News

The national broadcaster Rai is turning Mario Tobino’s novel Le Libere Donne di Magliano into a television series in Italy. Set in a Tuscan psychiatric institution during WWII, the drama promises to delve into themes of women’s resilience and societal problems. The series, produced by Endemol Shine Italy and Rai Fiction, stars Lino Guanciale, Grace Kicaj, Gaia Messerklinger, and Fabrizio Biggio in leading roles. Endemol Italy’s head, Leonardo Pasquinelli, praised the project as “a powerful narrative of resilience, freedom, and self-worth,” underlining its historical and contemporary relevance.

The international television market is brimming with activity. At the Unifrance TV Export Awards in Paris, various productions were recognized for their brilliance. Newen Connect’s art heist drama Cat’s Eyes gained critical acclaim, with CEO Rodolphe Buet applauding its high-quality storytelling and bold vision.

In Australia, Sbs made waves by acquiring a sizable collection of international content from Beta Film.

Signalling one of the biggest European packages to hit Monday’s Mipcom, “Mozart/Mozart,” the latest big series swing from Germany’s Story House Pictures, behind Beta Film/Rtl mega-hit “Sisi,” has been boarded by Germany’s Ard and its Austrian public broadcaster counterpart Orf.

In further news, Clara Zoë My-Linh von Arnim, co-director of “The Zweiflers,” this year’s Canneseries best series and German TV Awards winner, is set to helm the series.

Based on one of Europe’s largest IPs and now backed by Ard, the biggest of Europe’s public broadcasters, “Mozart/Mozart” is created by Andreas Gutzeit – co-founder of Story House Pictures, the international studio of the Bavaria Film Group, and producer and showrunner on “Sisi” – and Swantje Oppermann, a staff writer on “Dignity” and a Story House development executive.

Bavaria Media International will bring the six-part show to market at Mipcom.

“Mozart/Mozart” is part inspired by historical fact.

Having hit new highs in 2023 and 2024, staging world premieres of Apple TV+’s “Silo” and “Franklin,” Amazon’s “Dead Ringers” and Disney+’s “Becoming Karl Lagerfeld,” Canneseries, one of Europe’s most prominent festivals, is looking to build its industry heft for its 2025 eighth edition but only second standalone event without a MipTV or Mipcom running aside the TV festival.

Season 8 of Canneseries, as its organizers call the 2025 eighth edition, runs April 24-29 on the Croisette.

In its biggest move, Canneseries will power up its program for professionals launched in 2020 and featuring both its already established Canneseries Writers Club and a Producers Club, targeting commissioners, program managers, producers, distributors, directors of private or public TV channels and platform directors.

Canneseries will now develop a bouquet of clubs – networking and discussion forums – under an Canneseries Industry umbrella, Benoît Louvet, Canneseries managing director, told Variety.

First up are new composers, technicians, casting directors and students clubs.

London-based sales outfit Canoe Film is making its debut in series global distribution with “Mutiny,” a Latvian war drama and call to action against the Russian totalitarian regime, set to officially launch at Mipcom in Cannes.

The brain behind the seven-part series “Mutiny” is Andrejs Ēķis, the Latvian mogul and founder of the major prodco and filming facility Cinevilla Studios which housed Beta Film’s “Sisi” and the Shudder original genre pic “Raven’s Hollow.”

Ēķis serves as director-producer of the intense drama, penned by Latvia’s Ivo Briedis, together with Ukrainian duo Vitaly Dokalenko and Anastasiia Dudchenko.

As explained by Ēkis, the story of Captain Valery Spagin and his attempted mutiny aboard a Soviet warship, is based on true events that unfolded in 1975.

“He [Spagin] successfully convinced a crew of over 200 people to revolt against the Soviet regime and set sail for Leningrad to demand a new revolution,” Ēkis explained. “This...

Beta Film, one of Europe’s biggest and most ambitious independents, has unveiled its Mipcom sales slate, led by 10-part epic “Rise of the Raven,” plus a new pick-up, “Last to Brake,” based on the true story of Finnish motorcycle racing great Jarno Saarinen, and now 288 episodes of Greek daily series smash hit “The Beach.”

Also brought to market are two Eagle Eye Drama shows: singular PBS and Channel 4 procedural “Patience,” starring Laura Fraser (“Breaking Bad”); and “Bookish,” created and starring Emmy Award winner Mark Gatiss, as well as Internet troll redemption’s tale “A Better Man,” from public broadcast powerhouses Nrk and Zdf.

Promising one of Mipcom’s biggest world premieres and billed by Beta Film as one of the most epic European TV productions of all time – which is something coming from Beta, the producers of “Babylon Berlin” and “Swarm” – “Rise of the Raven,” produced by the...

Sky Original’s fifth and final season of “Gomorrah,” Rtl Group and Beta Film’s German-language “Sisi,” and Canal Plus’ hip-hop themed “All The Way Up” will — rather fittingly — join the David Tennant-led, Slim Film+Televison/Federation co-produced “Around the World in 80 Days” for an internationally accented edition of Canneseries, which plays from Oct. 8-13.

Running concurrent to Mipcom before returning to its traditional April berth in 2022, this year’s fourth edition will spotlight nine countries in its ten series long-form competition, though with a limited U.S. presence.

Alongside those four aforementioned series, all playing out of competition, this year’s most high-profile competition premieres include the Gaumont-produced, Amazon Prime broadcast Cold War thriller “Totems,” a Franco-Spanish-Czech co-production that stars Niels Schneider, Lambert Wilson and Ana Girardot, and “Limbo… Until It’s Over,” the latest series from Argentine hit-makers Gastón Duprat and Mariano Cohn (“Officila Competition...

TVNow, Rtl Deutschland’s streaming service, high-flying Berlin-based production house X Filme Creative Pool and production-distribution powerhouse Beta Film are partnering on what looks like one of the biggest German drama series productions of 2021: “House of Promises,” (a working title).

Beta Film is handling world sales and will present first moving images of the series at October’s Mipcom trade fair in Cannes, it said Friday.

Described by Beta Film as a “high-end” and a “visually stunning drama,” the 12-hour series is currently shooting on location in Berlin, Brandenburg and the Saxon city of Görlitz. Set in Berlin in the 1920s, it captures the hopes of a dazzling decade and the dramatic turn of an era from the perspective of a young woman and a Jewish family, owner of a state-of-the-art department store at Berlin’s Torstrasse 1.

Award winning director Sherry Hormann directs episodes 1-6, once again focusing on “complex,...

Format

Survey says!… Hong Kong is getting its own “Family Feud” remake as Fremantle and Tvb team to bring a local format of the historic game show to the island’s airwaves. Local broadcaster Tvb will host the show on its Tvb Jade Channel starting Aug. 29 of this year. The new version of the series will be hosted by popular actor, producer and comedian Johnson Lee.

“Family Feud” Hong Kong is the latest in a string of Fremantle properties to land on the island, following in the footsteps of “America’s Got Talent,” “Britain’s Got Talent,” “Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals” and “Great Railway Journeys,” among others.

“The ‘Family Feud’ format has proved to be irresistible to over 70 international markets, and now audiences in Hong Kong can see what the survey says,” said Fremantle senior VP of distribution Asian and international Haryaty Rahman. “There are endless possibilities for humorous and outrageous answers...

Currently shooting “Sisi” for the Rtl Group and Beta Film, Germany’s Story House Pictures has added N’Gone Thiam to the core writing team of six-hour suspense drama “Mozart/Mozart,” another powerhouse IP production, currently in development, which it will unveil an Series Mania.

“We’re super proud to have a young German writer of African heritage writing with us,” said Andreas Gutzeit, showrunner and managing director at Story House Pictures.

He added: “We’ve known N’gone from some prestigious writing seminars where she wrote very loud and very colorful scripts and we said that’s exactly what this show needs. She’s a new exciting and very original voice on her first major international series.” Thiam was chosen as one of six Story House writers, out of over 600 candidates.

On “Mozart/Mozart,” a series which is inspired by true facts and has a large contemporary resonance, Thiam joins Gutzeit,...

The film agency’s co-financing programme will back six new projects co-produced with Germany, Russia, Denmark and the Netherlands. The National Film Centre of Latvia has announced the beneficiaries of its 2021 co-financing programme. In total, the body is investing €1,158,013 in six new fiction features. The aim of the programme is to support the production of foreign films in Latvia, bringing international financing to the local film industry. The project in receipt of the grant of the biggest magnitude is Sven Bohse’s Sisi, staged by Cinevilla Films and German studio Story House Pictures. Alongside Sisi, two other Cinevilla productions have received backing – namely, Andrejs Ēķis’s Swingers and Sigrun Laste’s Mauerbau’61. The second-largest amount was bestowed upon Dmitrij Fiks’s The Jew, co-produced by Ego Media and Russia’s Motor Film Studio. The Riga-based outfit also...

In today’s Global Bulletin, John Boyega’s UpperRoom sets animation deal with ViacomCBS’s Vis Kids; Germany’s Bavaria Film acquires Story House companies; and International Literary Properties appoints Hilary Strong as U.K./Europe CEO.

“Star Wars” and “Small Axe” actor John Boyega‘s UpperRoom Productions has set a deal to present three to five animation projects to ViacomCBS International Studios‘ Vis Kids for development into a long form series. The deal is one amongst several announced on Tuesday.

Other animation agreements from Vis Kids include a first-look deal with Fred Seibert‘s FredFilms (Nickelodeon’s “The Fairy OddParents”) for three projects; a female-led adventure comedy with Wildseed Studios; a Korea-originated fish out of water comedy by Jiwan Yoon; and a development deal with Argentine cartoonist and writer, Liniers, for an adaptation of an upcoming new book.

Among live action content, Vis Kids has optioned the rights for “¡Socorro!

Vicky Krieps leads the cast of Corsage, a co-production between Austria, Luxembourg, Germany and France. Elisabeth de Wittelsbach, the Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary who reigned for over 44 years as the spouse of Emperor Franz Joseph I, isn’t simply a major European personality from the second half of the 19th century. Owing to her beauty and rebellious spirit, "Sissi" has continually fuelled all manner of fantasies in popular culture. The murdered sovereign was glorified in film in the 1950s via Ernst Marischka’s trilogy, which revealed Romy Schneider to the world. A number of TV films ensued, which swiftly sank into oblivion, such as Xaver Schwarzenberger’s mini-series Sisi. Then, in 2012, on the occasion of the 175th anniversary of the sovereign’s birth, Kurt Mündl’s documentary Sisi… und ich erzähle euch die Wahrheit offered up a new and far less sanitised portrayal of Elisabeth of Austria,...

The international TV business convened in Cannes this week for Mipcom, the biggest television market of the year and a firm date on the calendar for distributors and acquisitions execs. Although no one title emerged as this year’s standout, there were deals aplenty on the ground.

Here are some of the most eye-catching:

– Pathé has teamed with Vendôme Group to co-produce a miniseries retelling the story of last April’s devastating fire at the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris. The companies are co-developing the project with U.K.-based Moonriver TV.

– British entertainment channel E4 acquired three U.S. scripted series: NBC’s upcoming musical dramedy “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist” from Lionsgate, and CBS shows “Man With a Plan” and “Star Trek: Discovery.”

– PBS Masterpiece has boarded the remake of classic European detective series “Van der Valk”, which is being produced by Company Pictures and Nl Film & TV. All...

The Crown writer Amy Jenkins has come on board to pen a TV adaptation of the Sisi novels for Patrick Wachsberger's Picture Perfect Federation.

Jenkins, the creator and showrunner of the BBC's This Life, will adapt Allison Pataki's best-selling novels for Picture Perfect Federation, former Lionsgate executive Wachsberger's newly launched joint venture with Marseille producer Pascal Breton. The novels are another royal tale for Jenkins as they are based on the life of Empress Elisabeth of Austria.

“Sisi was an extraordinary young Empress. Charismatic and free thinking, she was a royal rebel who set the Habsburg court ...

Amy Jenkins, the creator and showrunner of the BBC series “This Life” and writer on Netflix’s “The Crown,” is set to adapt Allison Pataki’s “Sisi” novels, which are based on the life of Empress Elisabeth of Austria.

The female-driven period TV series is being developed by Picture Perfect Federation, the joint venture between former Lionsgate honcho Patrick Wachsberger and Federation Entertainment’s Pascal Breton, as well as Michael Shamberg’s (“Erin Brockovich”) Mas Production.

Based on Pataki’s two bestselling novels, “The Accidental Empress” and “Sisi: Empress on Her Own,” the modern series will tell the journey of a strong-willed woman who learns to accept and embrace her power in a male dominated world. Shedding light on one of Europe’s most powerful royal families, the series will span the period from 1853 up until the start of World War I.

“Sisi was an extraordinary young empress,” Jenkins said.

Picture Perfect Federation, the company recently created by Patrick Wachsberger and Pascal Breton, is teaming up with Anonymous Content to produce a premium TV show based on Christian Jacq’s “Ramses,” an epic saga of the formidable Ancient Egyptian king and conqueror.

Anonymous Content and Picture Perfect Federation have jointly acquired rights to Jacq’s five international bestselling books following the story of Pharaoh Ramses II, who reigned for 67 years from 1279-1212 B.C. Under the pact, Federation Entertainment and Anonymous Content will hold worldwide distribution rights to the series.

It’s the second series announced by Picture Perfect Federation, a joint venture between Wachsberger’s Picture Perfect Entertainment and Breton’s Federation Entertainment. The banner announced last week that it was developing “Sisi,” a period series about Empress Elisabeth of Austria.

“In an era of such great mythological works as ‘Game of Thrones’ and ‘Lord of the Rings,’ we...

Picture Perfect Federation, the company recently launched by Patrick Wachsberger and Pascal Breton (pictured), has acquired adaptation rights to Allison Pataki’s novels “The Accidental Empress” and “Sisi: Empress on Her Own,” to produce a female-driven period series with a modern spin.

The two novels chart the life of Empress Elisabeth of Austria who is still widely known throughout Europe as the beloved “Sisi.”

It will be the first international TV series about the unconventional Empress, who was the Princess Diana of her time. Romy Schneider made Sisi famous with her legendary performance in the 1955 movie “Sissi” which is one of the most successful German-language movies of all time.

Picture Perfect Federation, a joint venture between Patrick Wachsberger’s Picture Perfect Entertainment and Pascal Breton’s Federation Entertainment, will handle international sales on the show. Michael Shamberg’s Mas Production will be executive producing the series with Pataki, who is...