London-based film sales and finance company WestEnd Films is moving into TV and will be at Mipcom next week with its first small-screen title, “Traitor,” and another Israel-originated project, prison documentary “Megiddo.”
“Traitor,” an eight-part thriller in the making, hails from Amit Cohen, the writer of Israeli drama series “False Flag,” and Ron Leshem (“The Gordin Cell”). The scripted project will follow events after a flight from Tel Aviv to Bangkok vanishes in midair, with no signs of an explosion, crash or hijacking.
A recently blinded intelligence officer whose wife and children were on the flight investigates the mystery. WestEnd Films is developing the project and will produce. It will scout for partners at Mipcom on the scripted project.
“We’re thrilled to be working on ‘Traitor’ with Ron and Amit, who are two extraordinary writers with an impressive track record,” said Maya Amsellem, managing director at WestEnd Films. “They’ve given us the confidence to make our move into TV, and our goal, within the next few years, is to develop and produce three to four shows a year.”
“The series’ uniqueness lies in its characters: Ordinary people who unexpectedly find themselves at the center of an enormous story, celebrities in the limelight, and are then sucked into the investigation without experience or the tools to deal with it,” Leshem and Cohen said in a statement. “False Flag” had similar themes.
Controversial three-part documentary “Megiddo,” directed by Itzik Lerner (“Exodus: The True Story”), follows 1,000 Palestinians held at the Megiddo prison in northern Israel, where they are guarded by 300 Israeli wardens. The inmates include those who planned attacks on Israel, people who assisted assailants, and prisoners who have been given multiple life sentences for their involvement in the murder of Israelis.
Lerner made the documentary after being given unprecedented access to Megiddo over a year and a half. He documents life at the high-security facility and the relationship between the prisoners and wardens, between the Fatah and Hamas leaders in the prison, and between the prison’s overseers.
