World Screen March 2020

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WWW.WORLDSCREEN.COM

THE MAGAZINE OF INTERNATIONAL MEDIA • MARCH 2020

Special Report: Drama Trends Interviews: William Shatner / Darren Star / Tubi’s Farhad Massoudi / Dynamic Television’s Dan March

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CONTENTS

MARCH 2020 EDITION DEPARTMENTS WORLD VIEW

By Anna Carugati.

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UPFRONTS New content on the market.

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BEHIND THE SCENES Darren Star.

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MARKET TRENDS Dan March.

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WORLD’S END In the stars.

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Publisher Ricardo Seguin Guise Group Editorial Director Anna Carugati Editor Mansha Daswani Executive Editor Kristin Brzoznowski

William Shatner

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Darren Star

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Editor, Spanish-Language Publications Elizabeth Bowen-Tombari Associate Editor, Spanish-Language Publications Rafael Blanco

SPECIAL REPORT WORLD SCREEN is published nine times per year: January, March, April, May, June, July, September, October and December.

Annual subscription price: Inside the U.S.: $90.00 Outside the U.S.: $160.00 Send checks, company information and address corrections to: WSN INC. 1123 Broadway, Suite 1207 New York, NY 10010, U.S.A. For a free subscription to our newsletters, please visit www.subscriptions.ws.

Associate Editors Chelsea Regan Alison Skilton

14 EURO DRAMA Leading producers and distributors are stepping up their efforts to secure, finance and sell standout concepts.

DIGITAL SHIFT

26 TUBI’S FARHAD MASSOUDI The founder and CEO talks about the platform’s gains and its plans for 2020.

Contributing Editor Elizabeth Guider Production & Design Director David Diehl Online Director Simon Weaver Art Director Phyllis Q. Busell Senior Sales & Marketing Manager Dana Mattison Sales & Marketing Coordinator Genovick Acevedo Business Affairs Manager Andrea Moreno Contributing Writers Steve Clarke Andy Fry Joanna Stephens Jay Stuart David Wood

Ricardo Seguin Guise President Anna Carugati Executive VP Mansha Daswani Associate Publisher & VP of Strategic Development WORLD SCREEN is a registered trademark of WSN INC. 1123 Broadway, Suite 1207 New York, NY 10010, U.S.A. Phone: (212) 924-7620 Fax: (212) 924-6940 Website: www.worldscreen.com

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WORLD VIEW

BY ANNA CARUGATI

The Captivating Creative Process I have always been fascinated by the process of creating art. My father was a painter. I recall sitting for hours as a child watching him mix his colors and carefully, skillfully turning a white canvas into a vivid, lifelike image. I was mesmerized by the painstaking process: choosing the subject, outlining the composition, applying the brushstrokes. The craft was as intriguing as the finished product.

Into each painting, he poured something of himself, and, as all artists do, regardless of the medium, he told a story. Humans have been drawn to stories since the beginning of time. Stories are the perfect vehicles to transmit information and emotion, from entertaining tales to thought-provoking books and poetry, from feature films and documentaries to fiction and nonfiction TV series, from plays and performances to paintings and sculptures.

Advertisements and marketing campaigns, even political slogans—“It’s the economy, stupid”—tell a story.

We love stories because they stick with us. We love to retell anecdotes of parents, grandparents, relatives and friends. We hold dear memories of our favorite childhood books, first movie or beloved TV series. Good stories reveal, reflect and comment upon the human condition. Sound easy? No, not from what I’ve seen and heard. I love talking to writers to hear about how they approach their work.

I equally enjoy hearing tales from writers’ rooms. Writers have told me that the best writers’ rooms are those in which they feel safe to reveal and share not only ideas but, more importantly, experiences, fears, embarrassing moments and even traumas, all in the service of telling a compelling story and crafting believable characters. Writers’ rooms are interesting studies in counterintuitiveness. I’ve heard that the funniest scripts can emerge from the crankiest group of writers.

The darkest dramas and most morally compromised characters from the sunniest personalities. Just goes to show you, we are all complex and multilayered.

While writers have always been the heart of scripted TV fare, they haven’t always received the recognition and attention that they have in the past couple of decades. In the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s, TV writers were considered less valuable than feature film screenwriters. The writer as auteur, most often a showrunner who could create and oversee a series that could last several seasons and brand a network or pay service in the process, emerged in the ’90s. Since then, not only have some showrunners become as popular as some of the stars of their shows, but TV shows have increasingly defined popular culture, shaped opinion and changed viewpoints, not to mention, made millions for channels, services and distributors.

The creative process itself is the focus of more attention today than it was years ago, and talent—in front of and behind the camera: writers, showrunners and directors—is more critical to the sale and success of a series than ever before.

It used to be that studios and distributors mainly sold finished series. And buyers, predominantly from linear channels, bought shows as they were—take it or leave it.

With the cost of quality scripted shows escalating so vertiginously, making co-financed and co-produced projects almost a necessity, the creative and development processes have become all the more important, and a significant subject of negotiation.

Now studios and distributors get involved in the very early stages of development of a project, bringing needed resources to get a series from the writer’s computer screen into production. This emphasis on development has given rise to events such as Series Mania. Even MIPTV, built on the old model of companies selling finished shows, has created sessions and networking opportunities for producers and writers, such as In Development.

These types of gatherings facilitate the cross-pollination of cultures and styles of storytelling and uphold the tenet that great ideas can come from anywhere. Many unique shows that wouldn’t necessarily conform to the scheduling requirements of linear channels have found a home on streaming services. The OTTs have opened up opportunities for creators, shorter-run series, episodes of various lengths and subject matter that targets passionate but niche audiences.

Besides securing financing, distributors today are also ever-more concerned about making sure the projects they champion stand out in the enormous volume of series available. Our feature examines strategies for securing, financing and selling standout concepts. We also speak to creatives and executives William Shatner, Darren Star, Tubi’s Farhad Massoudi and Dynamic Television’s Dan March. They outline their roles in the creative process, from coming up with ideas to financing and production to getting finished shows in front of viewers. It reminds me of my dad—idea, execution, finished product— endlessly fascinating.

The creative and development processes have become all the more important.

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UPFRONTS GR5: Into the Wilderness

Banijay Rights GR5: Into the Wilderness / We Got This / Thin Ice Banijay Rights has a packed agenda at Series Mania, where its eco-political thriller Thin Ice will be screened as part of the International Panorama. The series is “about an issue that is universally important: climate change combined with a massive shift in global political trust,” says Caroline Torrance, head of scripted at Banijay Rights. “It is a series that we believe will be particularly relevant to audiences around the world.” Also at Series Mania, there will be a panel session on the 2018 copro pitch winner We Got This, from Jarowskij and Film i Väst for SVT and Viaplay. At MIPTV, Banijay Rights is highlighting the In Development finalist GR5: Into the Wilderness, which centers on a young woman’s disappearance. “We are pleased to be returning to present the finished production during an exclusive case study in Cannes,” says Torrance.

“Banijay Rights has a strong and varied slate to showcase with a catalog of both brand-new and returning series.”

—Caroline Torrance

Calinos Entertainment Forbidden Fruit / Woman / Our Story Now in its third season in Turkey, Forbidden Fruit remains a focal point of Calinos Entertainment’s slate, as does Woman, also in its third season. Another highlight is Our Story, which has seen its episodes reach more than 5 million viewers. The drama has “proven its success over and over,” says Jose Luis Gascue, executive VP and head of worldwide sales. The company has also added to its distribution catalog Straight onto Fire (Ateşe Koşanlar), produced by Limon Yapim and inspired by a true story. The company recently picked up the distribution rights to Fox Networks Group’s catalog of Turkish content that is comprised of more than 3,000 hours of programming. Calinos has also entered into a strategic agreement with BKM that adds 58 movies and five TV shows to its portfolio.

“Woman is such a unique TV series that the audience could not give up on it, and even in its third season, it succeeded to be in first place.”

—Jose Luis Gascue Woman

CBC & Radio-Canada Distribution Conversations with My Parents / Cerebrum / White Night The comedy Conversations with My Parents, a highlight from CBC & Radio-Canada Distribution, centers on a family who is united and close-knit, despite the cynicism on display in their near-daily interactions. Cerebrum, meanwhile, is a policeinvestigation story full of suspense and intrigue. It features strong female characters, says Mia Desroches, the director of content distribution partnerships at CBC & Radio-Canada.

“Women here are active, diverse, have a voice and stand out.”

White Night is a family saga featuring a businesswoman famous for her perfume empire who is found dead in the first episode. “It’s a guilty pleasure to want to know who the murderer is,” says Desroches. The company will attend Series Mania and feature these three new French-Canadian releases as part of the presentation Coming Next from Quebec.

Conversations with My Parents

“Conversations with My Parents is a very strong and universal format that has all the right ingredients to be adapted in any territory.”

—Mia Desroches

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Global Screen Amber Alert / Turbulent Skies / A Good Year The top three program highlights from Global Screen “could not be more different,” says Alexandra Heidrich, the head of acquisitions and sales for international TV and SVOD at Global Screen. The ten-part Canadian drama Amber Alert, for example, is about a missing autistic boy. “It was a huge success in its home territory, and season two is about to start shooting,” says Heidrich. Also a drama series, but with a historical plot, Turbulent Skies from the Netherlands is about two pioneers of European civil aviation: Albert Plesman and Anthony Fokker. It features “topend visual effects and incredible flight scenes,” Heidrich notes. A Good Year is a twisty Belgian crime drama about two con artists claiming to have found Hitler’s wine cellar— but their fraud spirals out of control.

Amber Alert

“With our broad portfolio, we can offer unique content for every market.”

—Alexandra Heidrich

Hat Trick International Bloodlands / Kate and Koji / Mega Shippers: Land, Air and Sea At MIPTV, Hat Trick International is launching seven brandnew series, both scripted and non-scripted, as well as six returning shows. Among the highlights is Bloodlands, a new detective drama executive produced by Jed Mercurio (Line of Duty, Bodyguard) and starring James Nesbitt (The Missing, Cold Feet). From the creators of Outnumbered comes the sitcom Kate and Koji, starring Brenda Blethyn (Vera, Secrets & Lies) as Kate, the owner of a seaside cafe who forms a friendship with Koji, an African asylum seeker, played by Jimmy Akingbola (In the Long Run, Arrow). In the unscripted arena, Mega Shippers: Land, Air and Sea turns the spotlight on transport and logistics. The series is “a must-have for those buyers looking for male-skewing and engineering entertainment,” says Sarah Tong, director of sales for Hat Trick International.

Kate and Koji

“We specialize in quality over quantity in a range of genres from a range of producers.”

—Sarah Tong

Glass Houses

Incendo Glass Houses / Within These Walls / No Good Deed Incendo features among its slate of thrillers Glass Houses, which stars Bree Turner as a woman who goes toe-to-toe with a neighborhood babysitter determined to ruin her reputation. Within These Walls follows as a single mom (Jennifer Landon) breaks up with her seemingly perfect boyfriend, and strange things begin to happen around the house.

Rounding out the slate highlights is No Good Deed, which tells the story of a good Samaritan who begins to wonder if no good deed really does go unpunished. “Incendo is transitioning and transforming,” says Gavin Reardon, the company’s head of international sales and co-productions.

“We’re now focused on producing romantic-comedy TV movies, a change from the female thrillers we’ve produced for the last 20 years.”

“At Series Mania this year, we are looking for co-production partners for our projects in development.”

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Inter Medya The Ambassador’s Daughter / Ramo / The Light of Hope The Ambassador’s Daughter, one of Inter Medya’s newest offerings, tells the story of Nare, a wealthy and educated young woman, and Sancar, a poor boy from a small Aegean town, who fall in love, only for the relationship to end tragically. Ramo, meanwhile, chronicles the life of a man who goes against his superiors. Inspired by real events, the series encompasses the deep conflicts of family, justice, vengeance, friendship and love. From the producers of Elif comes The Light of Hope, which follows as a family is torn to pieces as a revenge plot takes center stage. “Family tragedies and revenge, triangles of love and obstacles that seem impossible merge in these stories, making them extremely desirable in the international market,” says Can Okan, Inter Medya’s founder and CEO.

Ramo

“We are certain that our new titles, in addition to our existing products, will appeal to all our clients across the globe.”

—Can Okan

Shadowplay

STUDIOCANAL Shadowplay / The Lawyer / Baron Noir Shadowplay, on offer from STUDIOCANAL, is a gritty thriller with an international cast that includes Michael C. Hall (Dexter) and Nina Hoss (The Audition), among others.

The series follows as an American cop arrives in Berlin in the summer of 1946 to help create a police force in the aftermath of the war. Now in season two, The Lawyer is a Nordic noir crime thriller based on a concept from best-selling author Jens Lapidus (Easy Money trilogy). The political thriller Baron Noir returns with season three, which sees the titular character decide to run for president. The shows “each have strong, relatable and engaging narratives, which are always appealing to viewers worldwide, regardless of where they are set or their subject matter,” says Françoise Guyonnet, STUDIOCANAL’s executive managing director of TV series.

“We are delighted to have these brand-new and returning drama series to offer our clients.”

—Françoise Guyonnet

ZDF Enterprises The Window / Top Dog / Sløborn Among the titles that ZDF Enterprises is taking to MIPTV is the English-language sports thriller The Window, which the company is co-producing with Fuji TV. “It’s the first-ever European-Japanese drama co-production, complete with a U.K.-based production team,” says Robert Franke, VP of ZDFE.drama. Also on the company’s drama slate is the Swedish crime series Top Dog, which is an official selection at CANNESERIES this year, and Sløborn, from the Dogs of Berlin producer Syrreal Entertainment. The former centers on a Stockholm business attorney’s unorthodox partnership with an ex-con, while the latter is a coming-of-age drama set in a post-apocalyptic world. “Coming up is Standing Tall, the story of a father’s investigation into his son’s alleged suicide, produced by Publispei for RAI Italy,” adds Franke.

Sløborn

“Our USP is we know the European market; we know the worldwide market.”

—Robert Franke 12 WORLD SCREEN 3/20

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ZDF Enterprises’ Standing Tall.

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The scripted bubble shows no signs of popping anytime soon, as leading producers and distributors step up their efforts to secure, finance and sell standout European concepts. By Mansha Daswani

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arking its tenth anniversary this year, the Series Mania Festival has emerged as a key event on the calendar for anyone involved in European drama, and increasingly for those from the rest of the world, too. The Lille, France-based gathering is set to welcome some 3,000 industry participants this year, eager to showcase, fund, buy and sell new drama series, with delegates from across Europe—including key scripted markets like Germany, Italy and Spain—as well as those from further afield, including Korea, Japan, Brazil and Australia.

As the cost of production rises worldwide— driven in large part by the well-funded streaming giants—cross-border partnerships remain essential, a reality of the business embraced by both Series Mania and MIPTV’s In Development strand, which have made pitching and networking key elements at this spring’s events.

BETTER TOGETHER “The co-production model is the rule rather than the exception nowadays,” observes Chris Stewart, commercial director for scripted at Banijay Rights. “Pretty much everything we do is co-produced with at least two territories. It’s tough to fund shows with premium budgets out of one territory.”

“To produce bigger-scope series with more ambitious budgets, we are working more and more with European partners on co-productions and presales, starting very early

on in the process,” agrees Françoise Guyonnet, the executive managing director for TV series at STUDIOCANAL. “We are able to work closely with Canal+ in France and Poland to get the ball rolling for many productions.”

Robert Franke, the VP for ZDFE.drama at ZDF Enterprises, believes that co-productions will become even more important against a backdrop of “streamers popping up like mushrooms…and massive consolidation—everyone is trying to build huge catalogs to feed their own platforms. I think there will be even more coproductions going on because everyone is trying to mitigate the investment risk. They are seeking partners. One result of that trend is that content companies are trying to integrate their business models into the value chain. As a distribution company, our revenue model is distribution, so traditionally we would take something once it’s finished and bring it to market. Now, to make money along the way, we get involved earlier, we help to package and finance from a very early stage. We are evolving into being a financing-producer. We’ve always been active in co-productions, but in this market environment, we are doing more co-productions to earn money in different ways.”

FLEXIBLE APPROACH Alexandra Heidrich, the head of acquisitions and sales for international TV and SVOD at Global Screen, reports that it’s also crucial to use a variety of different funding models: “Our huge acquisition department is not just looking for MG deals; we do the full range of financing. We 3/20 WORLD SCREEN 15

are an all-in-one partner with financing, production, world sales and distribution. We have to be very flexible and look at each project individually. Sometimes if a one-pager fascinates us, we finance the development of the first script or the concept. Sometimes people come to us with a bible and the first script, and they just need co-development money. From A to Z, we do whatever is necessary to finance a production. It all depends on the project.”

Like STUDIOCANAL’s Guyonnet, ZDF Enterprises’ Franke stresses the importance of early involvement in projects: “Our philosophy is that we don’t want to be involved in something that is too far developed or already fully developed. Our USP is we know the European market; we know the worldwide market. We know what those platforms look for and what the channels look for. Of course, we can always come in as a distributor and pay a minimum guarantee against the rights. But we prefer to come in as a co-producer. We have a whole department of people scouting the worldwide market. We changed our structure in a way that merged acquisitions and sales, so my sales team is also acquiring content. That gives us a holistic view of the market. We have early access to relevant projects and then we take those projects and talk about them with the team to evaluate whether there is a chance to sell them worldwide. The sooner we are involved, the greater the influence we have in the development process. It’s not because we want to be involved in the creative process; we want to make sure we steer the financing process. If you know

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Banijay Rights is launching a second season of its award-winning Welsh crime drama Bang, produced by Joio for S4C. how to package something, you know who your potential clients are, the more you can tailor-make things. Otherwise, it’s a shotgun approach, and you acquire content opportunistically. We’d rather do it strategically.”

Eccho Rights is also looking at a variety of financing models, Fredrik af Malmborg, the company’s managing director, notes: “First of all, I think the original platform should pay for most of it, and the producer should keep as much IP as possible. If they can’t afford that, then we [can help with the] financing.

Financing should be in return for a small share of the IP, rather than just being an advance. We’ve done some deals with external investors; for example, we did a series in Turkey called Wounded Birds, where we had [some financing] from a Korean investment fund, Timewise. With the existing model, it’s quite difficult for investors to go into TV series.

We can get more investment in the industry if we share a bit of IP with the investor and if we have a transparent distribution model.”

CLEVER CONCEPTS As for what kinds of shows companies are investing in, it’s a little bit of everything in this landscape. High-concept serialized shows, blue-sky procedurals, lush period pieces, gritty crime and cost-effective family dramas are all vying for the attention of financiers, commissioners and distributors.

“We often get asked what genres we’re looking for,” says Global Screen’s Heidrich.

“We have clients that are only looking for romantic stories. Others are looking for crime stories. I’ve seen some exciting horror and high-concept supernatural series.

So it’s not really about the genre.”

Heidrich has her eye out for standout ideas and authentic stories. “You have to have an emotional bond with the characters right away,” she says. “And, of course, a sophisticated script that has a multilayered narrative.”

The company’s diverse current slate includes a crime series from Belgium called A Good Year; Turbulent Skies, about airline pioneers Albert Plesman and Anthony Fokker; Dark Woods, a true-crime drama; and the Canadian series Amber Alert.

Banijay Rights also arrives at Series Mania and MIPTV with an eclectic offering, including new seasons of Bang and Rebecka Martinsson, as well as the brand-new GR5: Into the Wilderness, Bäckström, The Hunt for a Killer, Thin Ice and We Got This.

On what it takes to stand out today, Stewart notes: “It could be a piece of casting or some strong IP or subject matter that is relevant. Thin Ice is interesting because, although it’s been in development for five years, it’s now very of the moment in terms of climate change and even Trump talking about buying Greenland, where it’s set and filmed. [A project] needs something that is either very relevant to contemporary culture or has some kind of IP that people are familiar with. That’s why we’ve seen a huge resurgence in series based on true crime or reallife historical events.”

STUDIOCANAL’s Guyonnet observes that buyers and commissioners are keen on a fusion of genres, including dramas that come with a dose of comedy. “Not necessarily laugh-outloud, but a clever and sophisticated look at life in all its forms,” she notes.

On that front, STUDIOCANAL is pre-selling RED Production Company’s Finding Alice, which has Keeley Hawes in the lead role. The 16 WORLD SCREEN 3/20

studio also arrives at MIPTV with a pair of thrillers: the period piece Shadowplay, set in 1946 Berlin, and the multi-language Possessions, which was filmed in Israel in French, Hebrew and English.

Eccho Rights, meanwhile, is plugging what it is calling “Nordic romance—instead of Nordic noir!,” af Malmborg quips. “In general, there is a saturation of crime procedurals” on the market, he notes. “I think we’re going more toward human stories, romantic stories, real-life, easier-to-relate stories.”

At MIPTV, the company is showcasing Love Me from Viaplay and Swiping from SVT. “What’s unique about Nordic romance is it tends to be more realistic in a way, more relatable, more blue sky and very involving,” af Malmborg explains. “At Series Mania last year, it looked like all the series were imitating Nordic noir because it was raining in every city! I think people are tired of that.”

BLUE-SKY FORECAST ZDF Enterprises’ Franke agrees, stating, “There is a massive shift away from the dark, heavy shows. Those are no longer what people want to watch. Frankly speaking, if we want to see bad news, we can turn on the news! We have climate change, we have Trump, all these things in the news right now. I think people are getting tired of that. They don’t want to see people with super-existential problems. It’s more about blue-sky crime; we see that is in demand.

And genre blends. A lot of channels are looking for elevated genres, for example, taking a crime show and blending it with light sci-fi or fantasy.

It enables you to cross more demographics.

You’ll take something known to one audience and add something else to the mix, and all of a

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Global Screen’s eight-part Turbulent Skies hails from the Netherlands and tells the story of aviation pioneers Albert Plesman and Anthony Fokker. sudden, you’ll get viewers who would not necessarily watch a crime show, and vice versa.

We like that trend very much. Our development slate is going in that direction.”

For MIPTV, meanwhile, the ZDFE.drama team will be talking to clients about the sports thriller The Window, the first-ever EuropeanJapanese scripted co-production. Made with Fuji TV, the English-language series will be presented at the MIPTV Drama Buyers Summit.

Rounding out the slate are the Swedish crime series Top Dog, a CANNESERIES selection; Sløborn, produced by Syrreal Entertainment; and Standing Tall, made by Publispei for RAI.

Franke adds that there remains a strong demand for procedurals, with exhaustion setting in for over-complicated, heavily serialized shows: “There is so much out there, and it takes a lot of commitment to finish a series. That’s why we see commissioning editors and platforms looking for miniseries and series with fewer episodes and procedurals. Sometimes you want to come home, switch on your TV and just watch one episode and have a satisfying viewing experience; the crime is solved and there is a catharsis at the end of the episode. It’s low commitment, and it’s escapism. We will see that more and more from the streamers.”

Global Screen’s Heidrich sees equal demand for both returnable series and event miniseries.

“I recently read that 2020 could be the year of miniseries,” she notes. “They appeal to audiences worldwide. I think we will see more limited series, but the long-running shows are still very popular and very profitable for the broadcasters. It always depends on the story, of course. For some territories, especially Eastern Europe, they are looking for long-running, episodic series. We are looking for those, but they are harder to find! When people come to us and pitch us their ideas, it seems like 95 percent are horizontal, and the rest are episodic storytelling. If we can’t find them out there, we just have to produce them ourselves.”

MAKING A COMMITMENT

STUDIOCANAL is rolling out TANDEM Productions and BRON Studios’ Shadowplay.

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Banijay’s Stewart says that six to eight episodes per season has become the norm, down from ten-plus, and he also sees a resurgent demand for event productions. “There are certain people in certain territories that are more riskaverse, so a six-episode run is a bit of a safer bet to launch a first series rather than going in with ten. Equally, people are looking for returnable series that they know will perform well for their audiences. As are we—we want those series that we know are going to come back year after year. But I think there has been an increase in demand for those big showpiece miniseries.

With things like Chernobyl doing so well, there is a lot of interest in close-ended series that people can throw a lot of marketing weight behind.”

As STUDIOCANAL’s Guyonnet puts it, “event miniseries are key to help entice and retain subscribers; whereas returning series keep viewers loyal to a channel.”

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The Eccho Rights portfolio includes the youth-targeted SVT drama Eagles, which the company is showcasing as a scripted format.

Meanwhile, the industry as a whole continues to shift as the global streaming landscape braces for the arrival of the new Hollywoodbacked services, while local platforms proliferate. “We are continuing to be very pragmatic and aware of this ever-changing world and are open to different ways of selling our series,” Guyonnet says. “There is no longer a one-sizefits-all approach to sales.”

WINDOW-SHOPPING Guyonnet’s words reflect a sentiment that is widespread across the distribution landscape: windowing is just not what it used to be, and there’s no easy way to figure out how to best exploit a property around the world.

“In the past, it was quite obvious: you had a series and you knew precisely if this was something for free TV or pay TV or a platform,” Global Screen’s Heidrich says. “Nowadays, when I look at our clients, even the free-TV channels, they have become much more courageous. We have to look very carefully at each project and make a strategy. Do we sell it territory by territory or go with a streamer first and then the second window on free TV? Or go the other way around?

You have to look very closely at each project to make sure you find the right windowing.”

“It’s difficult to pin down any particular windowing strategies anymore because this is such a fluid place,” agrees Banijay’s Stewart. “There are so many platforms and broadcasters seeking to get full exclusivity on things to stay competitive. It’s difficult from the outset to say that we

will do a linear first window here and a VOD second window there. Ultimately, it depends on the content and who is interested and how we work it from there. It’s much harder to map that out than it used to be. It’s not the traditional windowing system. It’s more on an ad-hoc basis.”

ZDF Enterprises’ Franke adds: “It’s more sophisticated now. Two years ago, you could say, generally speaking, you would have a sixmonth window for linear and then another 12month window for another [service]. Right now, you have to negotiate every window individually because every channel, every platform, has a different strategy. You have to tailor-make your whole exploitation strategy and you build it around the anchor partner on a project.”

FIRST MOVERS And as the competition intensifies, distributors will be focusing on making sure they can move quickly to adapt to changes in the market. One trend that Heidrich is keeping her eye on is OTT platforms upping their commitments to local programming worldwide. “We have to look out for the original local productions from the streamers and see how they change the habits and the tastes of viewers,” she says. “That, of course, changes our strategy for what we have to acquire. Also, short-form and snackable content are trending. This seemed to be something for the younger generation, but I don’t think that’s the case any longer. As a distributor, we’re still trying to analyze if we can make a financial success with short-form.”

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Companies are also keeping an eye on budgets as costs continue to escalate. For creative producers, that shouldn’t be an issue, Banijay’s Stewart notes. “I’ve never bought into the rule that bigger budget means a better show. The size of the production budget does not necessarily have a reflection on how good a series is. We have plenty of fantastic series that are of a lower budget than some of the U.S. or premium U.K. shows that I would argue are nowhere near as creatively written or directed or produced.”

Af Malmborg at Eccho Rights predicts that on-demand platforms will become more open to non-exclusive deals. “In Korea, it’s pretty much standard that American series are on ten different platforms, with some revenue share. We’re doing the same in Russia; we have deals with multiple platforms.

Direct-to-consumer rev-share deals are also getting more important.”

With new platforms arriving, beginning with Disney+ landing in Europe this spring, “The superiority race is going to continue for at least another 12 months as everyone tries to find their place in the market,” says Stewart. “The only real way they can do that is to buy more premium or super-premium content. It doesn’t feel like there’s going to be any slowdown in the demand for drama. Whether that will last longer than 12 or 24 months remains to be seen.

I can’t see everyone surviving in that marketplace. But for the time being, it feels like it’s not on any kind of slowdown. It feels like we’re still ramping up.”

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William

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K

nown to legions of fans all over the world for his portrayal of Captain James T. Kirk of the USS Enterprise in the Star Trek franchise, William Shatner has a career in television that spans seven decades. In one of his latest TV endeavors, the Golden Globe- and Emmy Award-winning actor explores

some of the world’s most fascinating, strange and inexplicable mysteries in The UnXplained. He not only hosts the HISTORY series, but Shatner also helped shepherd the project from its inception. He tells World Screen about his innate curiosity and the joys of a tantalizing mystery.

WS: How did The UnXplained come about?

SHATNER: A wonderful producer named Kevin Burns, whom I didn’t know, got a hold of me and said he had this show that he’s going to do and asked if I’d be interested in working with him and being in front of the camera. I went to his office, met a dozen people who were going to work on it and got an idea of not only what the concept of the show was but also where they were going to work. I found it totally intriguing. I immediately accepted to be a part of it.

The UnXplained is filled with mystery and dramatization of the mystery, to show you how mysterious things are—and that there’s no answer for them. Not only are these things ominous, but there are also no explanations.

For example, a man wakes up from a coma able to play the piano like a concert pianist. How is that possible?

How the brain works and what it does, how it accepts knowledge and how it transmutes the knowledge is all a total mystery to us. We’re on the verge of discovering things, but the more we discover, the more mysterious it all becomes. This is the sort of tantalizing mystery that The UnXplained dramatizes.

WS: What was the process for selecting the mysteries to explore in the show?

SHATNER: The mysteries have to have something tantalizing, some ooga-booga about them. For example, there’s a forest near Tokyo that’s thought to be evil; people go there to die. There are evil places all over the world where death and destruction seem to happen. Is it because of evil spirits? What is an evil spirit? Do evil spirits actually exist or is that a figment of our imagination? The material needs an appeal like that, whether it’s ghostly or intellectual; it needs something more than just a mystery. Those are the types [of mysteries] we needed to sift through.

WS: Was it important for you to be an executive producer, in addition to being in front of the camera?

SHATNER: That was part of what we arranged to begin with, that I would be a partner in the endeavor. I love acting and performing; I love telling you a story and drawing you into it like I do in The UnXplained. It gives

By Kristin Brzoznowski

me a great deal of pleasure to be able to entertain you. I loved the idea of creating it as well. Over the years, I’ve done my best to [come up with interesting] material and try to sell it. In this business, you have an idea, you amplify that idea, you get people on board with you who are qualified and then you go sell it. I have several projects with A+E Networks and others, and that’s really fun! One of the mysteries that is essentially “unexplained” is, how do you make a sale? [Laughs] How do you intrigue the network buyers to go for this particular show? That’s continually a moving target. The act of creating this show is of great satisfaction to me.

WS: What sort of insights were you looking to glean from the experts involved in the episodes?

SHATNER: They have the knowledge, but there’s still no reasonable explanations they can give. For example, 20 Russian students went camping in the Ural Mountains in the winter. They disappeared for several months and were found in all kinds of grotesque positions. Their bodies were manipulated, their tongues were torn out. They were wearing sleeping clothes instead of their winter attire. Knife strokes show that they cut themselves out of their tent.

They never discovered what happened—who, what, why?

There are all kinds of opinions. We offer an opinion that there were winds that set up a vibration that may have driven them mad. There’s no real explanation, though.

That’s the magic of the great stories in The UnXplained; they’re totally tantalizing.

WS: Are you “a believer” in there being some forces that are simply outside of the natural realm and scope of reason?

SHATNER: Religion has answers based on faith. People have faith that God exists and that when you die, you go to heaven. It’s a beautiful thought, but I find that hard to believe. I don’t know, and I’m dying of curiosity. One of the emotions that I will feel if I’m conscious when I’m dying is a curiosity for what’s going to happen. There’s a mixture of curiosity, sadness, hesitation and anticipation that I feel about all of these mysterious things that have no explanation. Also, there may be no explanation to us, but there is an explanation somewhere.

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BEHIND THE SCENES

Darren Star

By Kristin Brzoznowski

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aving created such hits as Beverly Hills, 90210, Melrose Place, Sex and the City and Younger, Darren Star has spent much of his TV career expounding on the nuances of the female psyche. Along the way, he has

crafted a string of iconic characters and touched on universal themes such as sexuality, self-worth and ageism. His latest series, the dramedy Emily in Paris, tackles the expat experience of a twentysomething American woman from the Midwest who takes a job at a prestigious marketing firm in the French capital city. Star talks to World Screen about the vibrancy of Paris as a backdrop and the brilliance of Lily Collins as the eponymous Emily in the new Paramount Network series.

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WS: How did Emily in Paris come about?

STAR: I’ve been playing with this idea in my head for a long time. I’ve always been a big fan of France, and Paris in particular. I wondered what it would be like to live there. That was the germ of the idea, what it’s like to be an expatriate somewhere. From the time I had spent in France, I knew there was an idea for a show. In this case, it’s a real fish-outof-water story, about a girl who inadvertently takes a job there for a French luxury-goods marketing firm.

I felt it was a good time for a show like this because, in America, we’re so inward-looking. I thought it was a great time to live vicariously through a character who is taking risks [that come with] living in a foreign country.

WS: What is it about Paris that makes for such a vibrant setting?

STAR: Paris is so beautiful—maybe the most beautiful city in the world. As a setting for a show, visually, it’s an amazing place to film. It’s also an amazing place to spend time.

The values and mentality there are different than they are in the States. It’s more of a Latin culture; the importance is on living well, and our focus [in America] is so much on work and striving. That’s one of the things this character learns about: how to smell the roses a little bit more.

Women are so expressive about how they feel. They are more verbal, and that’s why I love writing female characters. They say what’s on their minds, they express themselves, and they have such great self-awareness.

WS: The TV landscape has changed so much since the days of Sex and the City, which helped to plant a flag on HBO for original cable programming. How has the sheer volume of different platforms impacted your storytelling ability?

STAR: TV is going through such an amazingly transformational time right now. Whereas HBO was at one time the main game in town, now there are so many opportunities for writers and creators and for the audience; the amount of wonderful product being made is off the charts. The idea of what a TV series is has expanded. The audience’s response to the shows that are out there really has woken up the networks—they are looking at it and thinking, it’s not a niche audience, it’s the audience and they’re responding to intelligent and complicated programming. It has created so many opportunities for writers.

I think the audience is really going to enjoy Emily in Paris.

It is on the level of a great feature film. It’s exciting.

WS: What are some of the themes the series touches on?

STAR: There are definitely culture clashes. Lily [Collins] plays a girl who is a go-getter, an achiever, and is thrown into a world where that is a priority but not the only one. At the same time, she is struggling to get by, dealing with the language and not reading all of the cultural cues correctly. It’s about her growing from this experience. Travel is so expansive for anyone; that’s a lot of what the show is about—how the culture changes her and how she affects the people around her. It’s a real cultural exchange.

WS: Did you have Lily Collins in mind to play the lead from the start?

STAR: I didn’t have anybody in mind initially.

Lily came to my attention through her manager.

I met her and, of course, fell in love with her.

She was perfect for the role. People will see a different side of Lily than they have before.

She’s a terrific comedian, and she really gets to show her personality here. She’s done so many dramatic roles, but in this case, she’s very light and funny—she’s got this incredibly joyful spirit that comes through.

WS: With this show, and throughout your career, how have you approached writing female characters who are so multilayered and nuanced?

STAR: It’s so important to cast the right person. Once you have the right actor, they bring so much to the role, and I can learn from them.

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Sex and the City creator Darren Star is behind the new series Emily in Paris, which launches on Paramount Network later this year.

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DIGITAL SHIFT

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Farhad Massoudi Tubi

W

hile the rash of new SVOD services launching commands most of the media headlines these days, “the AVOD gold rush is here,” IHS Markit said last year when projecting the U.S. online video ad market would reach $27 billion in 2023. In North America’s competitive streaming space, Tubi has carved out a commanding position. It surpassed 25 million monthly active users last year, when it also announced plans to invest over nine figures in content acquisitions to supplement its library. Tubi is also aggressively targeting global expansion, launching in Australia last year and planning U.K. and Mexican rollouts this year. Backed by private equity alongside investors such as MGM and Lionsgate, Tubi is looking to expand its reach further and has targeted a new niche with the launch of a dedicated Tubi Kids offering. Farhad Massoudi, founder and CEO of Tubi, talks to World Screen about the platform’s gains and its plans for 2020.

By Mansha Daswani WS: How did you come to launch the platform?

MASSOUDI: I started the business in 2011. It was called adRise and it was a technology platform behind the scenes, powering other video-on-demand services. Fast-forward a couple of years later, we saw a big opportunity for a directto-consumer brand that was entirely free. Even though adRise was the first AVOD business on OTT, Tubi became the largest overnight and continues to grow as the largest free AVOD service in the country.

WS: What’s driving that growth?

MASSOUDI: Linear TV is in a secular decline. This is no longer a controversial statement. For years people didn’t believe me.

What’s driving that? Subscription video on demand, at its core, but on-demand TV in general. When you look at the landscape, the number of subscription video-on-demand services launching every day is just getting crazy. The idea of an average viewer or consumer subscribing to Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Disney+, HBO Max, Showtime, CBS All Access—the list keeps going—it’s not going to happen. A few of these services are going to be very successful. Most are not going to be viable businesses. On top of that, when you look at what these services offer, they offer consumers access to a very shallow library of mostly original content. As a consumer, I [think], I’m going to subscribe to a handful of original libraries, how about everything else? That’s where the idea of Tubi came along.

We decided to aggregate only library content. We will never do originals; we’ll leave that to others to do. And we will offer it at absolutely no cost. That’s what led to launching Tubi and here we are now.

WS: Tell us about the international strategy. Why Australia and the U.K. first?

MASSOUDI: We launched in Australia, one of the largest markets for Netflix; they are very video-on-demand savvy.

So is the U.K. They are both also very video-advertising savvy. Both are very good markets to launch in. We’re actively pursuing other markets. We’re looking for rapid international expansion. These two launches [in Australia and the U.K.] took a lot of work from our team.

WS: You’ve aligned with TV Azteca in Mexico. What kinds of partnerships are you exploring as you expand globally?

MASSOUDI: We are looking for partners on several fronts. One, advertising—we’re looking for local media companies that can help us with ad sales. Second is on the content front. We want to have local content for the benefit of local audiences. And we want to help distribute that content globally if there’s an opportunity to do so. And lastly, distribution partners, whether that is on TVs, phones or elsewhere.

WS: How has the process of clearing the rights for global use gone?

MASSOUDI: The good news is Tubi has been doing this for years now. We’ve been doing this for nine years. The technology, the distribution engine and the relationships with the studios are intact. We have incredible relationships.

We’ve grown our business quite a bit. And we have deal structures with 200 media companies. So we plan to expand that to other regions. That’s a lot easier than starting from scratch, of course.

WS: What are your priorities for the next year?

MASSOUDI: Our mission is to connect the world with premium content. We want to bring Australian TV shows, telenovelas, Bollywood content, Israeli dramas, to the United States and the rest of the world. And we want to make premium content accessible to every household around the world. That’s our mission. That’s why we’re here. We’re actively pursuing that on all fronts.

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MARKET TRENDS

a brilliant and unique idea. We now have Deliver Us, which is a serialized crime show from creator Christian Torpe and DR in Denmark. We are premiering The Sommerdahl Murders, which is an altogether different crime show. It’s a procedural for TV2 in Denmark and ZDF that is more bluesky than noir. In the U.S., we’ve had success with our shows on the SYFY channel. It started with Z Nation and includes Wynonna Earp and Van Helsing. We now have Vagrant Queen, which is the biggest, loudest, most fun and most impressive show we’ve helped put together for SYFY. So, we’ve ended up in these categories, but obviously, there’s more we’d like to do. The key for us is when we figure out how to do something well, we try to keep doing it! As long as our clients still want our product, we’re going to keep giving them those shows, and fortunately, all of these shows have been a success for all stakeholders.

In a broader sense, we understand that we’re in a qualityover-quantity industry. The amount of time and effort we have to put in—whether it’s a show that we’ve developed from scratch, a co-production where we’re involved as a partner or passively as an acquirer of rights—we have to be committed to helping that show be the best show it can be.

Dan March

Dynamic

By Kristin Brzoznowski

omic-book fans rejoiced when news broke that Vagrant Queen was going from the page to the small screen.

SYFY picked up the series, and Dynamic Television is taking it out to the worldwide market. This type of buzzy sci-fi series has become something of a sweet spot for Dynamic, which is also home to the horror-tinged Van Helsing and Creepshow. Dan March, the company’s founder and managing partner, talks to World Screen about the power of known brands in today’s competitive marketplace.

C

WS: How have you positioned Dynamic Television in what is an incredibly competitive drama landscape?

MARCH: Your shows define you at the end of the day. We’ve been fortunate to build off of our successes both in the U.S. and in Europe. In Europe, we’ve had great success with crime dramas. We started with Trapped, which we’re incredibly proud of, and season two is bigger and more ambitious. We had The Day, which is a great show based on 28 WORLD SCREEN 3/20

WS: How has the market for non-English-language drama opened up new opportunities for Dynamic?

MARCH: Non-English-language has been a pillar of our company since the day we opened our door. It’s probably the biggest growth market in our industry today. The quality of shows that are being produced in Europe has never been better, and they’re going to continue to get better and better.

There are a couple of things factoring into that. The talent is getting better, the production expertise is getting better.

There are more and more young creators beginning to master the craft. Secondly, one way that linear broadcasters are trying to compete against the digital market is by pulling back from buying U.S. shows and investing in more of their own. Therefore, there’s more money being invested in European content, and that creates more opportunity. It also raises expectations and means that we have to continue to deliver great shows, not just good ones.

On the U.S. side, the door was open for a little bit when Netflix and Amazon were looking to stock their shelves by bringing in non-English-language series. As they’ve shifted into their in-house production models, it’s gone the other way. Selling non-English-language programming into the U.S. is now a little bit harder. There are other avenues that might be opening up, whether it’s AVOD or other niche platforms, but it’s gotten more challenging.

WS: In what ways is Dynamic scouting the arena of known IP for future projects?

MARCH: We’ve certainly had success with brands, from Van Helsing to Creepshow. The Sommerdahl Murders is based on a successful book. We’re fortunate to develop a little bit on our own. We’re optioning things and doing what producers do. We’re also fortunate that our producers bring us projects that they’ve done the heavy lifting on already.

Going forward, we have to do more of that ourselves.

We all understand that IP matters and brands matter. It’s such a crowded marketplace that if you want to rise above the noise and want your broadcaster to have a product that they can promote and market, it really helps if a lot of people already know what it is. We try to lean into that.

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IN THE STARS Almost every national constitution forbids the establishment of an official state religion. But this secular bent doesn’t stop people from looking to the heavens for answers to life’s most troublesome questions: Will I succeed? Will I find love? Will I move next to former royals on a weed farm?

Every day, papers, magazines and websites worldwide print horoscopes— projections for people born in a specific month, based on the positions of the stars and planets. While many

Jennifer Lopez

Nick Jonas

Hilary Duff

MEGHAN MARKLE

HILARY DUFF

Global distinction: Duchess of Sussex.

Sign: Leo (b. August 4, 1981) Significant date: February 26, 2020 Noteworthy activity: Since stepping back from their

Global distinction: “Lizzie McGuire.”

Sign: Libra (b. September 28, 1987) Significant date: February 25, 2020 Noteworthy activity: The 32-year-old actress, who is

royal duties, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have taken up residence in an $18 million luxury Vancouver Island home. Just down the road from their rental, an unused factory is being leased out to cannabis farmers, according to DailyMail.com, meaning that their Canadian hideaway could soon be surrounded by weed crops.

Horoscope: “The road to short-term pleasure may have taken you off your life’s track, but now you’re ready for a healthier taste of the high life.” (astrology.com.au)

reprising her iconic Lizzie McGuire character in a Disney+ revival (the production of which is currently halted), shares a screenshot on her Instagram story of an article about the Love, Simon TV series moving from Disney+ to Hulu, as it was deemed not a good fit for the “familyfriendly” streamer. “Sounds familiar,” she writes above the circled headline in her post.

Horoscope: “Revealing your true feelings about a situation may induce some anxiety, but others value your honest opinions on things and want you to voice your concerns.” (virginislandsdailynews.com)

people rely on these daily,

JENNIFER LOPEZ

weekly or monthly mes-

Global distinction: Multihyphenate entertainer.

Sign: Leo (b. July 24, 1969) Significant date: February 26, 2020 Noteworthy activity: The Federal Communications

sages for guidance in their lives, some readers skip over them entirely.

The editors of WS recognize that these little pearls of random foresight occasionally prove pro phetic.

But rather than poring over charts of the zodiac to predict world events, our staff prefers to use past horoscopes in an attempt to legitimize the science.

As you can see here, had some of these media figures remembered to consult their horoscopes on significant dates, they could have avoided a few surprises.

Mark Wahlberg

Commission (FCC) receives more than 1,300 complaints from viewers regarding the Super Bowl halftime show featuring J.Lo and fellow pop sensation Shakira. The dance-filled performance is described in the complaints, many from parents, as “pornographic,” “completely inappropriate” and “obscene,” and likened to a “strip club act,” among other choice terms.

Horoscope: “You are learning to express yourself playfully and creatively without apology, and you are more willing to take some personal risks in order to do so.” (cafeastrology.com)

NICK JONAS Global distinction: Jonas brother.

Sign: Virgo (b. September 16, 1992) Significant date: February 25, 2020 Noteworthy activity: During an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Jonas reveals that he came off stage after the Jonas Brothers’ performance at the 2020 Grammy Awards on a high—only to very quickly be brought down to Earth after a quick check of his messages. “The first message on my phone was from Adam Levine. He’s like, ‘Nice performance. You had a little schmutz in your teeth,’” Jonas shares. The culprit was spinach from the singer’s breakfast.

Horoscope: “Your friends will be watching, ready to keep you humble.” (newsok.com)

MARK WAHLBERG Global distinction: American actor.

Sign: Gemini (b. June 5, 1971) Significant date: February 26, 2020 Noteworthy activity: Before becoming an international movie star, Wahlberg fronted the ’90s hip-hop group Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch. Despite—or maybe because of—his musical past, his 10-year-old daughter has no interest in hitting the dancefloor with him at her school’s father-daughter dance. “I didn’t get one dance,” Wahlberg admits on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. “I told her we were gonna do the whole big circle and then I was gonna go off and she said, ‘Dad if you embarrass me I will never talk to you again.’”

Horoscope: “Getting turned down shouldn’t discourage you from trying again.” (sfgate.com)

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER Global distinction: “The Terminator.”

Sign: Leo (b. July 30, 1947) Significant date: February 26, 2020 Noteworthy activity: The action star brings both his pet donkey LuLu and miniature pony Whiskey with him to work. He posts a video to his Instagram page set to the tune of Queen’s “You’re My Best Friend” showing him walking through the hallways of his office with the leashed animals in tow. At one point in the video, the furry pals interrupt him at his desk for a snack.

Horoscope: “Beware of the so-called friends who distract you from your work.” (chicagoindian.com)

Photo credits: Jennifer Lopez (Nathan Congleton/NBC), Nick Jonas (Trae Patton/NBC), Hilary Duff (Aaron Poole/E! Entertainment), Mark Wahlberg (A&E).

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