Following the inaugural Canneseries festival and with the MipTV trade fare coming to a close, Variety looks back at some of the key television deals and announcements impacting the Croisette:
SCRIPTED
*In the biggest production news of the market, “The Wire’s” David Simon and Spain’s Mediapro announced they are in co-development on a new Simon series project, “A Dry Run,” about Abraham Lincoln Battalion members fighting fascism in the Spanish Civil War.
*In Canneseries’ highest-profile sales deal, France’s Canal Plus announced it had acquired Phoebe Waller Bridge’s Canneseries’ competition favorite “Killing Eve.” HBO Europe also snapped up the show across Central and Eastern Europe, Iberia, and Scandinavia.
*One of the biggest drama announcements of the week saw Beta Film and Red Bull Media House announce they were teaming to develop a five-season, high-end soccer drama called “The Net.” Inspired by true events, each season will comprise eight episodes with production expected to commence in 2019/2020.
*In a busy MipTV for Beta Film the German company also announced that it would partner with the Middle East’s O3 Productions to develop and co-produce multiple series from the Middle East and North Africa that bridge the Arab and European worlds; Beta revealed new deals on hit high-end German drama “Babylon Berlin” for Africa and India; and, ahead of the market grabbed up international rights to another high-end period drama, French production: “Victor Hugo – Enemy of the State.”
*Meanwhile Starz snapped up U.S. rights on a trio of European dramas from Beta Film, including Spain’s noirish fantasy thriller “La Zona,” Italian crime series “Rocco Schiavone” and German period epic “Maximilian and Marie de Bourgogne.”
*Canneseries kicked off with news that Amazon Prime Video had acquired second-run rights to Italian competition entry “The Hunter” from Rai as part of a content package of Rai shows for Amazon local platform.
*Studiocanal unveiled multiple international sales on Danish drama “Ride Upon the Storm” with M-Net in Africa, SBS in Australia and TVNZ in New Zealand as well as five European territories.
*Federation Entertainment secured second-window worldwide distribution rights to another Canneseries competition premiere, “Undercover,” in a deal in the build-up to MipTV. Netflix has first window for most of the world. Federation also has first-window rights to the Flemish crime thriller in France.
*BBC Studios scored a coup selling its high-profile and controversial Russian mob drama “McMafia” to Russia. Despite objections to the series from Russian authorities, it was acquired by local free-TV channel Friday.
*FremantleMedia boarded Middle East drama “Fertile Crescent,” created by Maria Feldman, to co-develop, co-produce and handle global distribution.
*Viacom-owned U.K. broadcaster Channel 5 acquired U.K. rights to eOne’s “Designated Survivor,” starring Kiefer Sutherland.
*ITV Studios Global Entertainment secured a raft of European sales on the upcoming ITV and Amazon adaptation of “Vanity Fair,” starring Olivia Cooke, including to Movistar+ in Spain.
*ZDF Enterprises closed European sales on a slew of premium dramas including French sales of Italian cop drama “Maltese” to France 3 and the final season of Scandi crime hit “The Bridge” to Canal+.
*Tele München Group has enjoyed robust sales on its English-language adaptation of Umberto Eco’s “The Name of the Rose.” The Italian production sold to Sky for German-speaking Europe and Orange in France among other European sales.
*AMC bought up streaming rights in several markets to Brazilian series “Jailers” and “Supermax,” from broadcast network Globo, with “Jailers” to launch on the Sundance Now service while “Supermax” heads to genre platform Shudder in North America, U.K./Ireland, Germany-speaking Europe.
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*Fox announced that its singing competition format “The Four” had been optioned for 18 international versions, including in Russia, France, Italy and Australia.
*The big news of the final day saw Banijay Group confirm the merger of production company Brainpool and the group’s existing German production operation into a new operation, Banijay Germany, under the stewardship of Marcus Wolter.
*A busy MipTV for Banijay Group also saw it announce the launch of Banijay Asia, a 50:50 joint venture with former Deepak Dhar, the former managing director of Endemol Shine India.
*The inaugural Buyers’ Coup de Coeur Award at the MipDrama Buyer’s Summit was awarded to female-driven Nordic political thriller “Bullets,” produced by Vertigo, Nadcon and Belgium’s Lunanime/Lumière.
*EOne made made its first acquisition of a U.K.-based television production company, with the acquisition of a majority stake in British non-scripted specialist Whizz Kid Entertainment.
*All3Media International announced it would be co-producing its first non-English language drama project with Swedish thriller “Blinded.” Sweden’s FLX is producing.
