it comes to drama, and his savvy choices have made the on-demand service a breakout hit in the U.K. Backed by Channel 4, Walter Presents delivers an array of foreign-language fare from Europe and beyond to British viewers. Now, the platform is also available in the U.S. as an SVOD offering. Iuzzolino tells TV Drama about being a gourmet delicatessen for drama, rather By Mansha Daswani than the neighborhood supermarket. 352 WORLD SCREEN 4/17
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TV DRAMA: What sparked the idea for Walter Presents, and how did you come to be aligned with Channel 4? IUZZOLINO: Walter Presents has been a passion project for me. I was born and raised in Italy, and I consumed international drama from a very early age. Italy dubs, which artistically is terrible because it means every actor speaks with the same voice, but it’s really interesting creatively as it means that mainstream viewers are exposed to a broader range of things. So on a Monday night you’ll have an Italian Mafia show, on Tuesday you’ll have Desperate Housewives, on Wednesday you’ll have a French show—growing up I was very used to all this. When I moved to the U.K. about 21 years ago, I was quite surprised by the narrow range of what was available. I started cultivating this dream [of a platform for foreign-language shows] in the back of my mind, waiting for the right moment. Spiral arrived from Canal+ on BBC Four, and it was a success. I remember thinking, if this is finding a mainstream audience, then this is the time. The origin was as simple as me chucking away my safe job. I had a pocket of money, enough to say, let’s try this for a year. I found two colleagues who were crazy enough and at the same juncture, thinking, let’s do something we love. And we started watching [international shows]. It was a year of truffle hunting, about 2,500 to 3,000 hours [viewed]. We watched a lot of stuff that wasn’t great and found a lot of stuff that was. The principles were: mainstream, shiny, glossy, not elitist and not art-house; we wanted to bring subtitles into the mainstream. The shows needed to be hits in their country of origin. We wanted writing, acting and directing quality of the utmost value—the inspiration was the caliber of pieces on AMC, HBO and Showtime. And then award winners, nationally and internationally—we wanted pieces that had been recognized for their artistic value. In a year and a half, we had a significant body of work and the utter belief that it would last over time—we had a sense of pipeline. And then we started having conversations with big distribution channels and broadcasters, like Sky, Virgin, BT, TalkTalk and Channel 4. Channel 4 was fast and furious and brilliant. Jay Hunt, the chief creative officer, bought it in the room. They had the instant vision that this would exist as a channel in its own right on demand because they could see that the way people consume drama had been forever changed by Netflix. In their mind, accelerating the convergence between linear and nonlinear was useful and interesting. Jay and David Abraham, the chief executive, have always thrown a lot of weight behind All 4 as a portal where you consume product that is original and not just catch-up. This offered a fantastic opportunity to marry those two, and a deal was done in a matter of weeks. We launched in January last year. TV DRAMA: When did you start thinking about expansion to the U.S.? IUZZOLINO: It was always our intention to launch this brand internationally. As a commissioner, your job tends to be to please as many people as possible within a country so the advertisers are happy. In so doing you dilute your product and make it boring. What would have been niche 15 years ago in one country is now mainstream on the global market. We thought, we will choose the best, we will speak to viewers who love fantastic drama, who enjoy reading subtitles, and then we’ll find them around the globe. They form a vast and significant audience. The U.S. and other English-speaking territories were the first port of call. We started working on that [plan] from day one. It was just a matter of embedding the brand in the U.K. and
making it successful enough, and that worked incredibly well. The U.K. has been almost like a prototype lab. I’m quite proud that we created a big international profile for some shows that would have never been noticed otherwise. We were the first to show Israeli, Spanish and Polish programming in prime time on Channel 4, and it was the first time you had trailers and marketing and proper muscle behind these productions. They delivered spectacularly, to the point where some then went [on to sell] around the world. The world has often looked to the U.K. in the same way they look to the U.S. as, what are they watching and why? In that sense, the first year in the U.K. has been a fantastic lesson for us in how we shape the brand and make it resonate with a large audience. Halfway through year one when we hit our target and then surpassed it, we thought, we’re ready for the U.S. With Channel 4’s backing, it’s now happening. TV DRAMA: Tell me about the thinking behind the user interface and how shows are grouped under thematic collections. IUZZOLINO: Curation is the founding principle of everything. It’s the strength of the proposition. There’s foreign drama everywhere, and there are enormous supermarkets selling you whatever you want. So the big question would be, is there a need for an extra SVOD channel? Yes! You go to the supermarket for your staples—water, bread, basic stuff—but if you want something special, someone to recommend stuff to you, you go to a lovely deli, you go to a Dean & DeLuca. I would love to think that we are the Dean & DeLuca of drama! You know someone has sampled every single slice of charcuterie or cheese. In a world that curates by algorithm, we curate by individual. It’s me! I watch everything. I stop when a series is bad at episode three. There are some great shows that mature like great novels, so episode one starts slow and grows on you and becomes un-missable. Very often the best shows are the ones that grow and mature across the series, and some shows that peak immediately become quite boring by episode four or five. So the curation is essential for us— it’s the notion of quality over quantity, handpicked by an individual you can learn to trust. When you become familiar with a brand and its language, it invites you to sample more because it broadens your palette. Hopefully, the brand creates a space where viewers feel empowered to sample as much as possible because they trust the curation. TV DRAMA: Do you envision commissioning your own shows in the future? IUZZOLINO: Yes we do, but if I’m honest that’s phase three, and we’re in phase one. The natural thing that has started to happen is that we are beginning to acquire from script, purely because as the critical mass of territories that we add to the brand increases, we are able to contribute more meaningfully. However, it has to be said, the amount of money we can put on the table now is not in any way co-production money. We can’t write a check for 30 percent of the budget. It’s more like a bit of deficit funding. The greater value of what we’re doing now is adding PR to the show. Producers who know and trust us know what we can do for a show. They come to us and say, we know you don’t have a lot of money, however, having you on board at an early stage gives the brand a level of validation that will then help us to further sales around the world. We are very proud of that. We chip in, but it’s top-up money as opposed to co-production money. 4/17 WORLD SCREEN 353
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And we’re doing Kudos’ Man in an Orange Shirt, which I’m really proud of. It’s a two-parter for BBC One, based on the Patrick Gale novel, about two generations of gay men. It’s a beautiful, poignant, thoughtful, gorgeous bit of television. It will make you think and it will make you sad and joyous at the same time. It’s of the moment. TV DRAMA: I’m hearing that people also want a bit of escapism in these confusing times. DOOLE: It’s true. The stories we’re looking to tell in the next 18 months are very warm, they have love, redemption and hope in them. I’m really interested in stories that are firmly rooted in the family. Family becomes even more important in an uncertain, crazy, unstable world. More than anything, we’re looking for—and have a lot of this in development—that lightened shade. You can have really deep, dramatic moments, counterbalanced by some humor or color. It doesn’t have to be in the dialogue; it could be a different visual tone. The audience probably has reached saturation in terms of that girl-ina-ditch type thriller. They want something that is epic as well. It’s an interesting time, and the writers that come
By Mansha Daswani
FremantleMedia has significantly expanded its drama output over the last few years. Today the company is home to a slate that includes Starz’s upcoming American Gods in the U.S., Scandi hits like Modus and the highly anticipated second season of Deutschland 83. Sarah Doole, the director of global drama at the company, tells TV Drama about the breadth of the slate and weighs in on trends in international scripted. TV DRAMA: What are some of your new drama highlights? DOOLE: We’re hugely excited about American Gods, which is looking fantastic. It was a big project to undertake in terms of the creative content. It’s not an easy story to tell. We had to just go for it and be as big, bold, ambitious and impactful as we could. You can’t do it halfway. Craig [Cegielski, co-CEO of FremantleMedia North America] and the team in L.A. have done a fantastic job. It’s not like anything else you will see on television at the moment. It’s kind of where we want to be at FremantleMedia—telling stories in a different, impactful, fresh way. I think audiences are willing to be pushed to the edge; in fact, I think they’re asking program-makers to do that. American Gods most certainly does it! Kim Kong is from Kwaï, our production company in France. It is a black comedy for ARTE, being shot in Asia in French. A French filmmaker who has fallen on hard times ends up shooting a picture just for money in Asia and is abducted by spies from a dictatorship. He is held hostage and has to remake King Kong using equipment that comes from the Cold War era. And then we’ve got a big piece out of Germany for the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, the moment Martin Luther stood against the Catholic Church and pinned his doctrine to the church door against the will of the Pope and basically changed the whole course of history.
up with those ideas and can write tonally, light and shade, will be the most successful ones for the next two or three years. TV DRAMA: Do you think millennials are interested in different forms of scripted storytelling—short form, flexible durations, etc.? DOOLE: Definitely. Look at The Crown, which you could call a traditional drama, but the episodes aren’t the same length. When you watch it, there’s this amazing psychological effect: you don’t want the episode to end and then you’ve realized you’ve watched 80 minutes of content without any outs. Then the next episode is amazing and complete and it’s only 50 minutes. We’ve not started on that in television because in my lifetime television has told stories in 45 minutes with two ad breaks. When you read a book, not every chapter is the same length. Not every book is the same length. Every book and every chapter are as long as that story needs and it’s the right space and time to tell it. We’re at the tip of the iceberg for that now because the most perfect drama might be ten minutes. My husband is an artist, a painter, and sometimes he’ll work on a painting for six weeks and sometimes for three days, but he always knows when that painting is finished. I’m going, how do you know? I’m really interested in that artistic completion moment. I don’t think TV has allowed us to do it. Books and other art forms do it in a beautiful way. We in TV have been confined to a commercial hour. That might not be the best length to tell a story in the most satisfying way. Millennials get that because they’re not watching stuff on commercial television and they’re not watching in the places that we used to watch television. It’s a fascinating time!
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