News

Fremantle and its Singapore-based production company Beach House Pictures said Thursday at the Asia TV Forum & Market that they are partnering with Vietnam‘s Anh Teu Studio on a film adaptation of Dumb Luck (So do), Vietnamese author Vu Trọng Phụng’s acclaimed 1936 satirical novel.

Filmmaker Phan Gia Nhat Linh (Em Va Trinh, The Girl From Yesterday, Sweet 20) will write and direct the feature adaptation, with Lê Thanh Phong, Yuno Choi and Vu Quynh Ha signed on to produce. Popular Vietnamese signer Mono will play the story’s memorable lead role of Red-Haired Xuan.

The production companies’ official story summary for the project reads: “Dumb Luck is set in 1930s Vietnam, a period marked by significant social transformations when the country experienced the final years of French colonial rule and the emergence of Vietnamese nationalist and reformist movements, coinciding with the growing influence of global consumer culture. The film follows...

Fremantle’s Singapore production company Beach House Pictures, and Vietnam’s Anh Teu Studio are partnering on the adaptation of Vũ Trọng Phụng’s 1936 Vietnamese satirical novel Dumb Luckheadlined byVietnamese pop star Mono.

Phan Gia Nhật Linh, whose credits include The Girl From Yesterday and Sweet 20, will write the screenplay and direct the story set in 1930s Vietnam during the twilight years of French colonial rule andthe emergence of Vietnamese nationalist and reformist movements.

It follows the exploits of unscrupulous Red-Haired Xuân as he rises from poverty to the pinnacle of society and becomes the poster child of the country’s Europeanisation movement.

Fremantle, Beach House Pictures, and Anh Teu Studio are partnering on the adaptation of Vũ Trọng Phụng’s 1936 Vietnamese satirical novel Dumb Luckheadlined byVietnamese pop star Mono.

Phan Gia Nhật Linh, whose credits include The Girl From Yesterday and Sweet 20, will write the screenplay and direct the story set in 1930s Vietnam during the twilight years of French colonial rule andthe emergence of Vietnamese nationalist and reformist movements.

It follows the exploits of unscrupulous Red-Haired Xuân as he rises from poverty to the pinnacle of society and becomes the poster child of the country’s Europeanisation movement.

The novel was...

Exclusive: Here are a couple of exclusive images of Inglourious Basterds star Diane Kruger in buzzy Paramount+ series Little Disasters.

Cannes Award-winning actor Kruger plays Jess in the adaptation of the Sarah Vaughan novel. When she takes her baby daughter to hospital with a head injury that she can’t explain, her close friend and on-duty A&e doctor Liz must make the excruciating decision of whether to call social services on her longtime friend. This decision sets in motion a chain of events that show how one moment can fracture and nearly destroy entire families and friendships. The show also stars Jo Joyner, Patrick Baladi (Ted Lasso), Shelley Conn, Emily Taaffe, JJ Feild, Ben Bailey Smith and Stephen Campbell Moore.

Diane Kruger and JJ Field in Little Disasters. Image: Roughcut / Paramount Global / Kristóf Galgóczi Németh

Kruger has had far more movie roles than TV but she did play Detective Sonya Cross in FX’s version of The Bridge last decade. The German actor, who broke out in 2004’s epic war film Troy, was described as an “intelligent and dynamic actress, whose sheer presence brings with it a unique quality that leaves you inspired” by Little Disasters director Eva Sigurdardottir.

“Attaching Diane allowed me to explore sides of Jess’ character in deeper ways than I had anticipated,” she added. “Little Disasters is a story of a warm and loving mother who is hiding a dark secret, and Diane navigated that character so elegantly, with relatable and warm performances, as well as truly haunting and thrilling moments.”

That relatability attracted Sigurdardottir to Little Disasters, she told us, along with a “tension and thriller engine rooted in very relatable and familiar domestic settings.”

“I am a filmmaker who is drawn to brutally real and gritty stories, and here we had a glamorous and aspirational setting, yet with a terrifying central conflict – a hurt child,” she added.

Marianna Abbotts is exec producing for Big Boys producer Roughcut TV, which has recently moved into drama. She said she “fell in love with” Vaughan’s novels after reading Anatomy of a Scandal. “Sarah often writes about professional women who are forced to make impossible decisions. At the heart of Little Disasters is a really difficult moral dilemma when one friend is forced to call social services on another,” she added.

To aid with tackling these sensitive topics, the Roughcut team worked closely with Vaughan along with multiple advisors. “We wanted to portray the issues in the book accurately and it was extremely important to get that right,” said Abbotts. “We consulted medical, police and social service advisers who guided us with accuracy and sensitivity while understanding the need to tell a dramatic story.”

Little Disasters is a six-part series for Paramount+ UK and Ireland. Ruth Fowler and Amanda Duke adapted the series for the screen with Roughcut Television EPs Ash Atalla, Alex Smith and Abbotts on board alongside Vaughan. Simon Judd EPs for Fremantle, Sigurdardottir is the director and Myf Hopkins serves as the producer. The series was commissioned by Sebastian Cardwell and Paul Testar and will premiere next year. Fremantle is handling global sales.

Filming on Channel 4‘s new crime thriller In Flight, starring Katherine Kelly, is underway.

The new six-part series follows Kelly (Mr Bates vs the Post Office, The Long Shadow) as Jo, a flight attendant who finds her life turned upside down when she is blackmailed into drug smuggling when her son is arrested.

Co-created by Mike Walden (Marcella, Whitstable Pearl) and Adam Randall (Slow Horses, iBoy), and directed by Chris Baugh (Wreck, Tin Star), the show will also star Stuart Martin, Ashley Thomas, Bronagh Waugh, Harry Cadby, Corinna Brown and Ambreen Razia.

Set in Bangkok, Bulgaria, Istanbul and London, filming takes place in Belfast with funding support from Northern Ireland Screen.

“I am really excited to be taking on the role of Jo and I can’t wait to tell her compelling story,” Kelly said. “I am delighted to be working with Buccaneer Media again and it’s joy to be filming in Belfast.

Exclusive: UK network Channel 4 has boarded a crime drama starring Katherine Kelly about a single mother who is blackmailed into smuggling drugs.

Filming on the six-part In Flight is underway, with Kelly playing an air hostess who is forced to take desperate measures after her son is arrested. Alongside Channel 4, Prosieben has acquired rights to Germany, Sbs for Australia and Tvnz for New Zealand. Fremantle is handling international distribution.

Mike Walden and Adam Randall are the writers and Chris Baugh is the director. Buccaneer Media is producing.

Kelly’s character, Jo Conran, is a single mother whose son is serving a 15-year sentence in a Bulgarian prison for a murder he swears not to have committed. When she approached by a gang who knows all about her situation, she is blackmailed...

Diane Kruger and Jo Joyner will lead Paramount+ UK & Ireland’s latest drama series, Little Disasters.

The pair will play friends Jess and Liz in the “tense and compelling” six-part psychological thriller, which also stars Shelley Conn and Emily Taaffe. It is adapted from Anatomy of a Scandal writer Sarah Vaughan’s novel of the same name and billed as an exploration of female friendships and motherhood.

The four actresses play four friends who were thrown together while expectant mothers with little in common apart from their due dates. When Jess takes her baby daughter to hospital with a head injury she can’t explain, close friend and on-duty A&e doctor Liz is forced to make the excruciating decision as to whether to call social services on her friend. The decision sets...

In today’s Global Bulletin, The Apartment and Castlefield team on “Death at SeaWorld” series adaptation, Series Mania opens the call for series and projects, MTV U.K. commissions “Celebs on the Farm,” Love Nature announces streaming plans for “Nature of the Beast,” and ViacomCBS Networks Intl. promotes long-time exec Wincie Knight.

Series

Fremantle companies The Apartment (“The Young Pope”) and recently launched Castlefield have scooped the rights to David Kirby’s popular book “Death at SeaWorld,” and will produce a 10-part series headed by showrunner Simon Allen.

The Apartment’s Lorenzo Mieli will produce along with Hilary Martin and Simon Judd for Castlefield, with shooting planned for late 2021. The book and series draw on investigations done ahead of the 2013 BAFTA-nominated documentary “Blackfish,” and the real-life story of SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau, who was killed by a captive killer whale during a performance.

“‘Death at SeaWorld’ will not only be...

Fremantle firms The Apartment and Castlefield have secured rights to David Kirby’s book Death At SeaWorld and plan to turn it into a ten-part drama series with showrunner Simon Allen (Das Boot).

Inspired by a true story, the book draws on events that preceded the award-winning documentary Blackfish, charting five characters whose lives intertwine then collide with the 2010 death of all-American SeaWorld poster girl by the captive killer whale Tilikum.

The rights were secured by The Young Pope and My Brilliant Friend producer Lorenzo Mieli for The Apartment and by UK producers Hilary Martin and Simon Judd for Castlefield. Production is intended to begin late 2021.

The deal was brokered on behalf of Kirby by Allison Warren and Todd Shuster of Aevitas Creative Management.

Lorenzo Mieli said: “Death At SeaWorld will not only be a searingly relevant prestige television event but also an inspiring rallying call to protect the beauty...

Fremantle’s UK drama production outfit Castlefield has secured the TV rights to Cara Hunter’s bestselling crime novels, featuring Detective Inspector Adam Fawley.

Castlefield is yet to find a home for the adaptation, but is developing a series based on Hunter’s four books, which have topped The Sunday Times and Amazon bestseller lists in the UK.

Each novel follows Di Fawley as he investigates a domestic tragedy or crime that demands answers from the victim’s family and friends. In the first book, Close To Home, he looks into the disappearance of an eight-year-old girl from a family party.

Hunter said: “I’ve always ‘seen’ the Fawley books play out in my head as I write them, and the style I developed for them was a deliberate attempt to replicate the feel and pace of the best TV crime – the short scenes, the fast pace, and the changing points of view.