TV Drama MIPTV 2019

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TVDRAMA

WWW.TVDRAMA.WS

APRIL 2019

MIPTV EDITION

European Drama / Sci-Fi & Fantasy Michael Sheen & David Tennant / Walter Presents’ Walter Iuzzolino

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14 TV DRAMA

CONTENTS

It’s (Too) Complicated

FEATURES 28 EUROPEAN MAGIC Spotlights the booming European drama sector.

38 FLIGHTS OF FANCY Explores the emerging renaissance of science-fiction and fantasy shows.

I am quite used to experiencing uncomfortable stress levels while watching the news or listening to true-crime podcasts (one too many stories about people disappearing without a trace, and you start to get paranoid).

Ricardo Seguin Guise Publisher Anna Carugati Group Editorial Director Mansha Daswani Editor Kristin Brzoznowski Executive Editor Chelsea Regan Alison Skilton Associate Editors 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 Coordinator Andrea Moreno Business Affairs Manager

Ricardo Seguin Guise President Anna Carugati Executive VP Mansha Daswani Associate Publisher & VP of Strategic Development TV Drama ©2019 WSN INC. 1123 Broadway, #1207 New York, NY 10010 Phone: (212) 924-7620 Fax: (212) 924-6940 Website: www.tvdrama.ws

I wasn’t expecting that level of anxiety when I sat down to watch Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, Netflix’s brilliant but entirely discomfiting interactive film. First, I had to hold the remote control for the entire time. Not relaxing. And then, having to make selections gave me agita because I wanted to know where the other option would take me. So, I watched it over and over again until I had seen all the major endings. Lean-forward entertainment is exhausting.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m all for being invested in and committed to a show, whether that means getting teary-eyed during an emotional scene in A Million Little Things, anxious over Killing Eve’s thrilling cat-and-mouse game or maddeningly confused about Game of Thrones’ millionand-one storylines and characters. I’ll take a layered, complex serialized drama over an episodic procedural every time. But there is something to be said for relaxing, leanback storytelling that doesn’t require a massive investment of time. That’s why Jeffrey Katzenberg has lined up a $1 billion war chest to spend on “quick bites” of entertainment for the new streaming service Quibi. Sam Raimi and Guillermo del Toro are said to be working on projects for the new platform.

It is expected to be another game-changing development in a genre that has seen unprecedented levels of innovation and investment over the last few years.

This edition of TV Drama explores two areas of the scripted space that are making a lot of noise today. First, we analyze the booming European drama market, spotlighting creativity from Spain, Scandinavia, Germany, France, Russia and Turkey. Next, we dive into the genre space, looking at sci-fi, fantasy and horror shows being produced around the world. Speaking of fantasy, arguably one of the most highly anticipated shows this year is Amazon and BBC’s Good Omens. Its stars, Michael Sheen and David Tennant, talk about working together on the adaptation of the beloved Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett novel. We also hear from Walter Iuzzolino, co-founder and curator of Walter Presents, on how the acclaimed foreign-language drama service has evolved and expanded since its launch.

—Mansha Daswani

GET DAILY NEWS ON TELEVISION DRAMA

38 56 WILD DISTRICT EXPLORED Creator Cristian Conti, star Juan Pablo Raba and ZDF Enterprises’ Robert Franke discuss the new series Wild District.

58 MADE IN FINLAND A look at Elisa Viihde’s ambitious plans for high-end Finnish drama.

INTERVIEWS

46 Good Omens’ David Tennant & Michael Sheen

50 Walter Presents’ Walter Iuzzolino

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Cheat 16 TV DRAMA

all3media international Cheat / Diary of an Uber Driver / Back to Life From Two Brothers Pictures, creators of Liar and The Missing, comes the female-led drama Cheat. “This series explores the story of a university lecturer who suspects a student of cheating, and what begins as a simple case of academic deception turns into an exhilarating cat-and-mouse game with terrible consequences,” says Tatiana Hernaiz, all3media international’s sales manager for EMEA South. Also from Two Brothers Pictures, Back to Life tells the story of Miri, who, after spending ten years in prison, needs to rebuild her life. “It has that perfect balance between drama and comedy, with a very likable character, which makes it a truly enjoyable experience to watch,” says Hernaiz. Diary of an Uber Driver follows a driver on his quest to figure out what he should be doing while helping others get to where they are going.

Atresmedia Televisión

“We are very proud of our drama slate and the quality of it.”

—Tatiana Hernaiz

Presumed Guilty

Presumed Guilty / Slaughterhouse / People Talking The thriller Presumed Guilty, part of the Series Atresmedia offering, features an unsolved mystery that leaves the boyfriend of a missing girl looking for answers. “We invite the audience to be part of the series, to be active along with the episodes to find out the truth,” says Diana Borbón Cuchí, sales manager at Atresmedia Televisión. Slaughterhouse, meanwhile, has a dark tone. The story kicks off when the owner of a local slaughterhouse is accidentally killed by his wife and brother-in-law. They come to learn that he was using his pigs to introduce drugs into the country, and now two cartels are after them. “It is something different, a brave choice that aims to surprise the viewer,” says Borbón Cuchí. People Talking is a dramedy that emphasizes the importance of face-to-face conversations.

“The series we will present at MIPTV are very different from each other, but they have something in common: compelling characters.”

—Diana Borbón Cuchí

ATV

Lifeline

Hercai / Lifeline / Grand Family Set in the picturesque Turkish city of Mardin, Hercai features a story of love and revenge. “Hercai will draw massive attention from international buyers because of its atmosphere,” says Müge Akar, ATV’s content sales deputy manager.

“It will reveal the challenges of living in a modern world but still feeling the traditions of Turkish culture.” In its second season, Lifeline stars Mehmet Ali Nuroğlu as a cruel businessman and Irem Helvacioğlu as his abused child bride who attempts to make an escape with her son. Also back for another season is Grand Family, about a weaponssmuggling mafia clique led by a man up against the pressures of his business, the government and his family. Akar highlights the “touching stories, strong casts and quality of the production” in these MIPTV highlights.

“ATV always brings premium Turkish dramas to international audiences.”

—Müge Akar 162 WORLD SCREEN 4/19

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Banijay Rights Hierro / Wisting / Hidden Selected as the best project at Berlinale’s first CoPro Series pitching session, Banijay Rights’ Hierro is a thriller starring Candela Peña (Princesas, Torremolinos 73) and Darío Grandinetti (Wild Tales, Talk to Her), shot on location in the Canary Islands. Wisting, which also benefits from an all-star cast, follows a homicide detective wrestling with a case like none he’s ever been on. “Wisting is expected to command a high level of interest from the global market, confirming the continual rise in commissions and acquisitions of non-Englishlanguage and multilingual dramas,” says Chris Stewart, commercial director of scripted at Banijay Rights. In Hidden, based on Filip Alexanderson’s critically acclaimed novel Förstfödd, the supernatural meets gritty realism for a suspenseful series that delves into what it means to be an outsider.

Wisting

“Our drama highlights for MIPTV all have strong, international appeal.”

—Chris Stewart

Electric Entertainment Almost Paradise / Jigsaw / The Outpost Shot in Southeast Asia, Almost Paradise follows a retired DEA agent living at a tropical resort who can’t help but seek out chaos, despite his doctor’s orders to relax. He’s recruited by the local police chief and partnered up to help put a dangerous drug lord behind bars. The fantasy/adventure series The Outpost features the lone survivor of a race called Blackbloods who travels to a fortress on the edge of the civilized world as she tracks her family’s killers. Jigsaw trails the quest for clues to find puzzle pieces that ultimately reveal the location of a hefty inheritance; the first one to solve the puzzle gets everything. “Buyers and viewers alike would want to tune in every week, or binge-watch the entire season, because our series all take place in imaginative locations,” says Sonia Mehandjiyska, head of international distribution at Electric Entertainment.

The Outpost

“Our TV lineup is showing audiences places and settings they rarely, if ever, see.”

—Sonia Mehandjiyska Gulperi

Global Agency Sisters / Gulperi Love and betrayal drive siblings apart in the drama Sisters, which Global Agency is presenting. The series follows as the different dreams of Ümran and Umay leave them and their daughters Hayat and Hayal worlds apart. Their lives collide as the cruelty of Hayat’s father catapults her from village poverty into the glamorous Istanbul life of her high-society aunt Umay.

The two daughters uncover their mothers’ dark secret, but the children face a similar twist of fate as they play out a conflict of their own. “Besides its well-known cast, the storyline fits international buyers’ needs, and we are sure it has great potential to be a worldwide hit,” says Izzet Pinto, founder and CEO of Global Agency. The company is also highlighting Gulperi, which comes from the producers of Magnificent Century, Kosem and Eternal.

“Gulperi is a drama that touches on the plight shared by many women living in different geographies.”

—Izzet Pinto 164 WORLD SCREEN 4/19

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Bitter Lands

20 TV DRAMA

Inter Medya Bitter Lands / The Pit / Innocent Since its launch last September in Turkey, Bitter Lands has been garnering increasingly strong ratings, and Inter Medya believes it will be successful on channels around the world as well. “International buyers want to see classic stories about love and family, and we can all agree that Bitter Lands is a special kind of love story,” says Can Okan, founder and CEO. The Ay Yapim-produced The Pit, which stars Aras Bulut Iynemli and Dilan Çiçek Deniz, has continued to notch up deals for Inter Medya. The company is also presenting Innocent, a web series that combines crime and drama. It’s about a retired cop and his wife living peacefully at a little ranch house away from the city, until one night, when their son shows up with terrible news.

“Bitter Lands is a special kind of love story.”

—Can Okan

Kanal D International Lost Scent / Ruthless City / Wounded Love Directed by Ömer Faruk Sorak (G.O.R.A., Vizontele) and boasting a star-studded cast is Lost Scent, a new drama series Kanal D International is bringing to MIPTV that tells the story of a woman seeking revenge upon returning to her hometown several years after she was kidnapped away from her family as a teenager. Ruthless City—starring Fikret Kuşkan, Deniz Uğur and Mine Tugay—follows a family’s migration from a small city to the metropolis of Istanbul. Returning to the global market is the drama Wounded Love, along with indemand titles Price of Passion, Double Trouble and Twins.

“In most of the regions—like many examples in LatAm— this content is aired in prime-time slots because of its success,” says Kerim Emrah Turna, the executive director at Kanal D International.

Ruthless City

“Turkish dramas have continued expanding into new territories while getting stronger in the existing ones.”

—Kerim Emrah Turna

Kew Media Distribution Clink / The Dead Lands / Line of Duty Set in the fictional BPS Bridewell Women’s Prison, Clink explores the hardships that have led the inmates to prison and the friendships that grow within its walls.

“We’ve recently noticed a strong trend in female-led drama series, and Clink showcases this perfectly; not only with its strong female characters but by highlighting both the dark and light stories behind these incarcerated women,” says Jonathan Ford, executive VP of sales at Kew Media Distribution. Also new to the market is The Dead Lands, based on the film of the same name about a supernatural-battling warrior named Waka Nuku Rau. In its fifth season is Line of Duty, from the makers of Bodyguard and featuring stars such as Thandie Newton, Keeley Hawes and Lennie James.

“We have a host of new and returning series that are sure to appeal to worldwide audiences.”

Clink 166 WORLD SCREEN 4/19

—Jonathan Ford

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Ambitions

22 TV DRAMA

Lionsgate The Rook / The Spanish Princess / Ambitions The follow-up to The White Queen and The White Princess, The Spanish Princess is the latest English royal court drama drawn from Philippa Gregory’s novels. This new Starz original focuses on Catherine of Aragon, the first of King Henry VIII of England’s six wives. Another Starz original that Lionsgate is highlighting is The Rook, about an official in Britain’s secret service for those with paranormal abilities who awakens within a circle of dead bodies not knowing who she is or why she’s someone’s target. “The series takes place in London and was beautifully shot there, adding to its high production value,” says Agapy Kapouranis, Lionsgate’s president of international TV and digital distribution. Ambitions is a multigenerational family saga set in Atlanta.

“We are thrilled to bring a slate of exciting female-driven stories to MIPTV this year.”

—Agapy Kapouranis

Madd Entertainment My Little Girl / Crash / Kuzgun Beren Gökyildiz, known from the series Mother, and Buğra Gülsoy, who has featured in Kuzey Güney and Fatmagül, star in Madd Entertainment’s My Little Girl. The drama “became a hit in Chile on Mega TV from the beginning, thanks to Beren Gökyildiz,” says Deniz Cantutan, sales manager. “She is a very talented child star.” The company’s slate also features Crash, which follows the fates of four young people involved in a car accident. Featured among the cast is Kivanç Tatlituğ, whose list of credits includes Kuzey Güney, Brave and Beautiful and Kurt Seyit ve Şura. Kuzgun, meanwhile, stars Bariş Arduç and Burcu Biricik. “This story will tell us how complexly woven the fate of fathers and sons are, as well as the conflicts and collisions between them,” says Cantutan.

“We want to develop sustainable relationships with potential partners by understanding their audience and choosing the right drama for their viewers.”

—Deniz Cantutan My Little Girl

MISTCO Hold My Hand / The Circle / Beloved The romantic drama Hold My Hand charts the love story between Azra, a beautiful and well-educated young girl who lost her father, and Cenk, a spoiled boy. “Hold My Hand was launched last MIPCOM, and it has been sold to 15 territories since,” says Aysegul Tuzun, VP of sales and marketing at MISTCO. “It is a very successful title, which has a beautiful, romantic story appealing to viewers all around the world.” The Circle tells the story of two young men fighting against a criminal organization for different reasons but with the same goals. Beloved spotlights the romance between two people whose parents are sworn enemies. “While our characters climb up the ladders of love, they also unwittingly go through hard challenges,” Tuzun says.

The Circle

“As an agent of the Turkish TV network TRT, we are offering long-term relationships and sustainability to our partners.”

—Aysegul Tuzun

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24 TV DRAMA

Brass Sun

NTV Brass Sun / Beyond Death / The Crow Coming off a successful fall season, NTV is presenting Brass Sun, a war drama starring Vladimir Mashkov as an army band conductor who leads the young soldiers to a dramatic finale amidst guerrilla warfare. Also among NTV’s highlights is the crime thriller The Crow, which centers on an investigator who is discriminated against for being a woman. Beyond Death, already proving popular with viewers as it heads into its second season, is likened to a “Russian version of The X-Files,” according to NTV General Producer Timur Weinstein. The series interweaves three separate paranormal crime stories that are investigated by a veteran detective and a young neuroscientist. “NTV is determined to become a leader in the international drama/thriller category, and we have all it takes to bring new global audiences to our partners,” says Weinstein.

“Diversity of ideas, international appeal and great production quality put NTV programs among the most popular in Russia and position it as a serious player among international content powerhouses.”

—Timur Weinstein

Red Arrow Studios International

Bad Mothers

Vienna Blood / Departure / Bad Mothers A crime series set in the cafes and opera houses of 1900s Vienna leads Red Arrow Studios International’s drama slate.

Vienna Blood sees cultures and ideas collide as the show’s main character, Max, a student of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, finds himself embroiled in the investigation of a series of disturbing murders. Conspiracy thriller Departure follows the mysterious disappearance of Flight 716 and the subsequent investigation into what happened to the plane and its 256 passengers. The show features a star-studded ensemble, including Archie Panjabi, Christopher Plummer, Kris Holden-Ried and Claire Forlani. Then there is Bad Mothers, a “sexy, glossy, funny drama about modern women juggling life’s big issues: love, family, careers, infidelity…and murder,” says Bo Stehmeier, Red Arrow Studios International’s president.

“Red Arrow Studios International’s diverse slate of high-quality content will resonate with our clients around the world.”

—Bo Stehmeier

Russia Television and Radio/Sovtelexport XXXXXXXX

Godunov / Blackout / Two Tickets Home The volatility of 16th-century Russia is showcased in Godunov, a historical drama that picks up after the death of Ivan the Terrible, which ended an ancient dynasty and left no heir to the throne. Blackout jumps forward to the Russia of the ’90s, as a veteran of the Soviet-Afghan War returns home to a devastated country that he doesn’t even recognize. Disillusioned, he rearms himself and commits a daring robbery. The story “is a response to the challenges of contemporary social and political instability, uncertainty and pessimism that overwhelm the everyday lives of people worldwide today,” says Julia Matiash, director of Sovtelexport, which represents programming from Russia Television and Radio (RTR). Also on the slate is Two Tickets Home, the story of an orphaned girl who learns her father is alive, albeit in prison for her mother’s murder.

“Every year the RTR catalog is being replenished by the best and most successful local productions.”

—Julia Matiash Two Tickets Home 170 WORLD SCREEN 4/19

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Love Conquers All? 26 TV DRAMA

Star India Love Conquers All? / The Singing Star / Radha & Krishna Two star-crossed lovers are at the center of Love Conquers All? (Kasauti Zindagi Kay). Radha & Krishna (RadhaKrishn), rooted in Indian mythology, has as its core theme unconditional love and devotion. Gurjeev Kapoor, the president of distribution at Star India, calls these series “the two mostanticipated dramas from our portfolio.” He adds, “Kasauti Zindagi Kay is a remake of Star India’s classic drama by the same name, and it is once again likely to transform the scale and popularity of Indian dramas. RadhaKrishn is a costume drama based on the eternal love story of Radha and Krishna.

The initial interest in both these shows from fans and broadcasters across the globe has been phenomenal.” In The Singing Star (Kullfi Kumarr Bajewala), a 7-year-old musical prodigy ventures out to find her estranged father.

“Star India believes in harnessing the power of imagination, and this is reflected in our storytelling.”

—Gurjeev Kapoor

Viacom18/IndiaCast Media Distribution Jhansi Ki Rani / Kesarri Nandan / Gathbandhan The lineup from Viacom18/IndiaCast Media Distribution includes the historical costume drama Jhansi Ki Rani, which tells the story of Rani Lakshmibai, the bravest, fiercest warrior queen. Kesarri Nandan is an inspirational tale of a young girl who is a wrestling prodigy, while Gathbandhan is a romantic drama showcasing the love between two contrasting personalities: a cop and a gangster. “Our series are a perfect blend of emotion, drama and variety,” says Debkumar Dasgupta, senior VP and business head (syndication). He adds, “After successfully making inroads into the Eastern European markets, CIS countries and Asian markets, we are now also available in the Caribbean, Turkey and African markets across both traditional and new-media platforms.”

ZDF Enterprises

“Viacom18 has always been a pioneer in creating stories and has grown leaps and bounds on the back of engaging storylines.”

Jhansi Ki Rani

—Debkumar Dasgupta

Wild District

Victor Lessard / Wild District / Beyond Appearances Adapted from the best-selling novels by Martin Michaud, who has been called the “master of the Quebec thriller,” Victor Lessard is a fast-paced psychological thriller series.

“It leaves no emotion unturned as it tells the story of a driven detective and his pursuit of the evil behind unspeakable crimes,” says Robert Franke, VP of ZDFE.drama at ZDF Enterprises. From the creators of Narcos comes Wild District, which blends action and drama to tell the story of a man who escapes the Colombian armed conflict and must now learn the ways of the concrete jungle. It was produced as a Netflix original. There’s a mystery at the center of Beyond Appearances, a six-parter that follows the disappearance of a famous actress’s twin and the long-buried family secrets that are revealed.

“All three of these series have already proven their strong international potential.”

—Robert Franke 172 WORLD SCREEN 4/19

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28 TV DRAMA

Sovtelexport’s Demons.

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TV DRAMA 29

Dramas from across Europe are being embraced by new audiences around the world.

By Kristin Brzoznowski

I

t’s a fine time to be a producer or distributor working in the European drama business. The market for scripted coming from the Continent is in rude health, as there’s a heady mix of U.S. pay-TV players looking to partner on premium content, American broadcast networks eyeing adaptations of non-English-language scripts, local channels embracing the appeal of homegrown fare and, of course, streaming platforms expanding their evergrowing arsenals of originals. From Scandinavian thrillers, British murder mysteries and Russian period pieces to German miniseries, Spanish fiction and Turkish family dramas—and pretty much everything in between—stories with European roots are traveling now more than ever.

“It’s been booming,” says Nicola Söderlund, managing partner at Eccho Rights, which represents a varied catalog with series from Spain, Turkey, Scandinavia and elsewhere. “One of the reasons is because American series don’t dominate the grids like they used to. A couple of years ago, they were filling prime time for many [international] broadcasters, but they don’t work that way anymore. They needed to be replaced by something. The natural replacement for these series would be European dramas, and that’s what we’re seeing.”

Romain Bessi, managing director of Newen, observes, “Ten years ago, of the top ten dramas on the main channels [across Europe], more than half would be American shows. Now, ten out of ten are local dramas. Local dramas are performing much better in their domestic markets, and they are traveling better.”

It used to be mainly stories from the U.K. that traveled, having an advantage of being in the English language, along

with fare from smaller countries like the Nordics. “That was because they could not find in their domestic country enough money to finance their dramas, so they needed to talk to international players such as distributors or other channels,” Bessi explains. “Until recently, French drama didn’t have to look for other [financing] since there was soft money and license fees. The channels were very healthy and investing a lot. Over the last three or four years, the traditional players have had more difficulties locally, challenged by the expansion of global players. They are now bringing less money; it’s still substantial, but it’s less. French producers have to look for more money from the international market, mostly from distributors, and for this, they will have to take international needs into account.”

FRENCH CONNECTION Bessi adds that if you combine this with the fact that the movie industry in France, like many other markets, is dealing with financial problems, “you will understand that there can and will be a creative shift toward drama. Many writers, directors, producers and actors are moving into the TV space. So there is access to more talented people who come from an industry that has been successful and creative over the last 50 years. It’s a combination of those two things that is going to improve the perceived quality of French series.”

Russia’s drama-series industry is a relatively young one but it, too, has seen strong gains. “In 2001, only 50 series were produced, but now more than 250 are done yearly,” says Julia Matiash, the director of Sovtelexport, the distribution arm of Russia Television and Radio. “At least 75 percent of 4/19 WORLD SCREEN 175

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30 TV DRAMA

Eccho Rights’ El Accidente, a Spanish drama, is based on the Turkish hit The End.

broadcast content in Russia is locally done, and at least 40 percent of broadcast time is given to series.”

She notes that Russian product has been traveling in the international market for more than 15 years but has seen a nice uptick in the last few. This has been spurred along by “new, ambitious production companies” that have now gained solid experience and are “willing to invest in international promotion much more than before.”

The country is well-known in the global market for its period dramas. “Russian history, czar dynasties, its imperial and Soviet past—all of this provides rich material for creating major projects on the same level of production as the best international ones like Medici: Masters of Florence, The Tudors and The Crown,” says Matiash. “At the same time, our historical dramas stay relevant and appealing to contemporary audiences with their compelling stories, characters and acting, which are traditionally strong in Russia.”

Alongside period dramas, global buyers are particularly interested in screen adaptations of Russian classics. “This kind of classical drama is appealing to the broadest audience possible,” Matiash says, highlighting the “complicated characters in the most dramatic circumstances; impressive battle scenes; gorgeous and realistic locations, decorations and costumes; and the highest local production budgets.”

TURKISH DELIGHTS Turkish tales have been making their way around the globe since 2001, starting with the Balkans, the Middle East and Latin America, thanks to cultural similarities. “In the following years, international demand increased so much that Turkey became the world’s secondlargest series exporter,” says Can Okan, founder and CEO of Inter Medya. “The demand for Turkish series is still very high, with the major TV channels producing an average of 70 new soaps per year, and there is no end in sight.”

Okan credits the “high production standards and unique stories” as being drivers of this success.

These stories often reflect the balance between old and new. “This

makes the content unique and gives it a head start in the international market,” he says. “Tradition is still very important in dramas, but modern conditions and thinking are playing an increasingly important role. The conflict between tradition and modernity, past and present, creates an incredibly rich environment” for a Turkish romantic drama.

Kerim Emrah Turna, executive director at Kanal D International, says that the vast majority of the scripted series coming from free TV in Turkey can be characterized as family dramas.

“Lately, we are producing a lot of action dramas, miniseries and historical dramas,” he adds. “We have shown what kind of high quality we can reach.”

Turna highlights strong sales for Kanal D’s dramas in the Americas, Europe, Africa and most parts of Asia. “Broadcasters are aiming to get more traffic, and our content, which is very high quality, is creating a huge amount of viewership, and that helps the broadcasters to maximize their revenues.”

Ismail Dursunov, deputy general manager of Calinos Entertainment, points to strong interest from Latin America but notes that new markets are opening up. “After the success Turkish series received in Spain, all attention is now on the rest of the countries in Western Europe. The Far East is also an attractive market for us and we would like to expand our presence there further.”

“Turkish dramas are still receiving a huge amount of interest from every part of the world,” agrees Aysegul Tuzun, VP of sales and marketing of MISTCO, which represents the TRT library. She says that the stiff competition in the local TV market and the prolific producers it’s home to have been key factors in achieving success on the global stage. “There are many high-quality productions in the market, and the biggest reason behind that is the capacity of storytelling, which is a famous Turkish tradition for dozens of years.”

Production quality has also been rising in Spain, helping to drive interest on an international level. “There are wonderful

The first-look deal between Netflix and Spain’s Atresmedia includes the thriller Toy Boy. 176 WORLD SCREEN 4/19

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32 TV DRAMA

La Otra Mirada is a period drama from Spanish pubcaster RTVE.

showrunners, good stories and good filmmakers,” says María Jesús Pérez, international sales director for RTVE. “After several international hits, it is much easier for Spanish dramas to find new distribution opportunities.”

SPANISH FLAIR

theatrical productions, so [there is] a lot of screen value along with carefully crafted stories with mainstream appeal.”

“We see a growing appetite for local productions, and German drama is definitely striking a chord with this trend,” notes Alexandra Heidrich, head of TV sales and acquisitions at Global Screen.

Many German dramas air in the 2x90minute format, but for the international market, Global Screen often repackages its event productions as 4x45-minute miniseries. “We have been very successful with this format and have sold Rivals Forever: The Sneaker Battle into more than 20 territories,” says Heidrich.

Spanish series, meanwhile, used to have a length of about 70 minutes per episode. “It was a difficult format for the international market, and we had to reversion various titles to adapt them to our clients’ needs,” says Atresmedia’s Salso.

For its new productions this year, the company will be doing 50-minute episodes. “Following the new Atresmedia strategy to reduce the length of the prime-time slot and the ad breaks, we were the first ones in Spain to change and adapt to the international market. We think it is a key movement that both the audience and clients will like.”

MISTCO’s Tuzun says that typical episodes in Turkey are around 150 minutes, “but for international broadcasters, we create 45-minute versions for each episode.”

The arrival of local OTT services is also leading to different lengths and formats, she adds. “The emergence of Turkish VOD platforms has opened up a new branch for Turkish dramas that are 60 minutes instead of 150 minutes, and some of these new dramas have become quite successful.”

“Turkish series usually take two and a half hours per episode, filled with romance, family quarrels and drama,” says Inter Medya’s Okan. “These Turkish-length episodes are edited into three episodes of one commercial hour each” for the international market.

Among those international hits is La Casa de Papel (Money Heist), the Spanish-language heist thriller that became the most-watched non-English series on Netflix ever. Following this success, Atresmedia Televisión landed a deal with the global streaming service that sees Netflix getting a first look at new titles produced under the Series Atresmedia label.

José Antonio Salso, head of acquisitions and sales at Atresmedia, says that the company’s scripted series have been sold into 120 countries around the world, highlighting Velvet and Grand Hotel as dramas that have performed particularly well internationally.

“There is a boom of Spanish drama, not only in Spanishspeaking territories but also in the rest of the world,” says Silvia Cotino, head of sales at Mediterráneo Audiovisual, a new company set up by Mediaset España. “The Spanish content production quality is really high, and in a globalized era, stories are traveling in an unstoppable way. We now have a double challenge: to access new territories and keep up with the needs of our clients.”

Meanwhile, the hallmarks of German dramas are “production value and mainstream appeal,” says Robert Franke, VP of ZDFE.drama at ZDF Enterprises. “The programs from our channel tend to resonate with really broad target audiences when picked up and often outperform comparable English-speaking projects.

Germany is very well-known for long-running series and event miniseries as well as TV movies. Many of these programs are being produced with budgets equal to or higher than Revival is a new Turkish series that Calinos Entertainment will be showcasing at MIPTV. 178 WORLD SCREEN 4/19

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streamers, and they need to step up their game. So the budgets have increased all over the place, and the quality has increased as well. That has an impact on everything.

The gap between what the broadcasters give and the streamers give and the production budget is bigger than before. That gap is supposedly covered by agents like us, but since there is such a big output, it’s very hard to cover that gap. It’s not a market that’s in balance. There are not even enough eyeballs to view all of this content.”

QUALITY CHECK

MISTCO’s catalog of Turkish drama from TRT includes Hold My Hand.

With everyone competing on a global level nowadays, the demand for higher production values is increasing, and so is the need for having big stars on board a project. “The only way for some of the free-TV stations to compete is to coproduce with other countries,” says Söderlund. “Otherwise, they can’t afford the budgets that are required.”

A+E Networks recently embarked on its first international scripted co-production, Miss Scarlet and The Duke, in development with Element 8 Entertainment. The series is described as a full-throttle crime drama about the first-ever female detective in 19th-century London.

Richard Tulk-Hart, managing director of international content sales and co-productions, says that A+E Networks has kept a close eye on how the proliferation of streaming platforms has bolstered opportunities for series to gain audiences outside their home territories. “Our feeling is that some shows will work better in the linear space and others better in the SVOD space,” he says. “If we see that a show can work and grow on an SVOD platform then we will look to work with them outside the territory of commission. In the case of Miss Scarlet, we felt the show’s longevity was more guaranteed by bringing big free-to-air broadcasters on board in a number of territories while we tried to build up the brand and audience.”

Sovtelexport’s Matiash says that OTT and digital platforms are especially convenient for first-step penetration into markets. “They provide an opportunity to be delivered to new audiences, [the ability] to get high-quality local dubbing, which can be used for further sales, and perform as a focus group for the local TV channels,” she adds. “The

Okan, too, notes that the introduction of Turkish digital platforms is shaking things up. “These streaming platforms invest in original series and try out a new way of storytelling. The projects are bolder, edgier and have shorter [running times] compared to classic TV projects. This birth of original digital content is an important event in the Turkish TV landscape. These new series are shorter in length to meet the international standards and are, therefore, easier to consume and sell, especially to the Nordics, Eastern Europe and Asia, where traditional Turkish drama is less popular.”

Much like what has happened in the U.S., the voracious appetites of global OTT players have had an enormous impact on the production industry in Europe as a whole. Netflix, for one, invested a reported $1 billion in new content with European roots last year and is expected to produce or co-produce more than 200 projects in the region this year.

Amazon, too, is ramping up its European ambitions. And this is poised to intensify, as the European Parliament has approved new regulations for online streaming services, imposing a quota for homegrown productions on the likes of Netflix and Amazon. The guidelines will require that at least 30 percent of content carried on streaming services operating in the EU originates from the region. On-demand platforms are also being asked to contribute to the development of European films and TV series, either by directly investing in content or by contributing to national subsidies.

“The level of commissioning might even be too much,” says Eccho Rights’ Söderlund. “I wonder if there is enough talent to produce all these series at a reasonable quality. Given the demand for experienced talent, the prices will go up because of this.”

There’s also an impact on the quality of European drama, he says. “The freeTV stations feel the competition from the Wounded Love has been a huge hit in Turkey and a strong seller for Kanal D International.

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popularity of a title on digital drives interest from other players.” Matiash cites an example of the binge-viewing success of Ekaterina on Amazon Prime helping lead to three deals with European TV channels within one month.

NEW HORIZONS Russian drama, she says, has traditionally been popular in Eastern Europe, the Balkans and former USSR countries.

“The last five years were rather difficult, considering the loss of the very important Ukrainian market for us and new political trends. Nevertheless, our series have shown good results on the main channels in Serbia, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania, Greece, Cyprus and Poland.”

Latin America is also on her list as a promising market.

Sovtelexport likewise has its eyes on the MENA region, as well as parts of Asia.

For Spanish dramas, meanwhile, there has been plenty of good business in the Americas, “mostly due to our cultural and language affinity,” says RTVE’s Pérez. “In the last few years, we have seen increasing interest for our dramas in the Middle East and Eastern Europe.”

MISTCO’s Tuzun lists Latin America and the Balkans as popular markets for Turkish fare. “Regarding new opportunities, we have started doing business with Russia and CIS countries, and we believe that Africa will become a new market for Turkish dramas as well,” she adds.

“Latin America is still a huge market for Turkish series,” agrees Inter Medya’s Okan. “You will find at least one Turkish series airing on almost every channel there. A new market is Spain, which has the advantage of enabling us to export

our series to other regions in Europe. Black Money Love was sold to Atresmedia and Endless Love to Mediaset [España].

These two series attracted millions of viewers, increasing the channels’ average shares.”

Kanal D’s Turna echoes that Spain is currently a hot market for Turkish titles, with the company notching up a number of recent deals. “As it is a Western European country, this is an important milestone for us,” he says. “This shows that we will also be able to break some walls in core Western European countries like France, Germany and the U.K., and then, hopefully, English-speaking U.S. and Canada.”

Turna is eyeing new opportunities in East Asian markets.

“We think that our storytelling is very similar, and so are the subjects and core values,” he says.

REMAKE FEVER Eccho Rights’ Söderlund mentions that while sales of finished European dramas have been thriving, the market for scripted formats is increasing right along with it. “There’s an enormous demand for new shows because of all the streamers that have come in and are commissioning. I don’t think there are enough talent and ideas to cover that demand. So what do you do? You look at existing series that are successes and make an adaptation.”

“The interesting thing is that European drama can travel either as a format or as a tape,” says Newen’s Bessi. “European countries have good stories, talent, soft money and important local players, and [digital] platforms are bringing more resources. Local players will always be the main partners for local drama, by far, but global platforms will facilitate its international expansion.”

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Andy Fry explores the emerging renaissance of science-fiction and fantasy shows.

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here was a time when sci-fi and fantasy were perceived to be the exclusive preserve of the arcadedwelling, bike-riding, Dungeons & Dragons –obsessed adolescent boys depicted so exquisitely in the Netflix series Stranger Things. But that series, together with Marvel and DC Comics adaptations, HBO’s Game of Thrones and AMC’s The Walking Dead, have helped transform perceptions of geek culture. As the success of events like Comic-Con vividly illustrate, sci-fi and fantasy-based TV series are now capable of attracting significant audiences across gender and age demographics.

Rola Bauer, the managing director of STUDIOCANAL TV, says, “There is a definite growth in interest in ‘what’s out there’—which is probably because ‘what’s here’ is disturbing and not particularly comfortable at the moment. In our case, we have started production on War of the Worlds, a Howard Overman adaptation of H. G. Wells’ timeless story, set in Europe today.”

Arguably the first great alien-invasion story, War of the Worlds was written in 1897. But in Bauer’s view, its narrative themes continue to resonate, making the transition to a modern setting relatively straightforward.

“It is an extremely relevant story reflecting our world today as we stagger through global upheaval. The narrative Howard has created is emotional and characterdriven. It is a fusion of human drama and science fiction at its best. It’s also a story about ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances—a universal theme that transcends borders.”

EUROPEAN INVASION Historically, sci-fi and fantasy-based TV series tended to be led by the American market; so the fact that a Europeanchored company like STUDIOCANAL is investing in the genre is a sign of how the global market has shifted. But there are also financial implications. So how has STUDIOCANAL constructed a big-budget sci-fi series fronted by the likes of Gabriel Byrne and Elizabeth McGovern? The answer, says Bauer, is co-production, a model she has used with ambitious period pieces like The Pillars of the Earth.

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Endemol Shine’s Humans was made as a co-pro between AMC in the U.S. and Channel 4 in the U.K.

“We have worked hard on building a major co-production partnership for War of the Worlds, made up of Canal+, Fox Networks Group Europe & Africa, AGC Television and STUDIOCANAL. This is completely necessary to deliver a stand-out series—this is 8x60-minutes of cinematic scale production—with an exceptional cast, leading writers and award-winning talent behind the camera. A series of this high caliber demands a substantial budget, and that can only really be achieved these days through a like-minded international production partnership.”

War of the Worlds will debut this year on Canal+ in France, and on FOX in more than 50 countries across Europe and Africa. Bauer is optimistic the series can live on a range of platforms. “Commitment from strong pay-TV platforms enabled the series to be created, but the AGC and STUDIOCANAL teams will be looking to place the drama with the best platform or broadcaster in multiple territories. And we know there is demand from OTT, pay and free-to-air networks.”

DEMANDING VIEWERS Cathy Payne, the CEO of Endemol Shine International, says her company has enjoyed broad-based success with Humans on broadcasters such as Channel 4 and AMC. But she stresses that VOD platforms have played a pivotal role in the recent rise of sci-fi and fantasy. Among the titles on Endemol Shine’s slate are Black Mirror, which shifted from Channel 4 to Netflix early in its life cycle, and Dark, a Netflix original.

“While a genre like sci-fi has always had a very loyal audience, in individual territories such as Australia it can generate small numbers compared to broader offerings,” Payne says. “However, global platforms that have the ability to consolidate audiences from many territories can deliver a significant number.”

In addition to this ability to aggregate genre audiences, Payne says there is an editorial fit between sci-fi and fantasy

and VOD. “VOD services provide the perfect environment for binge-viewing, which is often associated with genre fans.

Furthermore, straight-to-series production orders can make genre budgets more affordable, and, in general, their premises are set up for multiple seasons—another reason why you see so many on streaming platforms.”

Echoing Bauer’s point about international co-pros, Payne says it is tough for a linear player in a single territory to fund high-end genre events in isolation. (Humans, for example, was a Channel 4 and AMC co-production.) “I would say U.S. networks are the only ones large enough to commission the more expensive genre pieces. More generally, linear channels need co-pros or distributor-deficit-funded models to fill the gap. This is even the case for SYFY U.S. commissions that have often not been fully funded in the U.S.”

GOING MAINSTREAM Christian Vesper, the executive VP and creative director of global drama at Fremantle, agrees that pure genre pieces tend to sit most naturally with pay TV and VOD, but he says shows with genre elements are creeping into mainstream free-to-air schedules. BBC’s The City and the City and SS-GB “are examples of limited-run series that combine the feel of a procedural drama with heightened genre elements,” Vesper says. “I think it’s a way for creatives to explore new ideas and concepts.”

He says that a taste for genre-based series continues to be present among Fremantle’s production subsidiaries. “Our Danish producer Miso Film teamed up with Netflix on The Rain, a thriller that is set a few years after a virus has wiped out most people in Scandinavia,” says Vesper. “And we are in development with the acclaimed director Michael Haneke on a scripted series called Kelvin’s Book, kind of a cross between The White Ribbon and The Hunger Games.”

Vesper, whose company is currently working with Starz on season two of American Gods, agrees that genre pieces often

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the need for brand-defining series that can build a loyal audience. And it also plays into broadcasters’ desire to reach young audiences.”

Outside of Doctor Who, Rakusen says genre is “a big part of what we do. We are also involved in Good Omens, a co-pro with Amazon based on the work of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett; His Dark Materials, Bad Wolf’s adaptation of Philip Pullman’s novels (a co-pro with HBO); and The Watch, another Pratchett adaptation, this one for BBC America.” Dracula with Netflix and an adaptation of Michael Moorcock’s Runestaff series of novels can be added to this impressive list.

MONEY-HUNTING

Viacom18 is offering up the Colors hit Naagin 3, about a shapeshifting serpent.

need a big U.S. backer or a co-production arrangement to justify the cost of production. “But there are lower-budget shows where the skill of the writer can make a world believable without lots of expense on design and special effects.”

Payne agrees that certain styles of genre TV, like horror and time travel, don’t need to be expensive. “Audience awareness can be generated by platform recommendations.

If you look at shows like Dark and The Rain on Netflix, they are not hugely expensive but perform well.”

GIRL POWER Vesper believes the sector has reinvented itself in a way that makes it more appealing to a female audience. Shows like Wynonna Earp, Jessica Jones, Orphan Black and Supergirl all confirm the shift taking place in sci-fi and fantasy—as does CBS All Access’s decision to make Sonequa Martin-Green the lead in its big-budget Star Trek: Discovery reboot. No less dramatic was BBC Studios’ decision to cast a woman, Jodie Whittaker, as the lead in the company’s classic time-traveling series, Doctor Who. Martin Rakusen, BBC Studios’ commercial director for fiction, says that the decision has been vindicated by the success of the show, both at home and internationally. “It has performed well among its traditional audience, but we’ve also seen growth among female audiences—to the extent the show is fifty-fifty between genders.”

A long-running free-to-air flagship, Doctor Who runs counter to the idea that genre series belong on pay TV or SVOD. For Rakusen, its importance to BBC One is partly due to its heritage. “But the current interest in genre is also about

Rakusen agrees with his peers that sci-fi and fantasy “don’t have to break the bank with Game of Thrones–style CGI, but it is rare for them to be made on a domestic license. So we are very active in co-production. We partner with HBO and SVOD and, increasingly, are talking to some European companies about partnerships.”

Overall, he says, the market is still very focused on “serialized dramas with a single writer’s voice underpinning them. Anthologies and story-of-the-week are tougher propositions.

In terms of keeping people engaged, I think it is about characters that people can fall in love with, and expansive worlds that spin off in lots of interesting directions and raise big themes.

There is so much to choose from that being visually distinctive is also vital.”

And, he says, the job isn’t over at the end of each episode or series. “We look closely at licensing, social, digital content,” says Rakusen, “because you have to keep up a dialogue with fans all the time.”

Dan March, the managing partner of Dynamic Television, says his company “loves developing sci-fi shows because [these] audiences have been underserved for years—especially in Europe. OTT and pay-TV channels realized that a couple of years ago and are now capitalizing.

Netflix, in particular, is focusing on genre programming more and more, which is extremely effective counterprogramming to mainstream series on linear networks.”

Another part of the appeal, he says, is that science fiction is such a broad genre. “It’s an umbrella for supernatural, creature, post-apocalyptic, fantasy, space and true science fiction, among others. So all the subgenres create a broad array of storytelling opportunities. For example, Z Nation (creature/post-apocalyptic), Wynonna Earp (supernatural) and Van Helsing (vampire) are all sci-fi shows but are quite different from one another. If we had three crime shows, chances are they’d have more similarities.”

Another upside, he argues, is that sci-fi’s audience appeal is broader than most industry insiders might expect. “The audience is more gender-even than people realize, and sci-fi viewers range from 18 to 64-plus. They are more contentdriven than demographically defined, and they are also extremely loyal and smart.”

Having said this, he stresses that the genre is not easy to finance, in part because of the hit-and-miss record of freeto-air networks. “They have dabbled, but not always

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countries like Thailand and Malaysia. The initial response to Siya Ke Ram (Sita and Ram) in Russia a few months ago has also been very encouraging.”

A WORLD AWAY

Star India arrives at MIPTV with a slate that includes the new fantasy series Nazar.

successfully. Their target audience is broad and sci-fi has always been viewed as niche, so I think big linear channels have either experimented and failed to capture the audiences they need, or are just not willing to try.”

This, says March, presents challenges when developing and producing science-fiction shows. “For an independent company like ours, the challenge with financing sci-fi shows is that from a distribution perspective, they are acquired by cable channels with niche audiences and lower budgets. This puts more pressure on us to find co-production partners and to be very smart about the risks we can take, knowing free-TV linear channels are not the likely buyers.

And with OTT services shifting their investment into original productions, our financial model on sci-fi shows can no longer safely assume that the OTTs are potential buyers.”

ASIAN LORE While fantasy series are picking up in Europe, they’ve long been a staple in Asia. India is a prolific producer of longrunning fantasy and mythology-based series funded by the domestic broadcasters for local audiences. The distribution arms of those broadcasters are now eager to bring these shows to international screens.

“We have seen a resurgence in fantasy/costume drama series, including historical, supernatural and horror stories,” reports Debkumar Dasgupta, the senior VP and business head (syndication) at Viacom18/IndiaCast Media Distribution, which represents series like the Colors hit Naagin. “Set against larger-than-life backdrops and with mysticism at the core, this genre instantly finds a connection with viewers.”

Star India has a selection of costume dramas with mythological themes on its slate, including Mahabharat, Chandra Nandini and Siya Ke Ram. Gurjeev Kapoor, the president of distribution, notes, “Mythological content like Mahabharat has enjoyed stellar viewership in

Dynamic’s March takes the view that strong storytelling is the key criterion in making a successful show, rather than large budgets and a huge spectacle. “If Game of Thrones weren’t built on one of the greatest story structures ever told, all its spectacle wouldn’t be enough to sustain the audience it has rightfully earned.

The fundamentals of great storytelling apply to sci-fi as much as any genre. Great ideas are built on strong structure, compelling characters we want to root for, or against, and layers of conflict in a unique and engaging setting. This doesn’t always have to be cost-prohibitive; character conflict doesn’t have to include a dragon destroying an empire.”

One way in which genre is distinct from many other forms of drama, however, is its emphasis on world-building, says March. “The challenge in developing an exciting series is not the hero or relationships, but the world-building— creating the rules that exist in this sci-fi world and understanding its logic and consequences.”

This emphasis on world-building probably explains why most successful genre productions are based on books or comics. To those already mentioned could be added SYFY’s adaptation of Lev Grossman’s The Magicians, MTV’s The Shannara Chronicles (based on novels by Terry Brooks) and Amazon’s upcoming Lord of the Rings production (which has a five-season commitment). The risk with shows that don’t have this preexisting structure is that they can run out of steam or collapse in on themselves after one season.

World-building aside, another big advantage of working with preexisting IP, according to Fremantle’s Vesper, is that “it makes it easier to walk in and pitch to commissioners.

They are confronted with such a deluge of ideas that they welcome the familiar—it just means one less challenge.”

Endemol Shine’s Payne agrees that preexisting IP can give a series an immediate boost, but also points out that “VOD services have such appetites for fast-turnaround volume, they will seek out all forms of genre, whether original or derived from existing IP.” BBC Studios has a rich array of classic genre IP, but Rakusen warns against creative complacency. “IP is a great starting point for writers, producers and commissioners. And it’s especially exciting when you get to work with living creators because you get inside their heads—learning about things that didn’t even make it to the page. But that doesn’t always reduce the challenge of adaptation. The world isn’t static, so you have to be constantly thinking about how to make this iconic IP work for this time and this audience.”

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his May, BBC Two in the U.K. and Amazon everywhere else will give fans of Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, something they’ve wanted for almost 30 years. The cult-classic novel by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman is finally making it to television, courtesy of BBC Studios, Amazon Studios, Narrativia and The Blank Corporation. The six-part Good Omens tells the story of angel Aziraphale and angel-turned-demon Crowley— played by Michael Sheen and David Tennant, respectively—who team up to avert the apocalypse. The mega-watt cast also includes Frances McDormand as God, Benedict Cumberbatch as Satan and Jon Hamm as Archangel Gabriel. Tennant and Sheen tell TV Drama about working together, collaborating with Gaiman— screenwriter and showrunner—and fan expectations.

By Mansha Daswani TV DRAMA: How did you each hear about the project?

SHEEN: Neil sent me an early draft of a first episode when he wrote it. That must have been a few years ago now. He would send me early versions of the episodes as he was writing.

TENNANT: I think it was Douglas Mackinnon, the director, who I heard it from first. I had worked with Douglas before and he said, there’s a script coming. I got this wonderful script that was a fully formed piece of genius. Michael was already attached, which already made me want to do it. I didn’t know the book, I’m ashamed to say. Now it seems that for everyone in the world it’s their favorite book ever! I don’t know how I missed it! I was very grateful that it landed in my lap.

SHEEN: I had read the book when I was at drama school. This was before I’d ever met Neil. I remember loving it. So when we talk about all those people out there who love this book and feel protective about how it’s going to be adapted, I’m one of those people. I have my hat where I’m just a fan, and I want the book to be done as well as possible, and then I have my other hat where I’m one of the people who could potentially mess it up.

TV DRAMA: Is there added pressure when you’re taking on material that is so beloved?

SHEEN: One of the things that really helped us was having Neil Gaiman as the showrunner.

TENNANT: He’s a thesaurus, isn’t he? It means that any decisions that have been made have been made by God, as it were. That takes a certain amount of the pressure off. But anything that is that beloved, it’s a huge honor to get to bring it to a different medium and to be the embodiment of these characters that people have lived with and loved for all these years. Of course you tread gently.

SHEEN: Also, just because something works well in one medium doesn’t mean that it’s going to work well in a different medium.

We knew that certain things were going to have to change from the book. And having Neil be the person making those changes allowed us all to feel more confident. If it had been someone else who inevitably would have to change it for it to work as a TV series, that would have been very scary!

TENNANT: Preparing to shoot it, I was definitely liberated by not knowing the book. It was only after [beginning production] when I started to meet people for whom it meant so much. Nina Sosanya plays a fantastic role in the first couple of episodes. I sat with her at the read-through and she was trembling. She said, I reread this book every year of my life. This is so important to me. I would have delivered the sandwiches to the set just to be involved in this. So it’s moments like that when I started to realize how important this was to so many people. And it’s a mixed blessing. It’s thrilling to be part of something that has such a built-in enthusiasm, such a fan base, such love for it. But you have to take a deep breath. I’m sort of glad I didn’t know too much about it before we got started. [If I had] I may have been hamstrung by expectations.

TV DRAMA: Michael, did you go back and reread the book as you were preparing?

SHEEN: I read it again. I hadn’t read it for quite a long time, so it was a real pleasure to go back and just be reminded of what made me love it so much in the first place. And also, you go back to whatever source material you have when you’re doing an adaptation of something and look for clues that are going to help. When I first read it, I wasn’t thinking about playing Aziraphale. So it was the first time I got to read the

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BBC Studios’ Good Omens premieres on BBC Two and Amazon Prime on May 31.

book from the point of view of it being preparation.

You’re looking to find clues: what they look like and how they sound. And I realized how little there was, which was great because it meant there was a lot of freedom. With the little that was suggested, there was a strong sense of the characters and the world. That’s quite a complicated area because then there’s no consensus—everyone has their own version of these characters and the scenes. That becomes quite tricky, because you think, well I’m going to look one way as this character and that really may not chime with the way people have imagined it. So I hope they like it! [Laughs] TV DRAMA: I understand you had never shared any screen time before. How did you finesse your on-screen dynamic?

TENNANT: You finesse it by just turning up! You finesse it by reading the scenes and playing the scenes. It’s almost after the event that you look back and go, that was such a happy, creative, enjoyable time. There is a lot written about chemistry between actors. I don’t know if that’s a thing you can prepare for or measure or legislate for in any way, really. We did know each other and therefore I always felt quite confident that [the chemistry] would happen, and then it sort of did. We were on set looking at each other pretty much every day, which ended up becoming a real pleasure. It could have been awful! [Laughs] SHEEN: It could have been horrendous! I keep thinking back to the first time we ever said the lines out loud with each other. We hadn’t really talked about how we were going to play these characters. It was all very fluid at that point. Within a short space of time, it felt like what I was doing as Aziraphale was completely dependent on what David was doing as Crowley. So my character developed around what David was doing. Normally that doesn’t happen. Normally, a lot of what you do comes out of just thinking about it on your own and talking to the director.

This was the one thing I’ve done where what I did was so dependent on what another actor was doing. And I think we both have a sense of wanting to make the scene the best it can be.

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that did prove to be the case. We both approach things, not the same way, but we have a similar kind of ethic of turning up and doing it and seeing what happens and we play off each other.

SHEEN: A lot happens if you just have the same goals. It’s interesting because actors don’t always have the same goals! [Laughs] If you do have the same goals—getting the most juice out of this scene in terms of what the writers originally wanted, making this the best it can be—then it’s amazing how good the chemistry can be.

TENNANT: The characters are well written, so that gives you something to start with. If you’re starting with good material then you’re off to a running start.

SHEEN: We were never trying to scramble around to see how to make a scene interesting. Quite the opposite!

There was so much going on in every scene.

TENNANT: An alarming amount of time, you will spend the first hour on set in the morning trying to go, if we rewrite this and you say that—there was none of that required. We were starting with a Rolls-Royce of a scene. So it was up to you to not fuck it up, really!

TV DRAMA: What was it like working with Neil Gaiman?

TENNANT: Neil is the perfect mix of knowing exactly what he wants and being entirely open to other people’s ideas. Those are the best showrunners that I’ve experienced. They absolutely know what works and what doesn’t work. But they are always open to a good idea.

SHEEN: He’s one of the great storytellers of our time. He understands the way stories work. That works really well as a showrunner. On the hoof each day, he totally understands the world of this piece because he was a big part of writing it, but he also understands just the mechanics of storytelling.

He’s a very good troubleshooter in the moment as well. And he’s a genuinely lovely person! He’s so respectful of everyone else’s process and what everyone else does.

TENNANT: And excited by what everyone brings to it. He will genuinely respond to ideas as they fly by, at the same time knowing the world that he has created, inside out, knowing what the parameters are that we all need to work with.

TV DRAMA: Amazon will roll this out on their global footprint this May. Were you thinking about that massive worldwide platform as you were working on the show?

SHEEN: I don’t know if you think about that when you’re shooting it.

TENNANT: It does change the way things are now, knowing that people can watch the whole thing in one go if they want. It’s six episodes, but a lot of people, I would imagine, will watch it as a six-hour film. That does make a difference, doesn’t it? As opposed to watching an episode a week. It is a very different way of relating to the piece. But I’m not sure that makes a difference to us in the acting of it.

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TV DRAMA: It’s been three years since the service launched in the U.K. What adjustments have you made as you’ve expanded the platform internationally and learned more about how your users are engaging with the content?

IUZZOLINO: Some of it is more business and strategic, in the sense of our international launches, and some of it is content- and editorial-driven. The most notable thing for us has been our international growth. It’s been quite brilliant, for a number of reasons. First of all, we’ve established a lovely, happy cycle with broadcasters. Our reputation internationally in the drama space has grown. And the brilliant formula we established with Channel 4 has been a blueprint for many others. So now we’re getting into a position where broadcasters ring us and say, How are you doing 30 million streams a year and can we joint venture together? We identify great shows, we help them shine, we make distributors happy, we make content producers happy and we make broadcasters happy! We realized as much as we love adventure, our role should always really be that of the pure curator. Our concentration and focus should be on watching and picking the best dramas, packaging them and branding them. Every time we can nestle our venture in the home of a broader broadcasting organization that already has relationships with millions of viewers, it’s just better. They do what they do best and we do what we do best.

TV DRAMA: Tell us about the international journey, beginning with the U.S. IUZZOLINO: When we launched in America we were just direct to consumer [as an SVOD platform]. We have struck a deal with PBS Distribution whereby Walter Presents is now available on the PBS Masterpiece Amazon channel. That is

By Mansha Daswani

I

n the U.K.’s prolific scripted market, Walter Presents has steadily built a community of devoted lovers of foreignlanguage drama. Co-founded and personally curated by Walter Iuzzolino, the service, chock-full of subtitled shows from Spain, Germany, Scandinavia, Belgium and elsewhere, has been a phenomenon in the U.K., where it sits in the Channel 4 on-demand environment, All 4, with select series also airing on the linear schedule. On the heels of the British success, Iuzzolino and his team have been busy expanding internationally.

Iuzzolino tells TV Drama about bringing Walter Presents to more markets around the globe and weighs in on how his editorial curation strategy has evolved.

significant because it means that our programming reaches many, many more viewers. As you know, when you launch SVOD direct to consumer, the challenges are money and marketing. How far can you go to make people aware that you even exist? We went quite far on our own with our small pockets, but [working with] PBS has been amazing and instrumental. What we lacked in the U.S. were the muscle, the money and the visibility in more households. PBS provided that through the Masterpiece experience on Amazon, but also through select runs on their regional stations. We recently transmitted a great show called Modus, a Scandi noir, in L.A. on KLCS. We’ve identified more titles with them. That

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had become a real hub of extraordinary creativity. I love the karma that we opened up the world to Belgium in some ways and made it aware of the extraordinary output, and then Belgium opened their arms to us! The Benelux audience is an increasingly sophisticated one. It is known for appreciating multi-language anyway because of their territorial makeup. I have every confidence that we’ll be embraced there. That’s an exciting chapter for us.

In addition, there will be at least two more launches to come later this year. Broadcasters are coming to us, and that’s an important message. Everybody that’s involved in dealing with us is happy. They know we don’t have much money to pay, but we do great stuff with their shows and we promote them.

It’s a positive business cycle that has meant global growth of unprecedented scale for a small company of eight people.

TV DRAMA: Do some shows play better in a nonlinear, binge environment than on a week-to-week basis on linear?

IUZZOLINO: Our shows on linear have a good, solid, fairly modest audience—they don’t compete with The Great British Bake Off or huge dramas—but viewers come back again and again. And broadly speaking, what does well on linear does well on digital. However, there are very interesting exceptions. When we launched in the U.K., one of our minor digital-only releases was a vampire show called Heartless.

Without any press, any marketing push, it became one of our highest-rated shows. That trajectory was replicated in Italy.

The one show that has really popped there is Heartless. Some shows lend themselves to being more streaming phenomenons and they tend to be the younger or slightly cultier series.

STUDIOCANAL’s Danish drama Ride Upon the Storm has been a breakout success on Walter Presents in the U.K.

means that effectively as more and more walls go up—Brexit and Trump—we’re knocking other ones down! If politics isolate countries, the consumers do the exact opposite. We’re bringing international drama into British and American living rooms! Also in the U.S., we’ve announced our launch on Comcast Xfinity X1, so we’ll be in even more households.

There are more launches that we are finalizing now in the U.S. In Australia, we have an incredibly successful venture with Foxtel. Again we’re replicating the Channel 4 prototype. They have a brilliant channel called Fox Showcase. They give us a fantastic Friday night slot on linear, and then we also live in their VOD environment.

In Italy, we launched with Discovery. Discovery came to us and said they wanted us to live in their AVOD space, Dplay. It’s a combination of AVOD and SVOD, and then some bespoke linear airings on two of their channels, NOVE and Giallo. Italy was interesting and challenging, as it’s a market that dubs programming. It was important to do Italy, not just for scale—it’s still a very small operation—but because we wanted to make a point that we can find a good audience in a country that normally wouldn’t consider watching shows with subtitles. And now my mum and dad can finally understand what I do for a living. [Laughs] We’re starting a slow conquest of Europe!

In April, we are very excited to be launching in Belgium.

Walter Presents will be available on-demand, with some linear exposure. We have championed Belgium obsessively.

Having done Scandi, having done Spain, having done Germany, we genuinely felt at the end of last year that Belgium

TV DRAMA: You mentioned championing Belgium. Are there other emerging hot spots for you?

IUZZOLINO: Denmark kickstarted the phenomenon of Scandi noir with The Killing, The Bridge and Borgen. When we came on the scene, Scandi noir was almost a bit spent, which was why we concentrated on Deutschland 83 and Locked Up and other shows. We thought, we’ve seen the missing girls, it’s all becoming a bit samey and it’s just feeding the beast of market demand with slightly derivative propositions. We still bought the shows and they did well, but we were saying, Is [Denmark] still the place you would look for real originality? But in the second half of last year, they burst on the scene again. We bought three shows and we pitched them to the U.K. market as the renaissance of Danish drama. As Sweden and Norway and the other countries around Central and Northern Europe have heavily cloned the tropes and the language of Scandi noir, the Danes have shrugged them off. The writer of Borgen [Adam Price] created an incredible show called Ride Upon the Storm, which is about a family of priests. It is controversial and fantastic and intense. Lars Mikkelsen won an International Emmy for it recently. Liberty from DR, about Danish expats in the ’80s trying to exploit the aid system in Tanzania, is a compelling story about how good intentions in human beings go horribly wrong. Greyzone is a Homeland-style thriller co-produced by Denmark, Sweden [and Germany].

It takes the premise of what sounds like a traditional thriller but makes it very intimate. Denmark is back with a vengeance.

We’ve gone out of our way to highlight that.

Germany is alive and kicking. Deutschland is coming back for us. There’s a brilliant new show called Bad Banks

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ZDF Enterprises’ Bad Banks is among the German shows on Walter Presents.

about whistleblowers and industrial espionage. And I think Italy is in a fantastic place. HBO invested in the Elena Ferrante series [My Brilliant Friend], which has been enormously successful all over the world. We acquired Maltese, a Mafia show, last year. Some incredible, high-profile pieces are coming [out of Italy], like The Name of the Rose and Gaddafi, which is from the makers of Gomorrah. Italy has learned the game of taking foreign money and putting it to good use to make the shows high-bar in terms of quality. I’m delighted; after many years of being frustrated with the quality of my own country’s output, now we can champion their productions!

TV DRAMA: And you’re sourcing content from outside Europe as well?

IUZZOLINO: Absolutely. Latin America is a core territory for us, in all its diversity. Brazil has always been a very strong piece for us, both from HBO and Globo. Argentina too— we’re about to buy another show from there. We’ve gone even further afield. This past October we launched our first Japanese show, a young manga-style horror series called Crow’s Blood. It was co-produced by Hulu Japan.

That was a great success for us and Film4. We had been looking at Japan for a long time. I’m looking at a piece from Africa that is quite exciting. We saw a fantastic show from India that we wanted to bid on, but bigger and mightier forces than us came in and bought it!

TV DRAMA: There is so much out there. Has your job become harder, having to sift through all these great series being created across the globe?

IUZZOLINO: When we started, we had bought 800 or 900 hours. There was always that

slight concern of, is there going to be a feeding frenzy of such proportion that we’d be left without programming to buy because more powerful forces than us came and swept up everything! That hasn’t happened. The FAANGs have poured a lot of money into the business. That’s amazing. They’ve been championing their own originals. They’re making lots of stuff. They’re making lots of producers rich. It’s been a great thing for the sector at large. With the big boys concentrating on their originals, and with terrestrial broadcasters competing to make glossy, sexy, good stuff, everyone has become better, so the quality of drama on the market is extraordinary. I used to have to watch 20 titles to find maybe two or three. Now, every five there are a couple I’d like to buy.

That means an embarrassment of riches.

And we can raise our bar even higher.

There’s so much that is good, we can focus on the excellent. It’s been wonderful, and long may it continue.

TV DRAMA: When we last spoke two years ago you mentioned that your own originals were on the horizon. Where are you on that journey?

IUZZOLINO: We had said that would be our phase three. When we last spoke, we were in phase one of our life. Now we’re in the second half of phase two. So phase three is coming ever closer! We are further down the line. We are buying more from script. Back then it was one or two projects from script.

Now, more often than not, broadcasters or producers come to us and say, you bought three of our shows, take a look at this, which we’re starting to make in six months. We read scripts, we chip in very early on. The time will come when we’ll be able to contribute more meaningfully. As we scale up internationally, we’ll be able to buy multiterritory in a way that we were not able to in the beginning.

Crow ’s Blood was the first Japanese drama picked up by Walter Presents.

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ZDF Enterprises’ Wild District.

Creator Cristian Conti, star Juan Pablo Raba and ZDF Enterprises’ Robert Franke discuss the new series Wild District.

By Kristin Brzoznowski

F

rom the creators of Narcos, Wild District follows the story of a man who escapes the Colombian armed conflict only to find himself facing a new, more personal war. The ten-part series, which features a mix of drama and action, was conceived by Cristian Conti, co-founder of the Bogotá-based production house Dynamo. The idea came to Conti more than ten years ago, after he sat down with former guerrilla fighters who were going through the process of being reintroduced into society following the signing of the Colombian peace agreements. “The stories I heard were so sad and terrible,” says Conti. “I thought, these people deserve to have their stories heard, but the time wasn’t right back in 2006 because the situation in Colombia was too tough.” Once he saw the peace process coming together, Conti felt the timing was right, and the series began to take shape.

ZDF Enterprises came on board early in the process, codeveloping the show—its first co-production in Latin America— with Dynamo. Robert Franke, VP of ZDFE.drama at ZDF Enterprises, says that the company was enticed by the concept and by Dynamo’s track record. “We heard the pitch and thought it was really relevant, given the fact that the peace process is continuing in Colombia,” says Franke. “At the same time, we thought it would be something that resonates very well internationally, and it makes for a compelling background to tell a story about somebody who has to find new meaning in the world after leading a life of violence.” Wild District was produced as Netflix’s first Colombian original, with ZDF Enterprises holding rights for the rest of the world. It has been renewed for a second season by Netflix.

At the center of the action is Jhon Jeiver, alias “Yei Yei,” played by Juan Pablo Raba (Narcos, 7 Años, Six). Yei Yei was kidnapped by the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) at age 13 and trained as a one-man army. A lethal guerrilla fighter, he escapes the jungle and tries to reinsert himself in society and reconnect with his long-lost family. He links up with Prosecutor Daniela León, played by Cristina Umaña (Narcos, Sala de Urgencias), and must infiltrate a dangerous criminal organization run by another ex-FARC. “It’s probably the most complex role I’ve ever played for many reasons, one of them being what it meant for Colombia, for the history of my country,” says Raba. “It was interesting that Cristian was able to develop a universal story based on something very local, not centered on the guerrilla or its ideologies. It focuses simply on one person with specific qualities, with the post-conflict in Colombia as a backdrop.”

For Conti, it was important to make a series that would resonate internationally but would also accurately portray the reality in Colombia today. “I really wanted to focus on Bogotá and the idea of a Latin American metropolis and how it ticks. I found, through the main character of Yei Yei, a way to look at it from the eyes of somebody who has never seen it before.”

Franke adds, “Even though the backdrop is that of a political conflict in Colombia, the core is a very human story. It’s about finding your place in life. That is certainly something that everyone can relate to.” Plus, he adds, “There aren’t that many action shows around that really deliver on their promise. We find this very compelling. Action works in every market; there is always an audience for it.”

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ZDF Enterprises’ Wild District.

Ani Korpela and Alan Sim reveal the original programming strategy at Finnish SVOD operator Elisa Viihde.

By Mansha Daswani

L

ike SVOD platforms the world over, Elisa Viihde in Finland is using distinctive, original programming to drive its subscriber-acquisition strategy. Owned

by Finnish telecoms company Elisa, the platform, which marks its tenth anniversary this year, has upped its investments in local content over the last few years, with strong results to date. Of note, its thriller Bullets won the Coup de Coeur award at the MIPDrama Buyers Summit last year, up against its own Arctic Circle as well as shows from

Elisa Viihde’s Shadow Lines.

Movistar+, ITV and Sky Deutschland. “We’re an SVOD service and we’re competing against much bigger budgets, bigger companies—and little old us pulled it out of the bag!” says Alan Sim, executive producer and commissioner at the platform.

This year, Shadow Lines, a 1950s-set spy thriller, is the only Finnish project to be selected for the MIPDrama Buyers Summit.

The platform’s original scripted efforts started about five years ago with comedies. “They were quicker to produce and less expensive to make, while we figured out what possible models we could use in terms of getting the budgets higher,” says Ani Korpela, head of content at the platform. Elisa Viihde then tapped into its relationships with the local creative community, as a leading buyer of Finnish movies, to attract production companies and directors eager to enter the new golden age of television. However, “We needed [partnerships] to get the budgets bigger,” Korpela notes.

At first, “when we started talking to people, asking if they wanted to co-produce or distribute [our shows], they were very polite but not that into it,” Korpela says. That has all changed in the last two years, and Elisa Viihde now works with a variety of distributors, including Sky Vision, About Premium Content and Lagardère Studios Distribution. “The message is, the Finns are coming!” Sim says.

The platform plans to keep its original drama output at a manageable size, Korpela says; last year it rolled out five new shows and two series with returning seasons. “We need to concentrate on the quality. There’s marketing as well. If people are getting something new every week, they won’t notice anything anymore.”

The company is, however, “experimenting more,” Sim says.

“Arctic Circle and Bullets are both mixed language. All the Sins is all Finnish. As a Finnish service, we want to make things that are Finnish and attract local audiences. We don’t want to make a Europudding. The stories have to feel organic. There has to be a real reason for doing it. Something like All the Sins, which is set in a religious community, we read the scripts and thought it felt particularly Finnish, but it could equally feel like a [show set in] Deep South Mississippi. So, it feels very local, but a distributor can sell this, and could probably also sell the format.”

The team at Elisa Viihde is also balancing how it uses big data and algorithms to determine the content lineup.

“Data tells you what [subscribers] have been watching, but it doesn’t tell you what they might be watching in two years,” Korpela says. “We try to mix the data, the insights of our executive producers, focus groups. At the end of the day, it’s a creative decision.”

“You have to have a gut instinct,” Sim adds. “It’s about using the data cleverly but also having a feeling about shows, about people and talking to producers, finding out what they’re making and what people are up to. You have to have your feet on the ground with what’s going on, and you can only do that by building relationships.”

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