Noticias

Channel 4 has renewed the Lesley Sharp-fronted crime thriller “Before We Die” — an English adaptation of a Swedish series, produced by the team behind Walter Presents.

Sharp will return as detective Hannah Laing, who joins forces with maverick detective Billy Murdoch (Vincent Regan) in a desperate bid to protect her son Christian (Gibson). Season 2 won’t follow the same storyline as its Swedish counterpart, which aired in 2019, but will see Hannah pitched directly against Dubravka, played by Kazia Pelka, the matriarch at the head of the Mimica Croatian crime family.

The adaptation is produced by Eagle Eye Drama, which was formed in late 2019 by Walter Iuzzolino, Jo McGrath and Jason Thorp, the creative team behind the global drama company Walter Presents. Channel 4 has a minority stake in the outfit, which began as the international drama showcase for the broadcaster and has since grown into an international niche streamer.

Reflecting on the show,...

Italy’s “The Impossible She,” Spain’s “Detective Touré,” South Africa’s “Paradys” and France’s “Hormones” feature among 15 drama series projects selected for the Series Mania Forum’s 2022 Co-Pro Pitching Sessions.

One of Europe’s most prestigious TV competitions, with titles competing for a €50,000 grand prize, this year’s Sessions form part of the Forum, which runs March 22-24.

The lineup is rich in projects backed by top-tier producers and sales forces, while sluiced by large themes, such as racial and gender equality.

The latest from top Italian company Fandango, producer of “Gomorrah” and “My Brilliant Friend,” “The Impossible She” turns on young Neapolitan aristocrat Maria Teresa de Filippis, the first female Formula 1 driver.

Co-produced by Academy Award winner Tornasol (“The Secret in My Eyes”), “Detective Touré” features Touré a sub-Saharan immigrant settled in Bilbao who will become the best detective of the city, despite no badge, nor papers.

German sellers returning to Cannes’s Mipcom TV mart will be packing a wide selection of domestic and international TV fare heavy on high-end crime and historical series.

With a market that has become increasingly open to different formats, sales companies see good opportunities for diverse offerings.

“Crime is still the most in- demand genre in the market, as well as action,” says Julia Weber, head of international sales and acquisitions at Munich-based Global Screen. “But whatever genre you look at, the main driver remains the story. It needs to be compelling and speak to the audience.”

Weber adds that more and more historical dramas are also being produced, underscoring “an increasing need for series that are rather escapist and that cater to audiences in the post-lockdown world.”

Global Screen’s six-part “The Palace” is a prime example, she adds. Produced by Constantin Television for Zdf and directed by Uli Edel,...

Set to air on May 26 on the U.K.’s Channel 4, “Before We Die,” the latest production from Eagle Eye, marks an adaptation of “Innan vi dör,” the hit Swedish show of the same international title. The six-episode series eloquently translates the precise and effective narrative of the original.

Distributed by Zdf Enterprises, while the U.K. makeover heightens the pace, leaving out secondary plot, it explores far more deeply the series’ central emotional bond, ending up delivering a completely different take on the story.

Directed by Jan Matthys, the Bristol-set crime thriller tracks the investigation of a Croatian crime family, the Mimica, made by senior police detective, Hannah Laing after the disappearance of a fellow police officer Sean Hardacre who was also her married lover. Professional and personal life entangle even more inextricably as her son works as a dishwasher in the Mimica family restaurant, which allows him...

Exclusive: Betty Gabriel (Get Out) has been tapped for a major new series regular role in the upcoming third season of Prime Video’s Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, starring John Krasinski.

Gabriel, who will play Elizabeth Wright, the Chief of Station, replaces Marianne Jean-Baptiste, who was originally tapped for the part last fall. Jean-Baptiste has exited the series over creative differences. Jack Ryan is currently in production on Season 3, and the few scenes Jean-Baptiste had filmed will be reshot with Gabriel.

Also cast as series regulars in Season 3 are James Cosmo (His Dark Materials), Peter Guinness (Cursed), Nina Hoss (Little Sister) and Alexej Manvelov (Before We Die) in the series, a co-production of Amazon Studios, Paramount Television Studios and Skydance Television.

Season 3 of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan finds Jack Ryan (Krasinski) on the run and in a race against time. Jack is wrongly implicated in a larger conspiracy...

In today’s Global Bulletin, “Agatha Christie’s Sven Hjerson” takes top honors at MipTV’s MipDrama; ScreenSkills launches an ambitious unscripted training program in the U.K.; San Sebastian opens the call for its Europe-Latin America co-production forum; We Are Parable plans 18 months of events to celebrate Black filmmakers in the U.K.; WarnerMedia commits to Sam Mendes’ Theatre Artist Fund; Channel 5 announces four new historical unscripted specials; and NewImages Festival, Cannes Xr and Tribeca Festival create XR3, a virtual exhibition for VR content.

Markets

MipTV’s MipDrama sidebar has awarded Be-Reel Films’ “Agatha Christie’s Sven Hjerson” with the coveted MIPDrama – Buyers’ Coup de Cœur, the most prestigious prize at the annual Cannes-based market.

In the show, Hanna Alström plays Klara Sandberg, a former TV producer pitching a true-life crime show starring Sven Hjerson — an updated real-life version of the popular character from Agatha Christie’s oeuvre...

Sven Hjerson, the debonair Scandinavian master detective invented by crime writer Ariadne Oliver, a character in Agatha Christie’s novels, will get his own series, set in modern-day Stockholm.

In “Agatha Christie’s Sven Hjerson,” Hanna Alström plays Klara Sandberg, a former trash TV producer who successfully pitches a true-life crime show starring Hjerson, who would solve a real crime each week. The new show may reset Sandberg’s career and life, but the only problem is that she has never met Hjerson.

The show stars Johan Rheborg (“Kenny Starfighter”) as Hjerson. It will be comprised of four murder cases and broadcast as four films and an eight-episode TV series in the fall of 2021.

“The series will offer mystery, drama, puzzles; it’s not a comedy but will have a sense of humor and be a world that’s quite nice just to be in,” said Josefine Tengblad, head of...

Netflix has ordered “The Unlikely Murderer,” a Swedish limited series based on Thomas Pettersson’s eponymous 2018 award-winning book.

The five-part drama series is a fictional interpretation of how Stig Engström, the graphic designer named as the suspected murderer of Sweden’s prime minister Olof Palme, managed to elude justice right up to his death through a combination of audacity, luck and a perplexed police force.

Engström’s murder was not planned well, he did everything wrong from the beginning and almost no one believed his lies about what he actually did during that fateful night in 1986 in Stockholm, Sweden. The series will question how police could have let the suspect get away, despite tracking him.

The series is written by Wilhelm Behrman and Niklas Rockström. Charlotte Brändström (“The Witcher”) is the conceptual director and will helm the first two episodes of the show.

The Swedish-language series will be produced by Flx,...

Swedish star Ibrahimović has spent more of his career in Italy than any other country.

Lucky Red has picked up Italian distribution rights for I Am Zlatan, the upcoming biopic of Swedish football star Zlatan Ibrahimović.

It acquired the title from Scandinavian sales outfit TrustNordisk.

The sale joins previously announced deals for Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan (Capella Film), Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia (Estin Film) and Albania, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Macedonia (Cinemania Group).

I Am Zlatan is a feature adaptation of Ibrahimović’s autobiography I Am Zlatan Ibrahimović, which he wrote with Swedish journalist David Lagercrantz.

November can be a slow month for streaming services. Amazon, however, is entering into 2020’s penultimate month with some steam.

Amazon is really beefing up its TV library in November 2020. Both Community (which arrives on Nov. 8) and Scrubs (Nov. 14) will be added to Amazon Prime this month and in the process complete the streaming trifecta: Netflix, Amazon, Hulu. That’s pretty impressive stuff for both shows. And then on the film side of things, November 1 sees the arrival of The X-Files: I Want to Believe, Twilight, and the Underworld franchise. Somebody didn’t tell Amazon Spooky Season was over and bless them for it.

As for the originals, Alex Rider is the most intriguing TV series here. That is based on the British spy novel series and premieres on Nov. 13 on IMDb TV (which is available to all Prime subscribers). That will be followed by Steve McQueen’s Small Axe series on Nov.

Amazon Prime Video has a whole load of new content coming this November, and the best thing about the large haul is that all tastes are accounted for, so whatever you’re in the mood for, you’ll have a lot of options. From Christmas flicks to action films to some classic sci-fi and horror, subscribers will find much to enjoy from what’s hitting Prime next month.

Take a look at the full list below and scroll down further for our runthrough of the highlights:

Released November 1

28 Days Later (2003)

A Christmas Movie Christmas (2019)

A Christmas Switch (2018)

(2018) (Hallmark Movies Now)

Arizona Whirlwind (1944)

Article 99 (1992)

As Good As It Gets (1997)

Boyz N’ The Hood (1991)

Breathless (1983)

Country Strong (2011)

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)

Dead Poets Society (1989)

Deja Vu (2006)

Did You Hear About The Morgans? (2009)

Firewalker (1986)

I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)

Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde (2003)

Marrying Father Christmas (2018) (Hallmark...

Zdf Enterprises has snapped up international distribution rights, excluding North America, to new crime thriller series “Before We Die.”

Produced by Eagle Eye Drama for Channel 4, the six-episode series is a remake of the eponymous noir show from Sweden. The U.K. version stars Lesley Sharp (“Scott & Bailey”) Patrick Gibson and Vincent Regan.

As in the original, the series follows a detective from an organized crime unit who finds out that her estranged son is an undercover informant in a murder case involving eastern European drug rings.

Belgian director Jan Matthys will direct the series adapted and written by Matt Baker. Eagle Eye Drama, the company behind drama label Walter Presents, has slated principal photography for England and Belgium, with delivery expected by Spring next year.

Robert Franke, vice president Zdfe.drama at Zdf Enterprises, said: “The team behind Walter Presents has superb judgement when it comes to selecting...

In today’s Global Bulletin, the global film community calls for the release of Sudanese filmmaker Hajooj Kuka, Jana Bennett is announced as Congress ’20 closing speaker, PBS Masterpiece heads to Amazon in Canada, Leonine gets Oliver Vogel for W&b Television role, the Production Guild of Great Britain opens nominations for 2020 Innovation Awards and The Story Lab sells “Game of Clones” format in Brazil.

Call For Release

Sudanese filmmaker Hajooj Kuka, whose films “Beats of the Antonov” and “aKasha” have played the Venice and Toronto film festivals, was among five artists sentenced to two months in prison on Thursday on charges of “public annoyance.”

The artists were involved in an altercation in Khartoum in August, after authorities reportedly responded to noise complaints from neighbors during a theater rehearsal.

Steven Markovitz, who produced both of Kuka’s films, decried what he described as “trumped-up charges” against the director, who was admitted into...

Channel 4 has commissioned six-part crime thriller, ‘Before We Die’, starring Lesley Sharp, Vincent Regan and Patrick Gibson, from newly formed production company, Eagle Eye Drama, launched by the same team behind global drama brand, Walter Presents.

Based on the hit Swedish series of the same name, The series is set in Bristol and is Eagle Eye’s second drama commission.

Lesley Sharp leads the cast as detective Hannah Laing who becomes deeply conflicted when she discovers her son is playing a crucial role as an undercover informant in a brutal murder investigation. Patrick Gibson plays the role of her mixed-up son, Christian, while Croatian actor Toni Gojanović, who starred in HBO Europe’s recent hit series, Success, will take on the role of Davor Mimica the leader of the criminal gang. Vincent Regan stars as Billy Murdoch, a non-conformist investigator, who is seconded to Hannah’s unit to advise on Eastern European drug gangs.

U.K. broadcaster Channel 4 has commissioned six-part crime thriller “Before We Die,” starring Lesley Sharp (“Bob & Rose), Vincent Regan (“300”) and Patrick Gibson (“The Oa”), an adaptation of the hit Swedish series of the same name.

The Bristol, England-set drama follows a detective who becomes deeply conflicted when she discovers her son is playing a crucial role as an undercover informant in a brutal murder investigation. Croatian actor Toni Gojanović, who starred in HBO Europe’s series “Success,” also has a significant role in the show.

The adaptation is from Eagle Eye Drama, formed by Walter Iuzzolino, Jo McGrath and Jason Thorp, the creative team behind the global drama company Walter Presents. Channel 4 has a minority stake in the company. Eagle Eye is also working on the adaptation of Belgian crime drama “Professor T” for U.K. broadcaster ITV.

Commissioned by Channel 4 head of drama Caroline Hollick and commissioning editor Gwen Gorst,...

Channel 4 has ordered an adaptation of Swedish crime thriller Before We Die from Eagle Eye Drama to be written by fledgling TV writer Matt Baker – best known in industry circles as Viacom’s former international communications chief.

The Bristol-set series will star Lesley Sharp (Scott & Bailey), Vincent Regan (Troy) and Patrick Gibson (The Tudors) and is the producer’s second commission after ITV ordered a remake of Belgian crime drama Professor T.

Sharp leads the cast as detective Hannah Laing who becomes deeply conflicted when she discovers her son is playing a crucial role as an undercover informant in a brutal murder investigation. Gibson, who also starred in The Oa, plays her mixed-up son, Christian, while Croatian actor Toni Gojanović, who starred in HBO Europe’s Success, will take on the role of Davor Mimica the leader of the criminal gang. Vincent Regan stars as Billy Murdoch, a non-conformist investigator,...

‘I Am Zlatan’ will tell the true story of the Swedish football star.

TrustNordisk has scored a hat trick of sales on I Am Zlatan - a drama about Swedish football star Zlatan Ibrahimović that is set to begin filming this month.

I Am Zlatan has sold to Capella Film for Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan; Estin Film for Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia; and Cinemania Group for Albania, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, and Macedonia.

The feature is an adaptation of the book I Am Zlatan Ibrahimović by David Lagercrantz and Ibrahimović. It centres on a determined youngster...

Germany’s Zdf Enterprises, experts in crime and the production and sales outfit behind Nordic Noir original “The Bridge” and Swedish mega-hit crime thriller “Before We Die,” is at it again. This time round, the commercial arm of German public broadcaster Zdf has greenlit “Body of Water,” an eight-part crime drama showrun and written by Brendan Foley. Production is scheduled for 2021.

A Northern Irish writer, Foley has built up Nordic Noir credentials, co-writing Lionsgate and Viaplay series “Cold Courage” and adapting Finnish crime drama “Man Who Died” for Elisa.

Production partners include Nucleus Media Rights, with offices in London, Los Angeles, Milan, Mumbai and Seoul, and Italy’s 3zero2, part of France’s Euro Media Group.

Euro Noir “Body of Water,” which Zdfe will bring onto the market, begins when the bodies of a man and woman are dredged up three years apart from the River Thames and a Venice canal,...

Now Netflix title “Caliphate,” produced by the Endemol Shine-owned Swedish production company Filmlance, has smashed all-time viewing records on Sweden’s Svt Play, the catch-up VOD service of public broadcaster Svt, Endemol Shine Group confirmed Wednesday.

“Caliphate” was made available globally on Netflix on March 18.

The biggest success ever on Svt Play, Endemol Shine said, “Caliphate” bowed on Svt on Jan. 12 where it is already known to have attracted an average of over 600,000 adult viewers during its first month on Play, a record for the streaming service.

Svt figures at the time, published by the Nordisk Film & TV Fond newsletter, also underscored a clear shift from linear to online in the Swedish public as more episodes of the series were released.

That can be put down to “Caliphate” itself. On one hand, it is an edge-of-the-seat thriller, turning on the excruciating daily danger suffered by a young Swedish mother,...

Filmlance International, the Swedish production company owned by Endemol Shine Group, is set to produce “Tsunami,” a psychological drama mini-series directed by Henrik Georgsson (“Bron/Broen”).

“Tsunami,” which is being co-produced by Swedish broadcaster Svt, is set in Stockholm in the aftermath of a tsunami. The gripping drama explores how humans behave when faced with a natural disaster and follows the journey of Tomas, a man suspected of fraud who goes missing in Thailand. “Tsunami” is based on an original idea by Sara Kadefors (“Sandor & Ida”).

TrustNordisk has boarded international sales to “Tsunami.” Filmlance International recently launched the Swedish series “Caliphate” on Svt as well as presented the series at Goteborg’s TV showcase. Repped by Endemol Shine International, “Caliphate” explores how religious fundamentalism can destroy lives through the story of five women and charts events leading up to a terrorist attack in Sweden.

Directed by Goran Kapetanovic (“My...

Swedish series “Caliphate” begins in Syria with Pervin and other women being corralled into a square. A man is dragged to a table, his arm then stretched across it; the women are told to look away. Then a man standing beside the table produces a meat cleaver, raises it, and chops off the man’s lower arm.

A thriller building up to a terrorist attack in Sweden, the series turns in part on Pervin but also on The Traveller, a charming students’ assistant in Sweden, who recruits a team there with backup from Is in Syria, including two students, 15-year-old Sulle and friend Kerima.

Married to Raqqa-based Is member Hasum, a Muslim Swede, Pervin gets wind of the attack, is told by ambitious Swedish Intelligence Service agent Fatima that she needs to find out more about in return for a safe passage out of Syria. As she desperately attempts to do so,...

Walter Presents has acquired Swedish thriller “Stockholm Requiem” for the U.K. and Australia from Zdf Enterprises. It marks the fourth Swedish drama series the global on-demand service, which specialises in non-English language drama, has picked up from Zdf following “Blue Eyes,” “Thicker Than Water” and “Before We Die.”

Walter Iuzzolino, co-founder and curator of the service, said “Stockholm Requiem” was “Everything you want in a Scandi Noir and more. Quintessential viewing for anyone who likes beautifully shot drama and a plot line that will keep you guessing.”

“Stockholm Requiem” stars Liv Mjönes as an unconventional criminologist and new civilian recruit to the police force, as she joins a less than welcoming special investigations unit and is thrown in at the deep end of a difficult case. Jonas Karlsson and Alexej Manvelov co-star.

The 10-part drama is based on the best-selling trilogy of novels by Kristina Ohlsson and adapted by Jörgen Hjerdt and Pauline Wolff.

Eccho Rights, a leading sales company in Sweden, is set to ramp up its executive team with the hiring of Lisa Widén, a former head of production at Film Capital Stockholm whose co-production credits include “Before We Die” and “Jordskott.”

At Eccho Rights, Widén will be handling sales and acquisitions for Scandinavia. She will continue to work on the development of Scandinavian drama series, which have become key to Eccho Rights’ offering. Within the last two years, Eccho Rights has sold high-profile series such as “Honour,” “Conspiracy of Silence” and “Invisible Heroes.”

Eccho Rights’ track record also includes the sale of four Turkish drama series to Swedish public broadcaster Svt.

“Lisa has the perfect background to take our work in the Scandinavian market to the next level,” said Nicola Soderlund, the managing partner at Eccho Rights. “While we continue to look for new and developing markets worldwide, we believe that...

Mipdrama Buyers’ Summit: Scale, Comedy, Noir

European drama serie production continues to scale up, is driving ever more into comedy, while Nordic Noir’s is still going international, if the selection of 10 productions at this year’s MipDrama Buyers’ Summit is anything to go by. Meanwhile, established players are driving ever more into drama series production.

Produced by Mammoth Screen, BBC One’s “World on Fire,” an epic drama about ordinary people in early WWII starring Sean Bean and Helen Hunt, weighs in as the Summit’s biggest series.

Also to be pitched via 15 minutes of extracts, however, is Norwegian broadcaster Nrk’s “Atlantic Crossing,” charting the relationship between Norway’s Crown Princess Märtha and Franklin D. Roosevelt (Kyle Maclachan).

Nordic Noir continues its global roll-out with Kiwi Noir – crime thriller “The Gulf,” chronicling a woman cop’s moral disintegration, another MipDrama entry – and Ukrainian Noir: Missing child crime drama-thriller “Hide and Seek.

B-Reel’s past credits include ‘Euphoria’, ‘Gentlemen’ and ‘Before We Die’.

Nordisk Film said it is is ramping up its output of original Nordic film and TV series, and also unveiling a new five-picture deal with Sweden’s B-Reel Films.

Stockholm-based B-Reel Films (Brf) has past credits including Mikael Marcimain’s Gentlemen, Lisa Langseth’s Euphoria, TV series Before We Die and Pernilla August’s A Serious Game.

This follows Nordisk’s recent announcement of a three-year output deal with Swedish directors Helena Bergström and Colin Nutley and their production company Sweetwater.

Lone Korslund, VP acquisition and co-production at Nordisk Film,...

Emmanuelle Guilbart and Laurent Boissel’s up-and-coming Paris-based company About Premium Content is joining forces with Finish production company Mogul Movies to develop “Isolated,” a high-concept fantasy thriller series set in a remote island.

“Isolated” unfolds in a peaceful island plagued by a strange phenomenon which cuts the power and prevents the inhabitants from leaving. Meanwhile, a survivor of the Ms Estonia, a passenger ship that sank more than 24 years ago, washes ashore. Faced with those extraordinary events, the islanders quickly descend into paranoia and start fighting to gain control of local resources.

The 8-part series, now is development, is based on an original idea by Markos Annala, Lassi Vierikko and Petja Lähde, who co-wrote “Fingerpori,” a comedy about a fictional town and its uncommon people. Jari Olavi Rantala, a popular Finnish screenwriter who won the Jussi prize for “Frozen Land” in 2005 and is a frequent collaborator of director Aku Louhimies,...