27 minute read
UPFRONTS
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.
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 GR5: Into the Wilderness
—Caroline Torrance
“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
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.
—Mia Desroches
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.
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.
Amber Alert
—Alexandra Heidrich
Kate and Koji
“We specialize in quality over quantity in a range of genres from a range of producers.” —Sarah Tong
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.”
Glass Houses
—Gavin Reardon
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.
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.
Ramo
—Can Okan
Shadowplay
“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
—Robert Franke
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
Marking 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 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
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 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
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 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.”
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 12- month 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.” 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.”
William Shatner
Known 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. By Kristin Brzoznowski
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 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.
