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Naples-set prison drama “The Sea Beyond” (“Mare Fuori”) is going global on Netflix in a multi-season deal being touted as an Italian TV milestone.

The young adult show set in a youth detention center overlooking the bay of Naples where male and female inmates contend with being incarcerated, as they explore love and dream of a better life, is a major pop culture phenomenon in Italy where it’s been playing on state broadcaster Rai’s linear and streaming outlets and, subsequently, also on Netflix Italia.

On April 20 “Sea Beyond” dropped globally on the streaming giant following a non-exclusive agreement between Netflix and Germany’s Beta Film which handles she show’s international sales. The deal comprises the series’ four existing seasons plus its next two instalments and also an upcoming “Sea Beyond” prequel feature film titled “Io Sono Rosa Ricci” for which an Italian theatrical release is planned later this year.

Every month, Netflix releases a fresh batch of new and original shows that subscribers enjoy. There are plenty of offerings from different genres to choose from. From comedy to thrillers to reality shows, you can take your pick according to your choice.

In April 2025, Netflix brings an excellent line-up of content to its platform. Alongside the return of popular series, the platform is introducing original films from its own production house. To mix it up, there are some reality shows, offering something for every viewer.

Netflix logo | Credit: Netflix

No matter what you prefer, you are likely to find something worth watching in the month of April. Here is a selection of the top 10 shows on Netflix for April 2025.

The must-watch titles: A quick breakdown A still from You | Credit: Netflix

Netflix hosts a plethora of shows from different genres. Every month, they have something new to present to their subscribers.

Jonathan Swift's classic tale, Gulliver's Travels, has been adapted for the big screen many, many times since movies were invented (like the 1939 animated film seen in the image above). But it looks like ol' Lemuel Gulliver is about to set sail on the small screen, in a new adaptation from the Oscar-nominated Uberto Pasolini. The Italian writer/director/producer is perhaps most well-known for bringing The Full Monty to cinemas, having conceived of the idea that Simon Beaufoy went on to write and Peter Cattaneo then directed. But unlike other, older iterations of the tale, this one is said to lean heavily into the original story's satirical elements.

According to a new report from Variety, British screenwriter William Ivory is slated to pen all six episodes of the project, but that Pasolini will serve as showrunner. The series is being billed as a "high-end show," with an international pedigree...

Oscar-nominated multi-hyphenate Uberto Pasolini – who produced “The Full Monty” and most recently directed “The Return,” starring Ralph Fiennes as Odysseus – has embarked on a TV series adaptation of Jonathan Swift’s classic satirical adventure “Gulliver’s Travels.”

Prominent British writer William Ivory is writing the screenplay for the six-episode project on which Pasolini will serve as showrunner. The high-end show, now in early stages, is being produced by Italy’s Roberto Sessa (“The Sea Beyond”) and Germany’s Jan Wünschmann. It will be unveiled to prospective broadcasters during the Series Mania festival in Lille.

World sales will be jointly handled by Germany’s Beta Film and Zdf Studios.

“What Gulliver allows us to do today is to make something really, really fun,” Pasolini told Variety. But at the same time – very much like Swift did in his time – to talk about the world around us; to talk about politics; to talk...

Since taking over as director of Rai Fiction, the drama section of Italy’s public broadcaster, in 2020, Ammirati has helped Rai get its fiction groove back.

Drawing on her creative expertise as a TV writer, Ammirati has broken new ground with series like the award-winning My Brilliant Friend, the teen drama phenomenon The Sea Beyond and The Count of Monte Cristo, an English-language take on the Alexandre Dumas revenge classic. Well-capitalized global streamers entering the Italian market have forced everyone to raise their game, says Ammirati, but “on the downside, we have experienced a growth in costs… It is a difficult road, but the results have shown that we can make a virtue out of necessity.”

One of THR‘s 2024 Most Powerful Women in International TV, Ammirati shared her secrets for revitalizing a public broadcaster in this age of disruption.

What was your first job in the business?

I started...

As THR unveils its annual list of the most powerful women in international television, the global industry finds itself at a crossroads. It’s been a rough year. Layoffs at nearly every studio and major production company have highlighted the overall contraction in the market and signal a broad shift in priorities away from growth at all costs to a laser focus on the bottom line. Against this backdrop, the executives on this list have had to find ways to do more with less, to restructure their business operations, question long-established practices, and create new ways forward — all without abandoning the core principles of equity and inclusion that got them this far.

As the global entertainment industry continues to evolve, the leadership of these powerful women, and their vision, will be crucial in shaping its future. Jane Turton, CEO of production juggernaut All3Media, has this advice for young women entering the business: “Be yourself.

Investment in Italy’s TV and film sector passed $2B ($2.2B) last year, according to stats revealed here at Mia Market, but alterations to the country’s tax break system could spell change.

The numbers from the Association of Audiovisual Producers’s sixth annual report mean investment has nearly doubled since 2017 and is up €200M. This is an 11% rise on last year’s figure.

However, recently enacted changes to the tax credit system could bring about “significant change and evolution” to the local production sector, APA President Chiara Sbarigia said today.

Overall, the APA painted a broadly positive picture of Italian production, with TV shows remaining the strongest segment. Entertainment and other unscripted genres continue to lead the market, with productions for movies increasing by 21%, video-on-demand platforms by 16%, and TV by 8%. Productions for younger audiences in particular had a strong year, growing 70%.

Employment also grew 3.5% on the previous year, with...

Italy’s True Colours has secured worldwide rights to Italian director Ciro De Caro’s Taxi Monamour, which premieres in competition at Venice Film Festival’s Giornate degli Autori sidebar.

Taxi Monamour is De Caro’s fourth feature, following Giulia, which also debuted in the Venice sidebar in 2021.

The film stars Rosa Palasciano, who was nominated for best actress at the David di Donatello Awards for her role in Giulia, and Ukrainian actress Yeva Sai, a cast member of Italian TV series The Sea Beyond (Mare Fuori).

Taxi Monamour tells the story of Anna, a woman grappling with personal conflicts and illness,...

The TV series that reimagines Angela Merkel as a small-town detective has found a U.S. home.

Kino Lorber’s MHz Choice streamer has picked up Miss Merkel from Fremantle, two 90-minute tongue-in-cheek mysteries, with a third planned.

Starring vet German actress Katharina Thalbach (The Tin Drum), the Rtl series, which has sold to a number of European networks, is based on the books by writer, humorist and actor David Safier. It imagines the former German chancellor moving to a small town with her husband and her pug, Helmut, as she discovers a new calling as an amateur detective. Safier pens the adaptations with Stefan Cantz, with Christoph Schnee directing.

Lance Schwulst, EVP Content Strategy, MHz Choice, said he had “committed to the series before my sales agent had finished her pitch.”

“It’s such an idiosyncratic premise that I knew it had to be right,...

In the Antico Teatro in the Sicilian town of Taormina, the 70th edition of the Taormina Film Festival got off to a lively start, with the Nastri d’Argento Awards ceremony, amid a mix of comedy and controversy.

The comedy was on hand with the loudest applause of the evening going to Carlo Verdone and Christian De Sica (above), two “pillars of Italian comedy” as they were introduced by Pilar Fogliati, star of “Confidenze,” and “Romeo Is Juliet.” Pilar herself was a recipient of her first Nastro d’Argento. The Nino Manfredi awards were given by the late actor’s son and film director Luca Manfredi to Emanuela Fanelli, last seen in Paola Cortellesi’s box office hit “There’s Always Tomorrow” as well as to Claudio Bisio, the actor-director who sent a video message of thanks.

Other absent awardees were Margherita Buy and Oscar-winning director Giuseppe Tornatore who received a special career prize.

Basada en la italiana ‘Mare Fuori’. © Atresplayer

Comienza en Almería el rodaje de “Mar Afuera”, una nueva serie original de Atresplayer, basada en una de las series europeas de mayor éxito internacional de los últimos años, la ficción italiana “Mare Fuori”.

“Mar Afuera” sigue a Álvaro (Gabriel Guevara) y Carlos (Hugo Welzel), dos internos recién llegados a un centro correccional de menores situado junto al mar. Mientras cumplen su condena tendrán que hacer frente a las amenazas de la banda de Los Pajaritos sin perder la esperanza en un futuro cada vez más oscuro. Pero allí dentro también encontrarán el apoyo de internos como Saray (Laura Simón), una joven que prefiere vivir en el centro antes que volver a su problemática vida en el exterior, o de trabajadores como Mario, un hombre que llegará a poner en peligro su propia vida por ayudar a estos chicos.

La serie, compuesta por ocho episodios de 50 minutos,...

Andrea Scrosati, Fremantle’s group COO and CEO for continental Europe, is understandably proud that the company has landed five titles in the Cannes official selection, three of which – “Kinds of Kindness,” by Yorgos Lanthimos, Paolo Sorrentino’s “Parthenope” and Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov’s “Limonov” — are in competition.

The other two are Rungano Nyoni’s “On becoming a Guinea Fowl” and Ariane Labed’s “September Says,” both in Un Certain Regard.

“The incredible diversity of these titles – even in terms of the geographies and cultures they’re based on – is exactly the result of our strategy,” he tells Variety.

Scrosati, who is the architect of Fremantle’s expansion under a business model comprising a cluster of companies across Europe and beyond, discussed how he’s navigating a changing marketplace ahead of Cannes.

It looks like you’re scaling up on the film side. Why?

I think this comes from...

Gabriel Guevara, the breakout star of the huge hit film saga “My Fault” (“Culpa Mía”) on Amazon Prime Video, is now set to lead Atresplayer’s new series, “Mar afuera.” This project marks a significant collaboration between Atresmedia TV and Beta Fiction Spain, taking on the adaptation of the smash Italian series “Mare Fuori,” (“The Sea Beyond”) which added 300,000 new subscribers to Rai Play when Season 3 launched, and sold to over 20 territories.

The eight-episode series follows the life of Álvaro, played by Guevara, a young seventeen year old from an affluent background whose life spirals after an accident finds himself in a juvenile detention center.

Amidst the loss of his privilege and outside passions – such as his beloved piano – he is thrust into a new reality with the diverse clientele of the detention center. A reality hostile to him. Set against the backdrop of a juvenile correctional facility by the sea,...

Fans of international entertainment will want to take another look at MHz Choice today. The service just absorbed another international streamer: Topic. The combined service offers Nordic crime dramas, thrillers and true-crime stories along with the best mysteries, dramas, and comedies from across the globe. You can sample the service with a 7-day Free trial.

7-Day Free Trial $7.99+ / month MHz Choice via amazon.com

Starting today, MHz Choice subscribers can access critically-acclaimed series like Denmark’s “The Killing,” the UK’s “Temple”, Germany’s “Pagan Peak,” Finland’s “Arctic Circle,” and more. Subscribers will also be able to watch more shows with English-language dubbing options.

Popular MHz Choice series include “The Bridge,” “Arctic Circle,” “Spiral,” “Professor T,” “The Sea Beyond,” “The Returned,” “Mongeville,” and “A French Village.”

New Pricing

If you were a MHz Choice subscriber, the price remains $7.99/month, but the annual price actually decreases from $89.99/year to $79.99/year.

If you ware a Topic subscriber,...

Italy’s Indiana Production – which is part of pan-European studio Vuelta Group – is making a significant move into the comedy space by forging a multi-picture deal and a creative collaboration pact with multihyphenate Gennaro Nunziante who has directed top local hits including “Quo Vado” that is the country’s all-time highest grosser.

Nunziante – who is a writer/director and sometimes actor – and Indiana are jointly mounting a pipeline of theatrical movies with smart storylines rooted in present-day social issues that, at least in some cases, will seek to travel outside Italy.

The Indiana comedies strand being shepherded by Nunziante, has two lines of development. One dedicated to established talents, the other to discovering and nurturing up-and-coming comics, including from the stand-up sphere, as well as young comedy writers and creators.

New Italian comedy talents they have recruited comprise the Milan-based comedy group Contenuti Zero who have a broad TV and social media fanbase.

Rtl Group, the European media giant that owns Fremantle, saw revenues and profits slip in the second half of 2023, amid a stubbornly weak market for traditional TV advertising.

Group revenue at Bertelsmann-owned group was down 5.4 percent to €6.2 billion ($6.8 billion), which Rtl attributed to “lower TV advertising revenue and lower Fremantle revenue.” Adjusted profits (Ebita) fell to €782 million ($855 million) from €922 million ($1 billion) over the same period in 2022.

TV ad revenue across the group dropped 8.2 percent year-over-year, a sign that free-to-air television in Europe continues to struggle. Revenue from Rtl’s in-house streaming operations — Rtl+ in Germany and Hungary, and France’s M6+ — were up an impressive 72.6 percent to €283 million ($310 million) from €164 million ($179 million) a year earlier, but the company still booked €179 million ($196 million) in start-up losses for its streaming operations.

Rtl said it currently has 5.6 million paying subscribers across its German, French and Hungary SVOD services and hopes to hit...

Kino Lorber’s MHz Choice and Topic will merge into one streaming service, the company announced.

The combined product will become the exclusive U.S. streaming home of hit German series “Babylon Berlin” starting in April. As of Feb. 29, the series is no longer available in the country on Netflix, which previously held the U.S. streaming rights.

Co-created, written and directed by Tom Twyker, Achim von Borries and Hendrik Handloegten, “Babylon Berlin” is based on the novels by Volker Kutscher and distributed by Beta Film. The fourth season of the drama, which has not been available for streaming in North America before, will land on the new service June 25.

Along with “Babylon Berlin,” MHz Choice and Topic’s combined lineup will include “The Killing,” “The Bridge,” “Detective Montalbano,” “The Sea Beyond,” “Pagan Peak,” “A French Village,” “Spiral,” “Beck” and “Murder In.”

Current MHz Choice and Topic subscribers will be...

Babylon Berlin has landed a new U.S. home on a newly-merged streaming service created as Kino Lorber’s MHz Choice and Topic combine.

The boutique streamer will be named MHz Choice and feature the likes of The Killing, The Bridge, Detective Montalbano, The Sea Beyond and Pagan Peak, alongside the popular Babylon Berlin, which moves over from Netflix after three seasons on that streamer.

Kino Lorber said the new streamer will “combine the best European dramas and mysteries with Nordic noir crime and thrillers under the MHz Choice brand.”

The Four Daughters distributor owns MHz Choice and Topic, the latter of which in a Jv with First Look Media under which Kino has a majority stake and management oversight. The news comes a few weeks after we revealed layoffs at First Look production subsidiary Topic Studios.

Viaplay has also exited the U.S. following a disastrous 12 months that has...

Kino Lorber’s streaming platform MHz Choice is merging with First Look Media’s Topic platform to create a single North American streamer, operating under the MHz Choice brand, specializing in international series and films for the domestic market.

Kino Lorber and First Look Media launched a joint venture in 2022 that bundled their streaming activities. The new agreement will fold both MHz Choice and Topic into a single platform.

Kino Lorber Chief Operating Officer Martha Benyam will oversee the new combined service, with Lisa Schwartz, Kino Lorber Chief Revenue Officer, overseeing distribution and partnerships, Executive Vice President, Content Strategy Lance Schwulst continuing to oversee programming and Monica Bloom, who joined Kino Lorber from Topic, continuing to serve as Chief Marketing Officer.

The new service has secured exclusive North American rights to award-winning German period series Babylon Berlin from sales group Beta Film and will stream all four seasons of the show.

Global production giant Fremantle is still hungry. On Tuesday the Bertelsmann-controlled group signed a deal for another major acquisition, entering into a conditional purchase agreement to take control of Asacha Media Group, a private-equity-backed company that owns several high-profile production companies in the U.K., France, and Italy.

The acquisition of Asacha Media Group follows Fremantle’s recent deal to take an 80 percent stake in Singapore-based TV group Beach House Pictures. The investment in the two companies will cost Fremantle parent company Rtl Group $217 million (€200 million), Rtl Group said Tuesday.

Asacha’s production portfolio includes France’s Srab Films, producer of Venice winner Happening and official French Oscar contenders Les Misérables and Saint Omar; Picomedia, producer of hit Italian drama series The Sea Beyond; and British group Red Planet Pictures, known for such series as Death in Paradise and Life on Mars. Other Asacha-owned companies part of the Fremantle...

Fremantle has inked a deal to acquire Asacha Media Group from Oaktree Capital Management L.P.

Paris-headquartered Asacha houses eight labels in the U.K., France and Italy. They are Kabo Family (France), Mintee (France), Srab Films (France), Picomedia (Italy), Stand By Me (Italy), Arrow Media (United Kingdom), Red Planet Pictures (U.K.) and Wag (U.K.).

Co-Founder and group CEO Gaspard de Chavagnac will continue to run the company, reporting to Fremantle’s group COO and CEO for continental Europe Andrea Scrosati. Scrosati spearheaded the acquisition (which is subject to closing conditions) as part of Fremantle’s investment strategy.

Asacha’s labels will report to de Chavagnac, who founded Asacha in 2020 alongside Marc-Antoine d’Halluin and Marina Williams.

In just a few years the company has become one of Europe’s leading television and film production groups. Its output includes “Death in Paradise,” “Mare Fuori,” “Saimt Omer” and “Magic of Disney‘s Animal Kingdom,...

Two heavyweights of German television and film are uniting.

Nico Hofmann and Jan Mojto are teaming with Jan Wünschmann, a producer at Mojto’s company Beta, to create films and TV series in Germany and Europe. Projects will be targeted at the international market.

Hofmann, was the longtime boss of German production giant UFA, and Mojto said they are “connected by half a lifetime of producing” title such as TV event series The Tunnel in the early 2000s and newer series such as Generation War, Dresden, The Tower and The Same Sky.

“Jan Mojto and I have been close colleagues and friends for more than 20 years – our eye for programming, uncompromising quality, and passion for our profession unites us,” said Hofmann. “It is the next logical step in my career to join forces and produce together with Beta Film. The individuals and their creativity are the building blocks for a long-lasting bond.

Iconic German film and TV executive Jan Mojto is launching a partnership with longstanding friend and UFA head Nico Hofmann that will produce German and European series and films for the international market.

They are joined in the unnamed venture by Beta producer Jan Wünschmann.

The partnership was announced Wednesday, on the eve of the annual Berlin Film Festival. No projects were disclosed.

Hofmann and Mojto are connected by half a lifetime of producing. With “The Tunnel”, the duo pioneered the TV event genre in Germany in the early 2000s. Since then, two dozen collaborative and internationally successful television and film productions have followed. These include hits “Generation War,” “Dresden,” “The Tower” and “The Same Sky.”

“This partnership is the fulfillment of a long-held wish. Nico Hofmann is one of the best German producers; He is a gifted storyteller. His professional and personal qualities, which I have known for more than 25 years,...

Exclusive: The Sea Beyond stars Giacomo Giorgio and Serena de Ferrari are among several Italian actors who have boarded Rai’s ambitious opera drama Bel Canto, which went into production this week.

Notably, Caterina Ferioli (The Tearsmith) and Adriana Savarese have landed the key roles as teenage sisters Carolina and Antonia, whose close friendship is tested by desires to become Italian opera singers.

Vincenzo Ferrera, another The Sea Beyond actor, has also joined the cast, alongside Andrea Bosca, Nicolo Pasetti, Carmine Ricarno (Loose Cannons), and Antonio Gerardi.

The series is among the highest profile drama series coming to of Europe this year. Production on the €15M ($16.3M) budget series began yesterday, with filming set to to take place in Naples, Rome and other parts of Italy such as the town of Pavia in Lombardia. France...

For those who’ve had their fill of Hallmark movies and more traditional seasonal fare, The Hollywood Reporter‘s annual list of the best in international TV offers some binge alternatives for the lazy days between Christmas and New Year’s. There’re nary a Santa or sleighbells to be found among our picks of foreign series fare, but fans of global TV will find plenty to chew on over the holidays, whether it’s a political thriller set in Senegal, a Korean drama about mental health, or a bizarre Danish comedy-soap from an old arthouse master.

Colin from Accounts (Watch on: Paramount+) Patrick Brammall and Harriet Dyer in ‘Colin From Accounts.’

This charming and disarmingly cringe Aussie rom-com kicks off with one of the most original meet-cutes in the genre: Gordon (Patrick Brammall) stops his car to let Ashley (Harriet Dyer) cross the street. In a cheeky thank you,...

After two pandemic years and a successful 2022 edition back in full swing, Lucca Comics & Games — Europe’s biggest geek meet, second in size globally only to Tokyo’s Comiket — is set to unspool again in the picturesque Tuscan town from Nov. 1-5. In the turbulent times of the SAG-AFTRA strike, the gathering will offer its 80,000 daily visitors a slew of movies, series, comics, games, video games, concerts and live events.

“We’re the only festival in the world having a red carpet and a large cinema-focused component that is not primarily a film festival. Lucca is a great hybrid event,” Lucca chief Emanuele Vietina tells Variety ahead of the event’s launch.

The big star of Day One will be Michel Gondry, who will attend the opening ceremony and host a masterclass covering his body of work, including his latest, “The Book of Solutions.”

Giovanni Cova, head of the entertainment...

Nicolas Maupas and Massimiliano Caiazzo in “The Sea Beyond.” Courtesy of MHzChoice

“The Sea Beyond” is an Italian TV drama, mostly set in a detention facility for teens who’ve run afoul of the law. Inmates include both genders but they’re kept mostly in separate areas. It plays out as something of an under-18 soap opera, with a few romances and multiple arenas of violence among a large ensemble cast of principals.

The course of their current incarceration experiences is inter-cut with flashbacks to the preceding events that landed them in the pokey. Most of their criminal behavior seems to result from abusive fathers and father-figures, multi-generational grudges between rival crime families, and the temptations of drugs and thievery for an easy path out of poverty. Plus the desire for respect from their peers and some elders.

The primary focus is on two young men – rich kid, Filippo (Nicolas...

Bye-bye, Peak TV. After more than a decade of unprecedented production growth, the international television industry is bracing for an era of tighter budgets and more bean counting.

“Instead of subscriber growth at all costs, now the focus is on production and investment and getting the balance sheet right,” says Cathy Payne, CEO of Banijay Rights, the sales arm of the production giant behind reality TV hits Big Brother and high-end dramas Peaky Blinders and Black Mirror. “I hate using the phrase because everyone says it, but the focus now is on ‘fewer, better, bigger shows.’ ”

The variety of shows on offer at this year’s global TV market in Cannes, MIPCOM, suggests every buyer, at every budget, should find something to fill their slots. And while THR’s annual hot list of the market’s best new drama series ranges from a by-the-book NBC procedural to an erotic comedy...

While Hollywood writers are back at work, media companies have suspended negotiations with striking actors over a new contract. Even if talks resume and a settlement were to happen soon, however, it would likely be early 2024 before the two dozen or so dramas and comedies that normally premiere in the fall make it back onto screens.

As luck would have it, though, the era of peak streaming provides a nearly limitless array of series to watch. Below are a handful of new or recent lesser-known shows, many of them from outside the United States, on smaller streaming platforms (and one over-the-air network) that can help viewers fill in gaps in their viewing schedules while waiting for homegrown favorites to return. One bonus: None of the shows below are produced by companies against whom Hollywood’s unions are or were striking this year. Unless noted, all the streamers below offer seven-day...

Our appointment is set for 3 p.m. in the Piazza Mercato, in the heart of Naples, on a hot September day that feels like August. It’s a sunny, deserted and silent square, where three big trucks and two vans are parked. The crew is busy preparing the scene. The grips, working in religious silence, position the camera on a dolly for a tracking shot. We are on the set of The Sea Beyond, season four of the hit series produced by Rai Fiction and Picomedia, about the lives of a group of kids in juvenile prison. The show has been the most successful ever on Rai’s streaming platform, with the first three seasons — which are now also available on Netflix in Italy — generating 220 million views (in a country with a population of 60 million).

We are greeted by director Ivan Silvestrini. This, he says, gesturing to the grips setting up the dolly,...

Exclusive: Italian production and distribution stalwart Lucky Red is teaming with local pubcaster Rai on drama series Belcanto, about the roots of opera in Italy.

The ambitious drama is set to star Vittoria Puccini (The Trial) and be directed by Carmine Elia (The Sea Beyond). Newen Connect will be handling international sales.

We understand the series is aiming for a budget in the €15M range. Additional casting is underway, including for two more prominent actress roles.

Belcanto was first pitched at Berlin’s co-pro series market last year. Co-created by Mariano Di Nardo, Antonio Manca and Federico Fava, the drama is set in 1798, as 14-year-old Carolina, her 17-year-old sister Antonia and their mother Maria seek refuge in the city of Milan after stabbing their violent father to death.

The elder sister dreams of becoming a renowned singer, much as her mother once hoped for when she was the girl’s age.

“The Sea Beyond,” the Naples-set prison drama that has become a pop culture phenomenon in Italy, has been bought by U.S. streamer MHz Choice for North America.

Represented in international markets by Beta Film, all four seasons of the drama will premiere exclusively on MHz Choice, with the first season premiering this fall in the U.S. and Canada.

“The Sea Beyond,” which airs on public broadcaster Rai’s Rai Play streaming platform, follows Filippo (Nicolas Maupas) and Carmine (Massimiliano Caiazzo) as their resilience and loyalties are tested while serving time in a juvenile detention center on the Gulf of Naples. As Variety reported earlier this year, the third season of the show scored record-breaking ratings just as previous installments played in more than 20 international territories. Rai Play is believed to have gained roughly 300,000 new subscribers as Season 3 kicked off. The series was created by Cristiana Farina, who co-wrote the script with Maurizio Careddu.

The Filming Italy Sardegna Festival that kicks off Italy’s summer moviegoing season will play a prominent role in the ongoing push to lure Italians back into movie theaters, just as the country’s box office is starting to gain traction.

A robust roster of talents from Hollywood and Italy and a solid lineup of premieres are booked for this event, which combines film and TV and unspools June 22-25 in the Forte Village resort near Cagliari, capital of Sardegna (Sardinia in English). The fest is set to take place just as the Italian government starts to invest €20 million ($22 million) to promote moviegoing through a campaign called Cinema Revolution, under which cinema tickets will be half-price for a limited time.

“While in past years I struggled to find films, this time around I have 50 titles,” notes Tiziana Rocca, the marketing guru and former Taormina Film Festival chief who launched the Sardinia event six years ago.

Season 6 of Canadian cop show “Hudson & Rex,” one of the world’s most successful television brands, has been given the greenlight. The new season has been added to the sales slate of Beta Film at next week’s MipTV television conference and market in Cannes.

The canine star of the police procedural, German Shepherd Diesel, who plays Rex, will walk the pink carpet on Sunday at TV series festival Canneseries, which runs in parallel with MipTV. He will be joined by John Reardon, who plays detective Charlie Hudson. The crime fighting duo are presenting the French premiere of the first episode of Season 4, followed by a Q&a with the talent.

“Hudson & Rex,” which is produced by Shaftesbury and Pope Productions for Citytv, was first unleashed in Austria in the 1990s under the title “Rex, the Cop’s Best Friend.” It is one of Beta’s most successful series,...

Exclusive: Non-English language drama streamer Walter Presents has acquired a package of five drama titles from Beta for release on its services in Australia and New Zealand.

The titles include Italian YA drama The Sea Beyond, Spanish investigative drama Rapa and German WWII miniseries The Turncoat.

The Sea Beyond, revolving around young inmates in a Naples prison, has enjoyed strong ratings in Italy on Rai, RaiPlay and Netflix since its launch in late 2020. The third season is currently enjoying linear success on Rai2.

Rapa, which was the most watched show on Spanish streamer Movistar Plus+ in 2022, follows a high school teacher and local police officer in the Spanish port city of Ferrol, who form an unlikely team in solving a murder case.

Two-part, event mini-series The Turncoat is about a young German soldier in 1944, who is posted to a small unit in the Polish woods, where he connects with local...

Naples-set prison drama “Mare Fuori” (“The Sea Beyond”) is becoming a major pop culture phenomenon in Italy where the third season of the show is scoring record-breaking ratings just as previous instalments play in more than 20 international territories.

“The Sea Beyond” is set in a youth detention center overlooking the bay of Naples where male and female inmates contend with being incarcerated as they explore love and dream of a better life. Since dropping on Feb. 1 on public broadcaster Rai’s Rai Play streaming platform, Season 3 has scored more than 22 million visualizations in its first week, 8 million of which were within the first day. That is more than 20 times the result of the show’s second season when it launched in 2021. Rai Play, which is a free video-on-demand service, on average pulls no more than 3.5 million visualizations daily.

Significantly, Rai Play gained roughly 300,000 new subscribers on the first day of the “Sea Beyond” launch,...

Naples-set young adult series “The Sea Beyond,” which depicts the world of a juvenile jail in the crime-ridden Italian city, is scoring a slew of international sales prompted by its phenomenal ratings on pubcaster Rai.

Germany’s Beta Film, which is selling the show about kids behind bars produced by Rome-based Picomedia and Rai Fiction, has inked deals with WarnerMedia Latin America for HBO Max, Sweden’s free-to-air channel TV4, cabler Hot for Israel, and streamer Blu TV in Turkey.

The deals mark a rare case of an Italian young adult series traveling abroad.

Set in a youth detention center overlooking the bay of Naples, “The Sea Beyond” depicts a world populated by kids apparently without hope, “given that they mostly belong to [the Camorra] organized crime syndicate that Naples is known for,” said Picomedia chief Roberto Sessa, who added that the show also has “all the color and vitality of that city.

Production is set to start next week on pan-European TV series “Survivors,” the latest project commissioned by the partnership known as The Alliance between leading European public broadcasters to counter the growing power of Netflix and other streamers.

The plan is for cameras to start rolling in Genoa on Oct. 21 on the series revolving around a sailboat that gets destroyed in a fierce storm and disappears. After a year the wreck is recovered with seven survivors aboard, some of whom seem to be hiding a terrible secret. Each episode follows the complex events related to their return.

The start of principal photography on “Survivors” was announced on Friday during Rome’s Mia market.

Italy’s Rai Fiction, France Télévisions, and Germany’s Zdf are on board the show, which is produced by Fabienne Servan-Schreiber and Thomas Saignes at Paris-based Cinetevé and by Marco Poccioni and Marco Valsania at Italian shingle Rodeo Drive.

Beta Film’s drama “The Turncoat,” which was just honored as best TV movie at the Seoul Intl. Drama Awards, has scored a series of territory deals, including the U.S.

The German miniseries, based on the bestseller by Siegfried Lenz and directed by Florian Gallenberger, winner of the Oscar for best live-action short, was sold around the world. Among others buyers include MHz Networks (U.S.), AMC Networks (Latin America), 1Hdtv and Mts (Russia), Npo (Netherlands), Rtp (Portugal), and Filmin (Spain).

Viasat World acquired “The Turncoat” for Epic Drama across Central and Eastern Europe. It is also going to be broadcast on Nrk (Norway), Yle (Finland), Dr (Denmark) and Svt (Sweden).

“The Turncoat” tells the story of the young German soldier Walter, who is posted to a unit in the Polish woods in 1944, surrounded by partisans. He is soon torn between a sense of duty, guilt and his conscience,...