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Tag Archives: Wentworth
Sky Deutschland bets big on original drama
December 19, 2016 GreenlightBabylon Berlin, Das Boot, Deepto TV, Eccho Rights, Eight Days, Elif, Entertainment One, How I Met Your Father, Hulu, Imedi TV, Mediapro, Moonriver Content, National Treasure, Sky Deutschland, The Mark Gordon Company, The Paradise, Wentworth, YLEAndy Fry
Stefan Ruzowitzky
European pay TV broadcaster Sky has been investing in original scripted content for a few years now, but the last 12 months have undoubtedly seen the company increase its ambition in German-speaking territories. This week, for example, it announced an order for eight-episode drama Eight Days.
Directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky (The Counterfeiters), the limited series focuses on the reaction to the news that an asteroid is hurtling toward Earth and is predicted to crash somewhere in Europe in eight days' time. It follows a German family as they live through what they expect will be the last eight days of humanity.
Asteroids are a well-worn theme in the movies but Frank Jastfelder, director of drama production at Sky Deutschland, said this project was different: "We were excited about Eight Days because everyone asked themselves the same question: How would I react in such a situation? In response to this question, Eight Days delivers emotional, always surprising and highly dramatic answers – and steers clear of all the Hollywood clichés."
Eight Days will begin production midway through next year, by which time Sky Deutschland will have aired another of its big drama investments, Babylon Berlin. Directed by Tom Tykwer, Hendrik Handloegten and Achim von Borries, this US$45m show is a coproduction between Sky Deutschland, ARD Degeto, X Filme and Beta Film. It follows Gereon Rath, a police inspector in 1929 Berlin, a hotbed of politics, art, extremism and drugs.
Babylon Berlin stars Volker Bruch and Liv Lisa Frise
Two seasons (16 episodes in total) of Babylon Berlin have been set up so far, though there is potential for the franchise to run and run because it is based on a popular book series by Volker Kutscher. So far, Kutscher has written six Gereon Rath books but only the first forms the basis of the first two seasons of Babylon Berlin.
Another ambitious project in the works is Das Boot, a €25m (US$26m) coproduction between Sky Deutschland and German producer Bavaria Film adapted from Lothar-Günther Buchheim's classic 1973 novel of the same name. Based on the wartime experiences of a German U-boat crew, this series will air in 2018 across all the Sky territories: Germany, Austria, the UK, Ireland and Italy.
Sky Deutschland's investment in new drama is also being backed by the acquisition of international titles. Earlier in December, the company acquired all five seasons of FremantleMedia International's hit prison drama Wentworth. The deal marks the first time Wentworth will be available to German-speaking viewers. Season one premiered on Sky Deutschland's recently launched flagship channel Sky1 on December 7.
Trapped represented a breakthrough in terms of French backing for Nordic drama
Elsewhere in the world of European TV drama, YLE Finland and Mediapro of Spain are joining forces to make a Nordic noir drama called The Paradise. The project is the first time that a Spanish production company has collaborated with a Finnish channel.
The Paradise is a thriller set among the Finnish community living on the Costa del Sol. Their peaceful existence is interrupted by a series of crimes that can only be solved by a joint collaboration between the Finnish and Spanish police forces.
The show is being developed by YLE head of drama Jarmo Lampela and Bordertown writer Matti Laine alongside Mediapro's Ran Tellem and David Troncoso. Although it is the first Finnish/Spanish collaboration, it is part of a much broader trend towards Nordic partnerships with other European countries. The trend was really kicked off by German broadcasters, the first to spot the international appeal of Nordic drama. The Brits then got interested, first in Wallander and more recently Marcella.
A key breakthrough came last year when France TV came on board Icelandic thriller Trapped. Further French backing for Nordic drama has been evident in the cases of Midnight Sun and Bordertown, a YLE crime series coproduced with Federation Entertainment. That show was a hit on YLE1, with a record 1.1 million viewers and a renewal. That bodes well for The Paradise.
Turkey's Elif has now been sold into 16 territories
Also this week, The Mark Gordon Company and its parent company Entertainment One (eOne) have joined forces with Xavier Marchand's newly established UK-based production outfit Moonriver Content.
Under the Moonriver banner, Marchand will acquire, develop and produce film and TV projects with a focus on UK and European stories and talent. The move is expected to increase the volume of UK and European projects coming to Mark Gordon and eOne for financing, coproducing and distributing.
Marchand said: "In partnership with Mark Gordon and his superb team, and with the backing of eOne, I look forward to building on existing relationships and fostering new ones in film and TV."
On the distribution front, Eccho Rights has revealed that two new broadcasters have picked up hit Turkish drama Elif, which airs on Kanal 7 in its home market. Bangladeshi network Deepto TV and Georgian broadcaster Imedi TV take total sales for the show 16 territories including Chile, where it recently debuted on TVN. Produced by Green Yapim, the show's third season aired in September – with a total run of 250 45-minute episodes.
A spin-off from How I Met Your Mother is likely
Also this week, SVoD service Hulu picked up the US rights to UK drama National Treasure from All3Media International. Written by Jack Thorne, National Treasure follows a popular comedian, played by Robbie Coltrane, whose life is turned upside down when he is charged with sexual assaults alleged to have taken place 20 years ago. The four-parter first aired on Channel 4 in the UK and will debut as a Hulu original series on March 1 next year.
Finally, there are exciting reports for fans of cult CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother. According to Deadline, a spin-off entitled How I Met Your Father is now in the works with This Is Us co-executive producers Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger in charge. HIMYM ran for nine seasons between 2005 and 2014 racking up 208 episodes. The final episode included a controversial twist ending that didn't go down well with a lot of fans. But it still attracted an audience of more than 13 million.
tagged in: Babylon Berlin, Das Boot, Deepto TV, Eccho Rights, Eight Days, Elif, Entertainment One, How I Met Your Father, Hulu, Imedi TV, Mediapro, Moonriver Content, National Treasure, Sky Deutschland, The Mark Gordon Company, The Paradise, Wentworth, YLE
Drama behind bars
December 9, 2016 WE NEED TO TALK ABOUTAlex Pina, Davíd Óskar Ólafsson, Fangar, Foxtel, FremantleMedia International, HBO, Jo Porter, Marcia Gardner, Netflix, Network Ten, Oz, Prison Break, Prisoners, Ragnar Bragason, The Night Of, Tom Fontana, Vis a Vis, WentworthMichael Pickard
As Prison Break returns to television after an eight-year absence to bolster the line-up of jail-set dramas on air, DQ explores why viewers love to lock themselves up with convicts.
Television drama has the power to transport viewers to exotic new worlds, turn the clock back to visit the past or fast-forward to futuristic fantasies.
But there's one location in particular that can be a hotbed of action, thrills, drama and romance, despite being a less-than-salubrious setting.
From Australia's Prisoner: Cell Block H and Bad Girls in the UK to German soap Hinter Gittern –Der Frauenknast and French Canada's Unité 9, prison dramas can send audiences to a place full of intrigue, yet one most people hope never to visit in real life.
The return of US drama Prison Break to Fox early in 2017, eight years after the last season concluded in 2009, bolsters a trend that suggests viewers can't get enough of life behind bars and the diverse cast of characters who are forced to eat and sleep together in decidedly close confines.
One of the biggest prison dramas of recent years has been Orange is the New Black, the Netflix original series that debuted in 2013 and now comprises four seasons. Created by Jenji Kohan and based on Piper Kerman's memoir of the same name, the show is set in the all-female Litchfield Penitentiary and has proven such a hit for the streaming service that, in February this year, it placed a three-season order taking the show through to 2019.
Disclosure of viewing figures has never been Netflix's strong point, but that massive commitment points to Orange is the New Black being among the platform's biggest hits. Similarly, Penny Win, head of drama at Australian pay TV broadcaster Foxtel, described the network's own prison drama Wentworth as a "ratings blockbuster" when she confirmed it would be back for a fifth season in 2017. Wentworth also airs in 141 countries around the world and has spawned remakes in Belgium (Gent-West), Germany (Block B – Unter Arrest) and the Netherlands (Celblok H).
Aussie 'blockbuster' Wentworth will be back for a fifth season in 2017
Also set in a women's prison, Wentworth was conceived as a contemporary re-imagining of Prisoner, which ran on Network Ten down under between 1979 and 1986. The new series, which debuted in 2013 on Foxtel's SoHo channel, focuses on Bea Smith (Danielle Cormack) as she is forced to learn how to survive in the eponymous prison.
"A prison is a hothouse for drama because it's such a concentration of story," says Jo Porter, FremantleMedia Australia director of drama and Wentworth executive producer. "People have broken the rules and why they break the rules is often interesting. They're having to face the consequences of their choices and they cannot escape them.
"In Wentworth, you enter another world through Bea Smith. You cannot help but think, 'How would I cope if life had dealt me a different hand?' We take the audience by the hand with these different women. There are archetypal big characters – they are recognisable and that's why as an audience we care for them."
Wentworth writer Marcia Gardner continues: "A prison drama is a safe way of delving into an unknown, dangerous world. It's also a microcosm of any society – but within a confined space, everything's heightened. It has the potential to be a powder keg of emotion. That's why it has the potential for drama."
Like the prisoners, writers on these shows also find themselves locked up within the confines of the prison grounds, unable to escape into the world that surrounds them in terms of story. But the revolving prison door serves as a perfect way to say goodbye to some characters while also introducing new ones.
"We don't have the outside world, we're in a confined space, but one of the virtues of Wentworth is the cast can come and go and we can bring in guests," Gardner notes of the series, which is distributed by FremantleMedia International. "People get released; people get convicted and come in. There's a means to refresh and bring interesting people in. We have quite a large core cast compared with most shows – there's up to 74 main cast members, so there's always something going on because we have got to make sure everyone has a character arc or story."
Iceland's Fangar (Prisoners) follows a woman convicted of the attempted murder of her father
If Litchfield's orange or Wentworth's blue jumpsuits don't appeal, how about yellow? Inmates featured in Spain's Vis a Vis (aka Locked Up, pictured top) must don the brightly coloured outfits when they join the population of Cruz del Sur prison.
The show follows Macarena (Maggie Civantos), a young woman who commits tax fraud and must quickly navigate the emotional shock of being in prison and the complicated relationships among the inmates. It is produced by Globomedia for Antena 3 and distributed by Imagina International Sales.
With Breaking Bad among his inspirations, co-creator Alex Pina says a prison is the perfect setting for a television thriller: "A prison is supposed to be too rough a place for many other things but it is perfect for a thriller. No character can ever be certain they are safe from every other character.
"And creating those characters is a richer process when they are in prison. They are not normal people going to buy bread or walking to work. They are criminals, murderers and thieves. They speak and behave very differently from an ordinary citizen and this is very interesting from the perspective of writing – and it's also very entertaining."
While some prison dramas are entirely confined behind bars, others – including Orange is the New Black, Vis a Vis and HBO's recent hit miniseries The Night Of – give viewers considerable time on day release. The same is true of Icelandic series Fangar (aka Prisoners), in which a woman is convicted of the attempted murder of her father. She is sent to a women's prison, where she harbours a dark secret that could tear apart her family – including her politician sister – and set her free.
"Originally it was just a prison series but as it developed, it became more of a family drama," director Ragnar Bragason says of the show. "The women's prison is not a standard prison – it's the only women's prison in Iceland and only holds 10 or 12 inmates at once. There are no uniforms and they make their own meals and watch TV together. It's more like a dysfunctional family than a prison but it has the same hierarchies and violence.
"I wasn't interested in doing a strict prison drama. What was interesting was to go into the world of politics, society and power and to mix that with the other aspect of the prison and criminal justice system. The dynamic of the series is the friction between the two."
Alex Pina
Work on the show, which is produced by Mystery Productions for RUV and distributed by Global Screen, included 30 days filming at the prison, which presented its own challenges.
"We expected it to be nice and easy but it was so small," admits producer Davíd Óskar Ólafsson. "We had so many crew members – by the end, everyone was pleased to be released. But we were extremely lucky to use it. The prison had been closed down because they're building a new mixed prison. We remodelled it a little bit and kept it close to what it was. It made a huge difference that we didn't have to build it or make another location look like a prison."
However, Wentworth producer FremantleMedia Australia had to build that show's set from the ground up, not once but twice, as production moved to a new location at the end of season three. "It's quite claustrophobic when you get in there," reveals production designer Kate Saunders. "The cells are quite small because they are in reality. We've had to be quite inventive with the camera ports and walls that float. There are lots of bits of the set that float [to allow cameras in]. We certainly learnt as we went along.
"There's not a lot of things we can dress on the walls to make it interesting so we used lots of textures with brick and concrete render. It's not like you can hang up a picture or add wallpaper. We used strong colours – dark greens, greys and blues – to suggest different areas. We don't have a lot of outside light so everything is very enclosed. The prisoners cannot see outside, except if they look up at the sky, and we cannot see inside."
Much like in period dramas, props in prison series must be extremely specific, as Saunders found out when she first tried to dress the Wentworth sets. "Everything they have inside a prison is up to certain standards – like the phones, they're much more solid – and everything is anti-ligature so prisoners can't hang themselves," she explains. "It was difficult when we first started because the people who make those items wouldn't talk to us until we got the greenlight from [government department] Corrections Victoria.
"They also have special cigarette lighters that don't have an open flame and specific speaker grills and intercom points. It's a whole new world of stuff you didn't know existed. But once we got in, most people were so lovely – it's been fantastic. Once you open up that world it's amazing, but you have to find it."
You've probably noticed that this feature has overwhelmingly discussed dramas set in women's prisons as opposed to men's. So why is it that, with the exception of Prison Break, The Night Of and HBO's groundbreaking drama Oz [see below], prison dramas tend to focus on female incarceration? The reason, it seems, is universal.
"When we were doing research, the prison guards we spoke to who had worked in both male and female prisons said that, physically, male prisons are stronger and there's violence," Ólafsson says. "But, mentally, female prisons are much rougher. They said it's more difficult to work with women who have lost their kids – and in Iceland the prison was actually next to a kindergarten."
Similarly, Wentworth's Porter explains that why male battles are physical, women use psychological games to gain the upper hand: "They're hard to control and manage and are more unpredictable. The truth of that is what's so fascinating. Many of these women have been given a tough hand from their circumstances so they have to choose how they're going to defend themselves and it's a real defining time in their lives. It's great fodder for high-stakes drama."
With Orange is the New Black and Wentworth set to run and run, it seems viewers can look forward to a lengthy stay inside, whichever show they prefer.
Vis a Vis's Pina sums up the popularity of prison dramas when he adds: "At the end of the day, evil bastards, uncertainty and tension, combined with everyday stories of girls with a sharp tongue and constant use of black humour, always seems to work in fiction."
tagged in: Alex Pina, Davíd Óskar Ólafsson, Fangar, Foxtel, FremantleMedia International, HBO, Jo Porter, Marcia Gardner, Netflix, Network Ten, Oz, Prison Break, Prisoners, Ragnar Bragason, The Night Of, Tom Fontana, Vis a Vis, Wentworth
Discovery draws up its Manifesto
December 7, 2016 The Writers RoomAACTA, Andrea Calderwood, Andrew Sodroski, BBC, BBC1, Cheo Hodari Coker, Cleverman, Discovery, Down Under, Emily Ballou, FX, Harley & The Davidsons, Luke Cage, Manifesto, Mary: The Making of a Princess, Molly, No Activity, Rake, Sam Worthington, Secret City, Steven Knight, Taboo, The Beautiful Lie, The Kettering Incident, The Letdown, The People v OJ Simpson: American Crime Story, Tom Hardy, Tony Grisoni, Wentworth, Wolf CreekAndy Fry
Ted Kaczynski, aka the Unabomber
Series like The People v OJ Simpson: American Crime Story have proved there is a healthy market for well-told dramas based on real events. So it's interesting to see that Discovery Channel is coming to market soon with Manifesto, a highly anticipated series that looks at the story of Ted Kaczynski, aka the Unabomber.
This week, Discovery announced that actor Sam Worthington (Avatar, Hacksaw Ridge) will star in the show as FBI Agent Jim 'Fitz' Fitzgerald, whose innovative new approach to intelligence gathering ultimately led to the capture of the Unabomber. Kaczynski himself will be played by British actor Paul Bettany.
The show, which is produced by Lionsgate and Trigger Street Productions, is being written by Andrew Sodroski, a former Harvard graduate. It has taken Sodroski a while to get a break in the TV business, but finally things look like they're coming good. Aside from Manifesto, he is also working on a project for Amazon Studios entitled Holland, Michigan. This comedy-thriller centres on a schoolteacher who, suspecting that her husband is cheating on her, enlists the help of a fellow teacher she fancies.
Fact-based drama is a good fit for Discovery and is an area where it has already enjoyed significant success in. In September, it aired Harley & the Davidsons, which delivered 4.4 million viewers and became the most-watched single-network cable miniseries in three-and-a-half years. Echoing the OJ Simpson series, which aired on FX, Discovery wants Manifesto to be the first in an anthology series of dramas that focus on infamous criminal masterminds.
Tom Hardy at Content London
Another upcoming dramas attracting attention right now is actor Tom Hardy's Taboo, which will air on BBC1 in the UK and FX in the US. A historical period drama, it follows an adventurer who returns to the UK from Africa to avenge the death of his father. Hardy created the idea with his father Chips Hardy and Steven Knight.
Knight, of course, has built up a loyal fanbase through his acclaimed gangster series Peaky Blinders. The new show, which focuses on the activities of the East India Company, will provide him with the same kind of complex political web that has made Peaky Blinders such an enjoyable romp.
Commenting on the show, he said that the East India Company will be depicted as a mix of "the CIA, NSA and the biggest, baddest multi-national corporation on Earth."
Knight and Hardy Snr are credited as writers on the series – as is Emily Ballou, an Australian-American poet, novelist and screenwriter. Among Ballou's high-profile TV credits are Channel 4's Humans, ITV's Scott & Bailey and The Slap from ABC in Australia.
Emily Ballou
Over the past couple of days, the Australian screen industry has gathered to announce the winners in the sixth Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) Awards. On the scripted TV front, recipients in a range of categories have included Rake, No Activity, The Beautiful Lie, Cleverman, Secret City, Down Under, Molly, Mary: The Making of a Princess, The Kettering Incident, Wentworth and Wolf Creek.
There's a lot of great drama in that list but it's interesting to note that the award for Best Screenplay in Television went to Sarah Scheller and Alison Bell for ABC's Comedy Showroom – The Letdown. To win the award they had to beat competition from The Beautiful Lie, The Kettering Incident and Upper Middle Bogan.
The Letdown is Alison Bell's first writing credit
The Letdown tells the story of a struggling new mum (played by Bell) and the mother's group she thinks she doesn't need. Originally shot as a one-off as part of the Comedy Showroom strand of pilots, the show's strong performance means it is set to reappear next year as a full series. The Letdown is Bell's first writing credit, although she is well established as an actress. Scheller also has a bit of an acting track record and was a writer on the comedy No Activity.
Good news for Marvel fans this week following the news that Netflix has ordered a second season of its series Luke Cage. This follows previous second-season orders for other Netflix/Marvel collaborations Daredevil and Jessica Jones.
Luke Cage was created for TV by Cheo Hodari Coker, who also leads a 12-strong writing room. A former music journalist with an intimate knowledge of the rap scene, Coker's other TV credits include Southland, NCIS, Ray Donovan and Almost Human. He also wrote the screenplay for the 2009 biographical film Notorious.
With Luke Cage one of the few black male characters in the superhero comic book business, Coker's track record has made him the perfect choice to bring Cage to life.
In a recent interview, he said: "The show is what I call 'inclusively black.' It's an unadulterated hip-hop show. But it's done in such a way that anyone from outside the culture – not just hip-hop culture, outside of geek culture – it can play against anything on television." For more on Coker, click here.
C21's Content London event last week included a wide array of top screenwriters in its line-up. One of the speakers was Tony Grisoni, whose numerous TV credits include acclaimed series Red Riding, The Unloved and Southcliffe.
Tony Grisoni speaking at Content London
During the event, Grisoni discussed a new drama he is working on with producer Andrea Calderwood. Called In the Wolf's Mouth, it is set against the 1943 Allied liberation of Sicily, with UK broadcaster Channel 4 paying for script development. The story is based on a novel by Adam Foulds published a couple of years ago.
Although C4 is paying for script development, Grisoni and Calderwood were also at Series Mania in Paris this year pitching the project in the hope of attracting international coproduction partners.
tagged in: AACTA, Andrea Calderwood, Andrew Sodroski, BBC, BBC1, Cheo Hodari Coker, Cleverman, Discovery, Down Under, Emily Ballou, FX, Harley & The Davidsons, Luke Cage, Manifesto, Mary: The Making of a Princess, Molly, No Activity, Rake, Sam Worthington, Secret City, Steven Knight, Taboo, The Beautiful Lie, The Kettering Incident, The Letdown, The People v OJ Simpson: American Crime Story, Tom Hardy, Tony Grisoni, Wentworth, Wolf Creek
Starz Powers ahead but drops its Sails
July 22, 2016 Hit & MissAmazon, Armando Nunez, Black Sails, CBS, Chris Albrecht, Comic-Con, Foxtel, ITV Studios Global Entertainment, Jonathan E Steinberg, Jordskott, Loch Ness, Luke Cage, Marvel, Netflix, Penny Win, Power, Star Trek, Starz, Tim Haines, Victoria Fea, WentworthAndy Fry
Power is going from strength to strength
As of this week, US premium cable network Starz has started airing original series on Sunday nights instead of Saturdays. The move appears to have been a good one, with the debut episode of Power's third season setting a new viewing record.
The show, which tells the story of a charismatic club owner who leads a double life as the head of a powerful drug-dealing business, attracted 2.26 million viewers, significantly up on the 1.54 million who viewed the finale of the second run.
The previous record for a premiere episode on Starz was 1.46 million, for the second season opener of period adventure Outlander.
As soon as the rating news was in, Starz announced it had commissioned two more seasons of Power, which stars Omari Hardwick and was created by Courtney Kemp Agboh – with Curtis '50 Cent' Jackson also on board as an executive producer.
Commenting on the news, Starz CEO Chris Albrecht said: "In today's content landscape, it is challenging for a series to stand out, but Courtney is a singular voice working in television today. In Curtis, we not only have an immense talent but an executive producer who brings a unique perspective, an authentic voice and passionate fan base that has helped propel the success of the series. The fans have let it be known loud and clear that they cannot get enough of [main characters] Ghost, Tommy, Tasha, Angela and Kanan."
Black Sails' end is on the horizon
There was mixed news for Starz pirate drama Black Sails, however. The show, which is a prequel to Treasure Island, has been given the green light for a fourth season of 10 episodes – but that season will also be its last.
Black Sails co-creator and executive producer Jonathan E Steinberg said: "It's a rare privilege in television to be given the kind of creative freedom we've enjoyed on this show over the last four years. While it was a difficult decision to make this season our last, we couldn't imagine anything beyond it that would make for a better ending to the story nor a more natural handoff to Treasure Island."
Overall, Black Sails will be remembered as a success for Starz, building on the work done by The Pillars of the Earth, Spartacus and Camelot. The show is the first Starz original series to have got as far as four seasons, averaging 3.6 million viewers per episode along the way. It has won two Emmys, achieved an 8.2 rating on IMDb and has been licensed to 130 countries, including a deal with A+E Networks in the UK.
So the question now is whether the network will go in search of another period adventure to fill the gap – or whether the recent Lionsgate deal will point it in a new direction.
San Diego Comic-Con got underway on Thursday and runs through until Sunday. A hugely important date in the entertainment industry calendar, it is an opportunity for film and TV producers to build buzz around their projects by connecting directly with hardcore fans.
Luke Cage is the next addition to Netflix's Marvel titles, launching on September 30
Historically regarded as a gathering for geeks, it is now an unmissable event for anyone interested or working in the sci-fi, fantasy, superhero, horror and adventure genres.
At time of writing, the headlines definitely belonged to Star Trek Beyond, the latest movie in the iconic sci-fi franchise. Not only did it put on a spectacular show in San Diego, but Paramount Studios has approved plans for another film.
In parallel, there's also a huge amount of interest in the new Star Trek TV series, which launches on CBS's subscription streaming service CBS All Access in the US in January. This week CBS revealed that it has now licensed the show (and the extensive Star Trek back catalogue) to SVoD giant Netflix for the international market.
Netflix will be able to stream the show just one day after it has debuted on CBS All Access.
Coming off the back of this summer's movie launch, there's no question the TV series will be one of the highlights of 2017. "Star Trek is already a worldwide phenomenon and this international partnership will provide fans around the world, who have been craving a new series for more than a decade, the opportunity to see every episode virtually at the same time as viewers in the US," said Armando Nunez, president and CEO of CBS Global Distribution Group. "The new Star Trek will definitely be hailing on all frequencies throughout the planet."
Jordskott is being adapted into English by Amazon
Netflix is also at Comic-Con to promote its partnership with Marvel and gave fans a brief introduction to Luke Cage, the central character of a new superhero series coming on September 30. Luke Cage joins existing Netflix Marvel series Daredevil and Jessica Jones.
Earlier this week, in our Greenlight column, we looked at the success of Australian prison drama Wentworth on the international market. Now there is more good news for the show following reports that Australia's Foxtel has ordered a fifth season for its SoHo channel. FremantleMedia Australia will start production on 12 episodes in Melbourne next month.
Foxtel head of drama Penny Win said: "Wentworth has gone from strength to strength over the past four seasons. It is a ratings blockbuster and fan favourite for Foxtel audiences. It was a very easy decision to commission a further season of this brilliantly constructed and crafted programme. There is a lot in store both for the women behind bars and those on the outside."
There was also good news for Scandinavian drama Jordskott this week, with DQ sister title C21 reporting that it is to be adapted into English by Amazon for its Prime Video service. That news came just after Sony Pictures Television took a stake in Palladium Fiction, the Swedish production company behind the original show.
Loch Ness will star Laura Fraser
(photo: Ian West/PA Wire)
A 10-part thriller with supernatural overtones, Jordskott debuted on SVT in February 2015 and was then picked up for distribution by ITV Studios Global Entertainment (ITVSGE). ITVSGE sold the show around the world, including to ITV Encore in the UK, and Palladium is now in development on a second season with SVT.
Another show creating a buzz on the international market this week is ITV's new six-part murder mystery Loch Ness, also distributed by ITVSGE. Despite the fact it has only just started filming in Scotland, it has been picked up by NBCUniversal International Networks for broadcast on its 13th Street pay TV channel in France, Spain, Germany and Poland in 2017.
One possible explanation for the early pick-up is that Loch Ness stars Scottish actor Laura Fraser – a familiar face to many viewers thanks to her excellent turn as the neurotic Lydia in Breaking Bad. The show is written by Stephen Brady (Fortitude) and executive produced by ITV Studios creative director and executive producer Tim Haines (Beowulf).
Loch Ness was commissioned by ITV controller of drama Victoria Fea and head of drama series Jane Hudson, with support from Creative Scotland's Production Growth Fund. Fea commented: "Loch Ness is a gripping, tightly plotted drama that focuses on how a serial killer terrifies a local community. Stephen Brady's compelling scripts utilise the wilderness of Loch Ness perfectly."
Haines added: "Serial killers are monsters that lie beneath the surface of normal happy communities. Where better to hunt for one than in a place that has thrived off its own monster myth for centuries – Loch Ness."
tagged in: Amazon, Armando Nunez, Black Sails, CBS, Chris Albrecht, Comic-Con, Foxtel, ITV Studios Global Entertainment, Jonathan E Steinberg, Jordskott, Loch Ness, Luke Cage, Marvel, Netflix, Penny Win, Power, Star Trek, Starz, Tim Haines, Victoria Fea, Wentworth
Wentworth locks down third format deal
July 18, 2016 Greenlight1+1, Beta Film, Central Hospital, Chuck Lorre, Diego Maradona, Disjointed, Endemol Shine Studios, Fox, FremantleMedia, Gent-West, Guy Ritchie, Light of Elna, Netflix, Roddenberry Entertainment, Shortland Street, Stefan De Keyser, Storyoscopic Films, Telefe, The Bridge, Tohokushinsha Film Corp, Tomas Yankelevich, Trevor Roth, Vier, Wentworth, YouTube Red, ZDF EnterprisesAndy Fry
Wentworth is being remade in Flemish
There's a strong international flavour to drama commissioning this week, with plenty of action in terms of format deals, coproductions, acquisitions and plans for movie adaptations.
FremantleMedia, for example, has just announced that its Australian prison drama Wentworth is being remade in Flemish for Belgium-based commercial broadcaster. With a working title of Gent-West, the new 10-part drama will be coproduced by FremantleMedia Belgium and Marmalade Productions. Although the show doesn't debut on Vier until 2018, it will be shown prior to that on Telenet's paid cable channels Play and Play More.
Stefan De Keyser, MD of FremantleMedia Belgium, called Wentworth "an explosive drama filled with twists and emotion. Its suspenseful storylines and powerful female cast are sure to captivate Flemish audiences and we hope that Vier's commission will build on the worldwide success of this scripted property."
The Flemish version of the show will be the third adaptation following Celblok H (Netherlands) and Block B – Unter Arrest (Germany). Wentworth is also popular in its original form: to date, the show has aired in 141 countries worldwide and is still going strong on home soil after four series on SoHo.
Shortland Street's Ukranian adaptation is going great guns
FremantleMedia also revealed this week that the new Ukranian version of its New Zealand soap Shortland Street has started well. Known locally as Central Hospital, the 60-part drama is currently airing on channel 1+1 and is Ukraine's number-one show. Central Hospital has also been sold on in its completed form to Georgia and Kazakhstan. Following the success of the show, Anne Kirsipuu, format sales director for CIS, Ukraine, Georgia and the Baltic States at FM, said: "We're looking forward to introducing more local adaptations (of other FM shows) soon."
Elsewhere in Europe, producer/distributor Beta Film has secured the rights for Light of Elna, a Nazi-refugee drama directed by Sílvia Quer (Velvet, Grand Hotel). The Spanish-Swiss coproduction tells the story of Swiss teacher Elisabeth Eidenbenz, who created a maternity home for female WW2 refugees about to give birth. Beta Film will serve as the worldwide distributor, having previously sold Spanish dramas Velvet & Grand Hotel worldwide.
Scandinavian crime drama continues to prove its appeal worldwide. This week, Germany's ZDF Enterprises (a big supporter of Nordic Noir) licensed the third season of Bron (The Bridge) to Japan's Tohokushinsha Film Corp. Under the terms of the deal, TFC gets VoD and DVD rights in addition to television rights. ZDFE and TFC have a longstanding relationship that has already seen deals for the first three seasons of The Killing and the first two of Bron. The latter has been a hit worldwide, selling in its completed form to 140 countries and being adapted in the US and UK/France.
The latest deal for Nordic Noir hit the Bridge has been done in Japan
Continuing with our globetrotting, there are also reports that leading Argentinian broadcaster Telefe has signed a deal with Diego Maradona to make a drama about the iconic footballer's life. There is certainly plenty of on-field and off-field action to fill a series – as Maradona noted in a modestly worded statement: "Every month of my life has enough for someone to write 100 chapters. Everything that I lived exceeds any fiction. I'm happy and excited that Telefe is developing this project for the world."
Telefe contents and international business director Tomas Yankelevich added an equally measured summation: "This is an incredible challenge as a producer to think about turning into fiction the life of the best soccer player of all time, and probably the most famous person in the world. We think of an unprecedented super-production, and are looking for partners to join us. We expect to make a global show without borders."
Notwithstanding the hype, Telefe is undoubtedly the right company to lead the project. Owned by Telefonica, it is one of the major producer/broadcasters in Latin America with activities that stretch across film and TV. Recent productions include Story of a Clan, Educating Nina and coproduction The Return of Lucas.
Diego Maradona playing for Argentina
In the US, meanwhile, there's some interesting news for sci-fi fans. Roddenberry Entertainment, the company set up by Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry (who died in 1991), has created a project called Holoscape that has been optioned by Storyoscopic Films. Holoscape is set in the aftermath of World War III and the collapse of civilisation. Using a mysterious device from the war (the Holoscape), a group of survivors discovers they are part of a conspiracy that has shaped the destiny of humankind, but are given the chance to escape their present and save our future.
"Storyoscopic holds a unique place in the industry due to its strong ties to China and the international market," said Trevor Roth, head of development for Roddenberry Entertainment. "That, along with its sense for strong properties and compelling stories, makes it a perfect collaborator for Holoscape."
Also this week, US network Fox gave a put-pilot commitment to a Marvel action-adventure series that will tap into the latter's rapidly-expanding X-Men universe. The pilot will focus on two ordinary parents who discover their children possess mutant powers. Matt Nix (Burn Notice) will write the script and executive produce alongside a bunch of X-Men and Marvel executives.
"Developing a Marvel property has been a top priority for the network, and we are so pleased with how Matt Nix has led us into this thrilling universe," said Fox Entertainment president David Madden. "There's comic book adventure, emotional and complicated relationships and a rich, existing mythology from which to draw. With the brilliant production crew behind this project, it has all the makings of a big, fun and exciting series."
Other interesting deals this week include a Netflix order for a Chuck Lorre (The Big Bang Theory) comedy called Disjointed and a development deal between Endemol Shine Studios and acclaimed film maker Guy Ritchie, who will develop scripted series for the company. There are also reports that YouTube is talking to UK content creators about original content for its SVoD service YouTube Red.
tagged in: 1+1, Beta Film, Central Hospital, Chuck Lorre, Diego Maradona, Disjointed, Endemol Shine Studios, Fox, FremantleMedia, Gent-West, Guy Ritchie, Light of Elna, Netflix, Roddenberry Entertainment, Shortland Street, Stefan De Keyser, Storyoscopic Films, Telefe, The Bridge, Tohokushinsha Film Corp, Tomas Yankelevich, Trevor Roth, Vier, Wentworth, YouTube Red, ZDF Enterprises
Australian drama: Short and sweet wins the day
October 22, 2015 IN FOCUSABC, Andy Ryan, Banished, BBCWW, Brad Lyons, Brock, Carole Sklan, Catching Milat, Chris Oliver-Taylor, CJZ, Every Cloud, FremantleMedia, Glitch, House Husbands, House of Hancock, Jo Porter, Love Child, Mary: The Making of a Princess, Matchbox Pictures, Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, Network Ten, Nine Network, Playmaker Media, Rick Maier, Ruby Entertainment, Seven Network, Shina Australia, SoHo, Sony Pictures Television, The Doctor Blake Mysteries, The Secret River, Tim Christlieb, Wentworth, Winners & Losers, WonderlandDon Groves
Australian viewers have embraced short-run dramas but are less receptive to new local series this year. DQ investigates the drama landscape down under.
In the increasingly competitive world of television drama, broadcasters and producers are working harder than ever to retain viewers over the course of a series.
Nowhere is that more true than in Australia, where ratings have shown miniseries to be the most popular form of drama on air this year, to the cost of longer-running dramas.
Miniseries House of Hancock averaged 2.17 million viewers on Nine Network
Audiences are also relating to homegrown stories, both across free-to-air channels and on pay TV.
The top-rating Oz dramas in the first eight months of this year were both miniseries. Shine Australia's Catching Milat, which follows the police hunt that led to the arrest of serial killer Ivan Milat, attracted an average national consolidated audience of 2.46 million on the Seven Network.
Meanwhile, CJZ's House of Hancock, starring Mandy McElhinney as Australia's richest woman Gina Rinehart and Sam Neill as her husband Lang Hancock, averaged 2.17 million for Nine Network.
Some broadcasting executives acknowledge it is increasingly difficult to launch long-running dramas. Yet despite an apparent shift in audience tastes towards shorter-run fare, Seven Network director of production Brad Lyons tells DQ: "In the end, good stories well told will win out. We firmly believe there's a place for long-running drama and will continue to pursue it with vigour as we always have."
Budget cuts imposed by the federal government have forced commissioning changes at public broadcaster ABC, which is continuing to back longer-running dramas, if only due to the cost of producing and promoting miniseries that may only be on air for two or three weeks.
ABC commissioned several original dramas, including Matchbox Pictures' six-hour series Glitch, a paranormal mystery about a small-town cop who discovers six naked people at a graveyard. Sony Pictures Television-owned prodco Playmaker Media's eight-part Hiding, meanwhile, follows a Queensland family who are placed in witness protection.
Although neither scored big overnight numbers, the consolidated figures including catch-up viewing were encouraging, particularly for Glitch, which was available on the ABC's iview platform concurrent with the broadcast premiere.
Elsewhere on the ABC, season three of December Media's The Doctor Blake Mysteries, starring Craig McLachlan as a country doctor and police surgeon, achieved an average national consolidated audience of nearly 1.6 million.
Matchbox Pictures' Glitch aired on ABC
The third season of Every Cloud's Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, featuring Essie Davis as the glamorous 1920s private detective, averaged 1.4 million on the channel.
And prodco Ruby Entertainment's two-part The Secret River (main image), with Oliver Jackson-Cohen (Mr Selfridge) as an English convict who is transported to colonial New South Wales in 1805 and Sarah Snook as his free-settler wife, drew more than one million viewers on the ABC.
"We have had to pull back on miniseries as they are very expensive and we can now only support the occasional mini or telemovie," says ABC head of fiction Carole Sklan.
"This is unfortunate, as ABC fiction has had tremendous success in recent years with miniseries telling stories of remarkable Australians – such as Paper Giants, ANZAC Girls, Carlotta, Cliffy, Mabo and Devil's Dust – and literary adaptations like The Slap. Also, when we return successful series such as Rake, Janet King and Jack Irish, there are fewer opportunities for new shows."
The Nine Network enjoyed strong ratings with two Playmaker productions, including the second season of Love Child, set in 1970 at a Kings Cross home for unwed mothers and the adjacent maternity hospital. The fourth run of House Husbands, which stars Gary Sweet, Firass Dirani, Rhys Muldoon and Gyton Grantley as stay-at-home dads, launched in August, with the premiere attracting a consolidated average of 1.381 million viewers.
Nine co-head of drama Andy Ryan says: "Audiences have so much choice now that dramas have to work harder to capture and retain the public's imagination. True stories have worked extremely well for all the networks, as have series like Love Child and House Husbands that tap into a broader social conversation.
"There is a thirst for novelty in drama, but the ratings prove there is also a big audience for stories that reflect and explore Australian life. It's crucial that dramas start strongly and boldly. It will always be a challenge to sustain this intensity over a long-running series, but shows like House Husbands prove it is possible.
Shine Australia's Catching Milat
"A major change over the past few years has been the growth in time-shifting. Our consolidated audience is consistently more than 250,000 higher than the overnight figure, which can be a 20% or more increase on an already dominant show. But as a commercial network, we also want to maximise our overnight audience."
Love Child's second run averaged 1.6 million viewers per episode, with the overnight national audience of 1.228 million accounting for 76% of viewing and the remainder coming from time-shifted, encore and longform video viewing. Its third season recently wrapped.
At Network Ten, romantic comedy-drama Wonderland drew an average capital-city consolidated audience of 537,000. Due to premiere on Ten later this year is FremantleMedia's telemovie Mary: The Making of a Princess. The show chronicles the real-life fairytale romance of a Sydney real-estate agent and Crown Prince Frederik Andre Henrik Christian of Denmark, and stars Emma Hamilton and Ryan O'Kane.
Also coming to Ten is Shine Australia's telepic Brock (working title), which will dramatise the life of Australian motor-racing champion Peter Brock, a complex man plagued by self-doubt who died when his car crashed during a rally in Western Australia in 2006.
Network head of drama Rick Maier says: "Wonderland was generally well received and we were happy with the production, but we just failed to find a sufficient audience. Longform series are now without doubt the hardest to launch successfully."
However, Maier adds: "The strength of the idea drives commissioning at Ten. Shortform and event dramas are not necessarily a focus. As always, we have plenty of options and our planning is usually 12 to 18 months ahead."
Nine co-head of drama Andy Ryan
ABC's Sklan is enthused about Endemol Australia's upcoming six-hour series The Beautiful Lie, a contemporary reimagining of Leo Tolstoy's classic novel Anna Karenina. The sprawling saga of adultery, scandal, manners and mayhem involving three enmeshed families across three generations stars Sarah Snook, Benedict Samuel, Rodger Corser, Celia Pacquola, Daniel Henshall, Sophie Lowe, Alexander England, Catherine McClements, Dan Wyllie and Gina Riley.
The exec feels vindicated by her decision to greenlight Glitch and Hiding, viewing both as groundbreaking for Australian TV. "It's extremely important for the national public broadcaster to showcase a mix of a dramas and to support a diverse quality slate of stories, storytellers, styles and genres," she says.
"Every commission is risky; it's a leap into the unknown. There are no safe shows. Sometimes they defy expectations; sometimes everything coheres and the show is better than the individual parts.
"Hiding was a bold hybrid genre of crime and family drama that explored the everyday parental challenges of raising teenagers but in a high-stakes world. Glitch was the first Australian paranormal drama series.
"We took an additional risk for Glitch with our binge strategy on iview, which audiences responded to very positively. In fact, Glitch has become the most popular iview title so far this year, recording more than one million plays to date. Consolidated national figures plus iview make a huge difference and better represent the way people choose to enjoy drama anywhere and anytime. Drama is consistently iview's most popular genre.
"The ABC is not driven by ratings alone. It's not only about broadest possible reach but also the deepest possible engagement. Critical acclaim and awards, social media and audience feedback for our edgier shows can be intensely appreciative. The compelling, original political thriller The Code (of which Playmaker is shooting a second season) and the exuberant, satirical legal drama Rake (Essential Media and Entertainment is making a fourth season) are also great examples."
Hiding, a 'bold hybrid genre of crime and family drama'
Chris Oliver-Taylor, MD of Glitch producer Matchbox, says: "If you take the overall results, the huge iview numbers, the critical acclaim and the quality of the work, we think Glitch is an incredibly successful show and one that we expect to have future series and strong international appeal."
Playmaker Media co-founder David Taylor says the brief for Hiding was to attract a younger audience to the ABC. The show ranked as the number one scripted series for the 16-24 demographic and second overall on the channel across all slots.
"There is obviously more competition in the scripted space with audiences now having so many on-demand options for viewing drama," Taylor adds. "As producers, it's our job to create a must-watch experience that taps into the zeitgeist. All shows can be binge-watched six months after telecast. We strive to create dramas that have a water-cooler element that get people talking week after week."
Seven's Winners & Losers, which follows the lives of a group of best friends as they deal with life's ups and downs, drew a combined average audience of 1.56 million in 2014. This year the ratings dropped but Lyons says the "consolidated figures are really good, often hitting 900,000. That's a great result." Last December the network commissioned a fifth season.
Lyons was also delighted with the ratings for Seven Productions' Winter, a sequel to the telemovie The Killing Field, which featured Rebecca Gibney as a detective who investigates the murder of a 23-year-old woman in a fishing town south of Sydney.
One local story to feature heavily in the last year was that of Gallipoli, the First World War campaign that took place 100 years ago in April. Endemol Australia's Gallipoli, which covered the bloody eight-month battle of Australian and New Zealand troops against those from Turkey, launched with more than one million viewers on Nine but went into a steep decline.
Ryan says: "There is no denying that audience numbers were lower than expected, but this was a phenomenon repeated around the world with First World War-themed dramas and documentaries. The centenary of the First World War hasn't captured the public imagination as much as we thought it would four years ago when we embarked on the series. Even so, Gallipoli was a superb production about a story of enormous national significance."
By comparison, Deadline Gallipoli, a coproduction between Matchbox Pictures and actor Sam Worthington's Full Clip, which explores the campaign through the eyes
of four war correspondents, drew a consolidated average audience of 203,000 on pay TV platform Foxtel's drama channel Showcase. That ranked as the third largest consolidated audience ever in the channel's history, trailing Game of Thrones and Screentime's 2011 Australian miniseries Cloudstreet.
Winter, a sequel to the telemovie The Killing Field
Those ratings marked Deadline Gallopoli out as one of the best-performing local dramas on pay TV, alongside the third season of FremantleMedia Australia's prison drama Wentworth (on Foxtel's SoHo) and Banished, a coproduction between Jimmy McGovern and Sita Williams' RSJ Films and See Saw Films that aired on BBC First.
Banished, co-commissioned with the UK's BBC2, marked the debut local production for BBC First. It chronicled the lives, loves, relationships and battle for survival in penal colony Sydney and starred David Wenham, Russell Tovey, Myanna Buring, Julian Rhind-Tutt and Ryan Corr.
The first episode reached a gross audience of 293,000, the highest ever launch title on BBC First, according to BBC Worldwide (BBCWW). The seven episodes pulled in a cumulative gross audience of 1.8 million, the highest-rating BBC First title to date.
Tim Christlieb, BBCWW director of channels for Australia and New Zealand, says: "We are delighted by how Banished has been embraced by audiences on BBC First. The show delivered audiences well above the primetime and timeslot averages for the channel."
On SoHo, Wentworth season three achieved a consolidated average of 313,000 viewers per episode, up 8% on season two's average of 290,000. FremantleMedia Australia head of drama Jo Porter says: "Wentworth has proven to be a wonderful critical and ratings success both locally and globally, and can now be seen in 89 territories worldwide. It was voted the most outstanding drama at the Australian Subscription Television and Radio Association Awards in 2014 and 2015. We have started production on season four, which will see Wentworth become Foxtel's longest-running Australian drama series."
Asked about the long- versus short-form drama issue, Porter agrees that the current appetite among viewers is for miniseries and telemoves "based on noisy, strong stories that stand out in a crowded schedule."
She concludes: "As we have seen with Wentworth, there is absolutely still a market for ongoing series. Our job is to ensure we hold the audience from the first frame and give them enough reasons, through character and plot, to keep coming back week after week."
tagged in: ABC, Andy Ryan, Banished, BBCWW, Brad Lyons, Brock, Carole Sklan, Catching Milat, Chris Oliver-Taylor, CJZ, Every Cloud, FremantleMedia, Glitch, House Husbands, House of Hancock, Jo Porter, Love Child, Mary: The Making of a Princess, Matchbox Pictures, Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, Network Ten, Nine Network, Playmaker Media, Rick Maier, Ruby Entertainment, Seven Network, Shina Australia, SoHo, Sony Pictures Television, The Doctor Blake Mysteries, The Secret River, Tim Christlieb, Wentworth, Winners & Losers, Wonderland
July 24, 2015 Hit & MissChannel 4, Channel 5, El Señor de los Cielos, ITV Encore, Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No!, Spike, Telemundo, The Americans, Tut, Wentworth, WitnessesAndy Fry
The Americans is coming to ITV Encore, having previously aired for two seasons on ITV
The success or failure of a show can often hinge on finding the right slot or the right channel for it to air on. For example, it would have been fascinating to see how critically acclaimed shows like Mad Men, Breaking Bad or The Walking Dead performed if they had been placed in free-to-air primetime as opposed to cable TV.
It's possible they would have been axed after a few episodes instead of developing into the pop culture phenomena we know today.
With this in mind, it's interesting to note that UK broadcaster ITV has just acquired seasons three and four of US spy drama The Americans from Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution for its digital channel ITV Encore.
This deal comes despite the fact that the pubcaster's main free-to-air channel ITV, which originally aired the show in the UK, dropped it after two seasons. These first two runs will now play out on ITV Encore ahead of the newly acquired seasons.
The message, then, is that The Americans is better suited to a pay environment. Perhaps this is no surprise when you consider that the show, which tells the story of two KGB spies posing as an American husband and wife in Washington during the Cold War, airs on cable channel FX in the US.
Swedish drama Jordskott is outperforming ITV Encore's British shows
But it reinforces the broader notion that we are currently operating in an era when there is a clear distinction between the kind of scripted shows that work on free as opposed to pay/SVoD television.
The decision to air the show on ITV Encore also suggests there has been a reappraisal of what the channel is going to be. Launched in 2014, a lot of its content to date has been re-runs of classic British dramas such as Poirot, Vera, Downton Abbey, Upstairs Downstairs and DCI Banks – giving the channel a crime/period profile.
However, these shows are all currently being outperformed by another acquisition, the Swedish series Jordskott. With the Nordic crime drama drawing an audience of between 100,000 and 200,000 viewers per episode (seven-day ratings figures), it suggests the ITV Encore audience would rather see original foreign series than homegrown re-runs (even if the latter are very good). Aside from Jordskott and The Americans, the channel has also aired the US version of Broadchurch (Gracepoint) and is gearing up for the launch of its first original commission, Midwinter of the Spirit.
In the US, Telemundo is celebrating the fact that on July 21 it ranked as the number-one Spanish-language network among adults 18-49 in primetime, beating Univision by 3%. According to the channel, "this marks the first time in history that Telemundo topped Univision in weekday prime with its regular line-up."
A key part of the channel's success has been season three of scripted series El Señor de los Cielos (aka Lord of the Skies). The show was ranked number one among all broadcast and cable networks, regardless of language, at 22.00 in adults 18-49.
El Señor de los Cielos has given US broadcaster Telemundo a big lift
A US-produced series from Argos Comunicacion and Telemundo, El Señor de los Cielos tells the story of drug dealer Aurelio Casillas and his ruthless rise to power. It is based loosely on the life of real Mexican druglord Amado Carillo Fuentes.
The show first aired in 2013 with a debut season of 74 episodes. This was followed by 84 episodes in season two and an as-yet-unquantified number in season three. So successful is the show that Telemundo confirmed plans for a fourth season at its Upfronts presentation in May this year.
Although the series is produced in the US, its high episode count makes it more like a telenovela than a US drama – an advantage when taking shows out to international distribution. By the end of season four, Telemundo will already be able to offer buyers 300 episodes (equivalent to around 12 years' worth of a US returning series).
Still in the US, Variety conducted an interesting survey this week, asking three leading media-buying agencies which shows they think will attract the most viewers in the upcoming autumn season (and thus be most appealing to advertisers).
Among dramas, the top pick is season two of Empire (on Fox), which is no real surprise given the success of the first run. And there are high expectations for the return of the Shonda Rhimes hits Scandal and How to Get Away With Murder (both ABC).
More interesting, perhaps, are the new shows that are expected to do well. Here, the top three picks are Fox's reboot of The X-Files, followed by NBC's Blindspot and ABC's The Catch. The Catch is another show for ABC from the Shonda Rhimes hit factory and is expected to be given a lead-in by one of her other shows.
Da Vinci's Demons' third season will be its last
Cable channel Spike is investing heavily in scripted shows at the moment. Its first project, Tut, debuted on July 19 and got off to a good start. With 1.7 million viewers tuning in for the first episode, Spike achieved its biggest Sunday night primetime audience since May 25, 2008.
More saliently, the figure was 123% ahead of last week's primetime average. "We are thrilled that Tut resonated with viewers and delivered a big audience for Spike's first scripted event series in almost a decade," said Sharon Levy, Spike's exec VP of original series.
Elsewhere, another piece of reimagined history is coming to a close, with Starz announcing this week that the third season of David Goyer's Da Vinci's Demons will be its last.
Starz MD Carmi Zlotnik said: "David Goyer brought us a plan to portray the unknown early years of a genius and we think the fans will enjoy this final chapter, which segues into the da Vinci history knows."
A few weeks ago, we talked up the performance of a grisly French thriller called Witnesses, which was rating well in its home market. This week, the show debuted on Channel 4 in the UK, which was clearly hoping to repeat the success of its previous French drama acquisition Les Revenants (The Returned). Things didn't quite work out as planned, however, with Witnesses only managing to attract around 550,000 viewers in its 22.00 slot. This is about a third of The Returned's audience when it launched back in 2013.
Witnesses opened to disappointing figures on Channel 4
In defence of Witnesses, The Returned aired an hour earlier at 2100, which would have given it access to a bigger audience. However, Witnesses was also well down on the 22.00 slot average, which will be a source of disappointment for C4. It was also bested by Channel 5's Aussie prison drama import Wentworth.
Despite this, UK newspaper critics were mostly positive about the show. The Guardian called it "rather promising," adding that it "bodes well for Channel 4's imminent on-demand service, 4World Drama."
The Independent, meanwhile, said referring to the show as 'The French Broadchurch' doesn't do it justice: "This classy, creepy thriller should be judged on its own merits, rather than compared to our Dorset-filmed whodunit and its Scandi-noir forebears".
So it's just possible that Witnesses could be a bit of a sleeper hit. What it needs now is the 550,000 people who tuned in to the first episode to get onto social media and tell their friends to watch it.
The Sharknado franchise has proved a massive hit for Syfy
On the subject of social media, a round of applause please for Syfy's global pop culture phenomenon, Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No!, which has generated a staggering two billion Twitter impressions – doubling the impressions for 2014's Sharknado 2: The Second One.
Video clips from Sharknado 3 have generated nearly six million views to date, including 4.1 million on Syfy's YouTube channel. The film itself debuted on Wednesday, July 22, so we're just waiting for the TV ratings at time of writing.
Unsurprisingly given the noise created by the third edition, Syfy has greenlit Sharknado 4. Chris Regina, senior VP of programme strategy at Syfy, said: "Sharknado 3 may have devoured half of America's celebrities, but there are still hungry fans and sharks to feed, so the adventure continues – not in a galaxy far, far away, but on your television sets next July."
tagged in: Channel 4, Channel 5, El Señor de los Cielos, ITV Encore, Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No!, Spike, Telemundo, The Americans, Tut, Wentworth, Witnesses
Drama behind bars: Wentworth and Orange is the New Black
July 21, 2015 TrendspottingChannel 5, Emmys, Foxtel, Netflix, Orange is the New Black, WentworthMichael Pickard
Viewers are doing time with two dramas set inside women's prisons, but is there room for both Wentworth and Orange is the New Black?
There was a splash of colour in the Outstanding Drama Series category when the nominees for the 67th Emmy Awards were announced last week.
Orange is the New Black (OITNB, main image) will face competition from Better Call Saul, Downton Abbey, Game of Thrones, Homeland, House of Cards and Mad Men for the prize, which will be handed out on September 20.
Previously considered a comedy – it was nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series at last year's Emmys – the Netflix series was pushed into the drama category when the Television Academy defined episodic comedies as shows with a running time of 30 minutes or less. Each episode of OITNB runs for 60 minutes.
But while its running time may set it apart from other comedies, its comedic tones and storylines are exactly what set it apart from other dramas, particularly those it's up against for this year's award.
Orange is the New Black is available in all Netflix territories
OITNB creator Jenji Kohan said as much when reacting to news of the show's drama nomination: "We're proud to be the misfits who don't fit in – comedy, drama, nobody knows what to do with us … and we like it that way. No matter what you call us, we're honoured to be recognised by the Academy with this nomination. On behalf of the entire cast, the writers, producers and crew, and so many others that work tirelessly on this show, this is really cool and we thank you."
It is also its comedy roots that set OITNB apart from the other women's prison-set drama currently on television. Wentworth, which airs in Australia on Foxtel's SoHo network and is also in its third season, is described as a modern adaptation of the iconic Prisoner series, which originally aired from 1979 to 1986.
This reboot – which debuted in May 2013, just two months before season one of OITNB landed on Netflix – is set in Wentworth Correctional Centre, with each episode focusing on a different character and how they cope in a women's prison living under warring criminals fighting for supremacy over the inmates.
Similarly, OITNB also uses individual episodes to focus on inmates' backstories as groups of criminals fight over who rules the wings of Litchfield Penitentiary.
But that's where the similarities end, at least according to Wentworth star Danielle Cormack, who also points to the American series' comedic undertones as a reason why there's room on the television landscape for two series delving into the world of women's prisons.
Speaking ahead of launch of the third season of Wentworth on the UK's Channel 5, Cormack said: "I love Orange is the New Black. I think it's been the best thing for our show as well, so I say that with a lot of gratitude towards great television now but also in a very selfish way.
The original Wentworth (left) and its Dutch remake Celblok H, which airs on SBS 6
"Having two successful prison dramas on TV at the same time that have a very different take on prison life, I think they work very well off each other. Orange is the New Black explores the minutiae of prison life in an American way and society in America with much more of a comedic bent and Wentworth, I think, explores the greater, more dramatic arcs. There's these sweeping, broad statements about being top dog, about corrupt governors and everything, and it's much more dramatic and people say more gritty."
Cormack, who plays top dog Bea Smith in the FremantleMedia Australia-produced series, adds: "But I think they serve each other really well. Wentworth wouldn't have had the overseas attention if Orange is the New Black hadn't played first off, and perhaps vice versa.
"So I'm really happy to walk side by side with Orange is the New Black and I applaud their storytelling. I find their take on prison life extraordinary because it's taught me about other aspects of what it means to be incarcerated, and most of the crew that I work with have done extensive research about what it's like to be locked away for long periods of time with other people and our take on it is very different.
"So cheers to all the people who have created Orange is the New Black. I love the show."
With OITNB available on all Netflix platforms around the world, Wentworth has also proved extremely popular on international screens. Since its launch, it has aired in 88 countries, including France, Japan, Poland, Brazil, Canada, Korea and Sweden.
Furthermore, the series has been the subject of two foreign-language adaptations – Celblok H in the Netherlands, which has aired for two seasons on SBS 6, and Block B – Unter Arrest on Germany's RTL.
Despite their similarities, there's plenty to separate OITNB and Wentworth, and with fourth seasons for both already locked up, audiences can look forward to spending more time behind bars with these two series.
tagged in: Channel 5, Emmys, Foxtel, Netflix, Orange is the New Black, Wentworth
Foxtel boosts drama down under
June 18, 2015 UncategorizedA Place to Call Home, Australia, Brian Walsh, Foxtel, Investment, Jeremy Darroch, Secret City, Sky, The Kettering Incident, WentworthMichael Pickard
Foxtel executive director of television Brian Walsh
For fans of TV drama living down under, things are about to get very interesting indeed.
Pay TV platform Foxtel this week announced plans to "create the best in Australia" by doubling its investment in original content, including factual, lifestyle and entertainment programming by 2018.
The key point, however, came when it was revealed that in each of the next three years, Foxtel will commission at least five major drama series. Currently it averages two every 12 months.
And while other programming genres will get a boost in funding, the budget for scripted content, including comedy, will be tripled.
Viewers of prison drama Wentworth will be well aware of Foxtel's push into local drama. The series, which debuted on the SoHo channel in 2013, is described as a contemporary reimagining of the classic drama Prisoner and has proved such a success that a fourth season was ordered earlier this year.
Other homegrown commissions include A Place to Call Home and The Kettering Incident. The former, created by Bevan Lee, is a 1950s period piece that follows one woman's journey to heal her soul and a privileged family rocked by scandal. After two seasons, a landmark deal between Foxtel and Seven Productions last year saw a further two runs commissioned, with season three due to launch on SoHo later this year.
Foxtel's prison drama Wentworth
The Kettering Incident, created by Victoria Madden and Vincent Sheehan, is an eight-part mystery thriller that sees a woman uncover terrifying secrets hidden in her town as she investigates a missing person case. Uniquely, it is also the first major TV drama to be filmed entirely in Tasmania.
Foxtel has already put other news series into development. The first to be announced is Secret City, a political thriller inspired by novels The Marmalade Files and The Mandarin Code, both co-written by journalists Steve Lewis and Chris Uhlman.
The six-part series, produced by Matchbox Pictures, is set in the Australian capital Canberra where a journalist uncovers a web of interlocked conspiracies that are putting innocent lives – including her own – in danger. The cast includes Anna Torv (Fringe), Damon Herriman, and Dan Wyllie, and it is set to air in 2016.
Foxtel executive director of television Brian Walsh said Secret City "is further commitment by Foxtel to explore bold and interesting ideas for the screen and commission unique Australian storytelling to complement the best of the international series. We keep looking for inspiring and intelligent scripts and we think we've found one again with Secret City."
The news of Foxtel's original-content investment echoes similar plans by Sky in the UK. In 2011, its CEO Jeremy Darroch unveiled ambitions to invest more than £600m (US$944m) a year in fresh British programming by 2014 – an increase of 50% on its 2011 budget. This led to new dramas including The Tunnel and Penny Dreadful, while Darroch has since vowed that Sky will continue to raise its game towards £1bn a year.
Sky boss Jeremy Darroch
However, whereas Sky's plan was a proactive bid to attract more viewers who weren't interested in its movie or sport channels, Foxtel's own drama investment could not have come at a more critical time for its business. US VoD giant Netflix stepped up its international expansion earlier this year by landing in Australia, hoping to attract subscribers to its own original drama series and, in turn, possibly denting Foxtel's numbers, while other online players including Stan are also up and running.
With drama series now commonly promoted as the flagship content for a television network or platform, the quality – and quantity – of shows is only going up, fuelled by extra investment. This growing competition, across free and pay TV and online, is great news for viewers, who can look forward to hours of new programmes – providing they are willing to pay for it.
tagged in: A Place to Call Home, Australia, Brian Walsh, Foxtel, Investment, Jeremy Darroch, Secret City, Sky, The Kettering Incident, Wentworth
NBC has strong start with This Is Us
Europe seeks scripted formats
Behind the scenes of EST's Broken Pieces
Building on The Bridge: Filmlance's Lars Blomgren on Nordic drama
AMC goes for Broke


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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Home Sports Cricket ICC Cricket World Cup 2019
09:54 PM, June 10, 2019 / LAST MODIFIED: 09:57 PM, June 10, 2019
Lewis confident against 'tough opposition' Bangladesh
Sir Lanka's batting coach Jon Lewis, attends a press conference at Bristol County Ground in Bristol. Photo: AFP.
Star Online Report Star Online Report
Sri Lanka's batting coach Jon Lewis earmarked Bangladesh as a tough opposition against any team but still backed his players ahead of the two sides' encounter in Bristol tomorrow.
Bangladesh have had a couple of good results against the Islanders in recent times. The Tigers had registered a 163-run victory -- their biggest margin victory in ODIs -- when they met during a tri-nation series in Mirpur in January 2018. Even the last time when the two sides had met, in the Asia Cup in September of the same year, Bangladesh won by a whopping 137 runs.
"It will be tough and as you say Bangladesh have had a couple of decent results against Sri Lanka, but you know, this is a World Cup. The situation is very different. I think already, you've seen that maybe World Cup cricket isn't the same as bilateral one-day tournaments. Yeah, no doubt at all that there's a hell of a challenge ahead of us, but we also do have a lot of confidence in the players that we have in our dressing room and a lot of faith in them. So we are still confident," Lewis said during a press conference in Bristol today.
Although Lewis acknowledged Bangladesh to be a tough opposition, the 49-year old was optimistic regarding the positive attitude of Sri Lanka players on the day.
"They are a very good side, there's no doubt about it. They have had a tough start to the World Cup in terms of the fixtures, some difficult ones, but they have obviously put in some good performances. Even in games they haven't won, they have put in good performances which have suggested they are going to be a tough opposition for everybody, so we know that. But our focus will be on us and us being positive on ourselves, and we'll believe even though we know it is a strong opposition, and an opposition that probably has the right to be confident because of the way they have played so far, we'll still be backing ourselves very strongly," Lewis said.
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Jeff received his BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and his MFA in painting and drawing from American University in Washington, D.C. He has also studied at Chautauqua School of Art, The Vermont Studio School, and the Lorenzo di Medici School of Fine Arts in Florence, Italy. His work has been exhibited nationally and has won numerous awards. Jeff began teaching at Ringling in 1998 and became the Head of the Illustration Department in 2012 and was appointed the Dean of Undergraduate Studies in January, 2016. He recently served as the Co-Interim Vice President for Academic Affairs.
Before coming to Ringling, he taught painting at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. He was an original member of sARTq, a grass-roots artists collective that hosted community-based outreach events from 2009 to 2012. Jeff is the proud owner of an excessive number of eclectic bikes and Italian coffee machines. In his free time, he bikes, cooks for friends, and enjoys a good cup of coffee.


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Archive for the 'Media' Category
Local Coverage of AG McMaster Apology Question
Roundup of local South Carolina coverage of the apology we've requested from SC AG Henry McMaster.
Kneejerk Henry Gets McMastered (Fitsnews.com of Charleston, SC)
"We reviewed the Greenville "back page " as well, and it's not even close. Craigslist is like reading a children's book by comparison."
"McMaster is targeting Craigslist for one reason – they've been in the news and he can generate easy headlines by going after them. Oh, and since it's part of his "official duties," that means taxpayers have to pay for his media barrage / frivilous prosecution."
Exclusive: 'Singled out,' Craigslist chief hits back (The State, Columbia, SC)
"I'm anticipating an apology for these wrongful accusations and an affirmative statement that no such proceedings will be brought against me or other CEOs," Buckmaster told The State.
Asked if he believed McMaster was targeting his company for political gain, Buckmaster replied, "You'll have to ask him that."
"I can imagine my mother is not pleased to have me wrongly accused of being a criminal," he said.
Bad Publicity Might Backfire (Independent Mail, Anderson, SC)
McMaster set a deadline for all the ads to be removed and when the deadline went unmet, he issued a statement that he "had no alternative but to move forward with criminal investigation and potential prosecution."
But wait — he does have one alternative: Knock off the publicity ploys and put his efforts toward other concerns, things like scams on the elderly, fake warranty robo-calls and people who prey on others in financial difficulties with "get-out-of-debt" schemes.
Craigslist CEO wants apology from attorney general McMaster(Charleston Regional Business Journal)
"Many prominent companies, including AT&T, Microsoft and Village Voice Media — not to mention major newspapers and other upstanding South Carolina businesses — feature more 'adult services' ads than does Craigslist, some of a very graphic nature," Buckmaster wrote in his blog.
McMaster spokesman Mark Plowden did not return calls this morning for comment.
Craigslist Is Kicking South Carolina's Ass (Fitsnews.com, Charleston, SC)
S.C. Attorney General Henry McMaster's ongoing campaign to make the Palmetto State look as backward as possible has taken a major step forward this week as a popular technology website (Techcrunch) openly mocked South Carolina for its ongoing "battle" with Craigslist.
Remember – the firms that read sites like Tech Crunch are precisely the sort of companies we want to come to South Carolina, especially now that House Speaker Bobby Harrell's whole "hydrogen economy" has come crashing down on top of his head.
Now, thanks to McMaster, they're all laughing at us.
Posted in Media | Comments Off on Local Coverage of AG McMaster Apology Question
South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster today announced that ourrecent improvements, which go far beyond measures he himself personally endorsed with his own signature six months ago, not only aren't good enough, but actually require a criminal investigation:
"As of 5:00 p.m. this afternoon, the craigslist South Carolina site continues to display advertisements for prostitution and graphic pornographic material. This content was not removed as we requested. We have no alternative but to move forward with criminal investigation and potential prosecution."
He evidently feels justified in singling out craigslist for investigation, and publicly condemning me personally as being worthy of criminal prosecution.
Seriously? The craigslist adult services section for Greenville, SC has a total of 1 ad for the last 3 days, featuring a photograph of a fully clothed person. The "erotic services" section for Greenville, which we recently closed, has 8 ads total which will expire in two days, and even for these ads the images and text are quite tame.
Meanwhile, the "adult entertainment" section of greenville.backpage.com(careful with link, NSFW), owned by Village Voice Media, has over 60 ads for the last 3 days, and about 250 in total. In sharp contrast with craigslist, many of these ads are quite explicit, quoting prices for specific sex acts, featuring close-ups of bare genitalia, etc.
Of course, no one in mainstream legal circles thinks either company should be subject to civil suit, let alone a criminal investigation. But if for whatever reason you were so motivated, would you target a venue with 9 PG-13 rated ads, or one with 250 XXX rated ones?
And FWIW, telephone yellow pages and other local print media have both companies beat hands down as adult service ad venues for South Carolina.
Any interest in targeting them for criminal prosecution? Didn't think so.
Update – 1st comment on this entry lists 19 adult ads for 1 day from the Charleston Post and Courier.
Update 2 – 5 pages of escort listings on live.com (owned and operated by Microsoft), click on the "images" tab at the top of the listing page if you want to see photographs (careful NSFW), and note the sponsored "hotel" ads being sold against these listings
Update 3 – 26 escort ads for Myrtle Beach on yellowpages.com (owned and operated by AT&T). Anyone care to count the escort ads in the print yellow pages for major cities in South Carolina?
Posted in Government, Harrassment, Housing, Law Enforcement, Legal, Media, Metrics, People | Comments Off on
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