TV Drama MIPTV 2016

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TVDRAMA WWW.TVDRAMA.WS

APRIL 2016

MIPTV EDITION

Procedurals / Book Adaptations / Empire’s Ilene Chaiken / Masterpiece’s Rebecca Eaton / James Purefoy

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CONTENTS FEATURES

Got Drama?

Programmers and schedulers the world over will attest that it’s never been an easy job.

Ricardo Seguin Guise Publisher Anna Carugati Group Editorial Director Mansha Daswani Editor Kristin Brzoznowski Executive Editor Joanna Padovano Managing Editor Sara Alessi Joel Marino Associate Editors Victor L. Cuevas Production & Design Director Phyllis Q. Busell Art Director Simon Weaver Online Director Dana Mattison Senior Sales & Marketing Manager Elizabeth Walsh Sales & Marketing Manager Andrea Moreno Business Affairs Manager

Ricardo Seguin Guise President Anna Carugati Executive VP Mansha Daswani Associate Publisher & VP of Strategic Development TV Drama © 2016 WSN INC. 1123 Broadway, #1207 New York, NY 10010 Phone: (212) 924-7620 Fax: (212) 924-6940 Website: www.tvdrama.ws

The science and alchemy of choosing what to buy or commission has kept many a programming exec up at night. And if windowing and exclusivity and day-anddate weren’t enough to contend with, content executives now have to grapple with an unprecedented volume of choice—especially in the scripted space.

We’ve all witnessed the debate playing out among top channel chiefs in the U.S. about whether or not there is simply too much TV. That debate doesn’t include the prolific drama-production sectors in the U.K., Australia, Germany, France, the Philippines, Israel, Mexico, Brazil, Turkey, India…the list goes on. Just look at the shows selected for the inaugural MIPDrama Screenings: the 12 titles were chosen from entries received from 28 countries worldwide. The selections hail from, among other markets, Italy, Spain, the U.K., Chile and Russia. And that’s just a tiny percentage of the hours and hours of drama that distributors will be pitching and screening at MIPTV. So what’s a drama buyer to do in this market where they are spoiled for choice and the old rulebooks about what will or won’t work no longer apply? Rebecca Eaton, executive producer of Masterpiece on PBS—which for years was the only place to find British drama in America—reveals in an interview in this edition the qualities she looks for in the increasing number of scripts that land on her desk every day: heart, wit and substance. But with the quality bar being raised every day, calibrating those decisions of which project to choose has become more complicated.

Indeed, sometimes a show comes out of nowhere to become a phenomenon, as was the case with FOX’s Empire.

Despite its storied credentials—it was created by Lee Daniels and Danny Strong—few could have expected that a midseason show about a family-run music empire would become one of the biggest network hits in the U.S. Ilene Chaiken, Empire’s showrunner, is featured in this edition, discussing why the show has struck such a chord with its devout fans.

This edition also includes a report on how companies are trying to fill the gap in the supply of procedurals left by American networks shifting more towards serialized storytelling. And we explore the process of novel adaptations, which are picking up pace as channels search for bankable stories that will cut through the clutter.

TV Drama also features an interview with British actor James Purefoy, best known for playing a serial killer on FOX’s The Following, who now stars in SundanceTV’s Hap and Leonard.

—Mansha Daswani

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28 WANTED: PROCEDURALS

Numerous distributors are looking to fill the gap in the procedurals market.

38 BY THE BOOK

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Leading producers and distributors weigh in on the science, and art, of adapting book properties.

INTERVIEWS

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Masterpiece’s Rebecca Eaton

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Empire’s Ilene Chaiken

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Hap and Leonard’s James Purefoy

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Caracol Internacional The White Slave / River of Passions / La Cacica Caracol Internacional’s series The White Slave tells the story of a young woman secretly raised by slaves after her family is killed. According to María Estrella, Caracol’s sales executive for Asia, the series is a 4K production that has many elements that “make this title an unforgettable one.” Another highlight is River of Passions, a telenovela about a foreman at a cattle ranch who goes after a $1 million bounty in order to please the girl he loves. Meanwhile, La Cacica follows a woman who makes it her mission to ensure that popular music reaches the most unexpected places. La Cacica is a story “filled with music, beautiful landscapes and the special appearance of historical celebrities such as Gabriel García Márquez,” Estrella says.

“The White Slave is a story about slavery and colonialism, love and passion.”

—María Estrella The White Slave

CJ E&M Pied Piper / Memory / Vampire Detective Korea’s Shin Ha-Kyun portrays a gifted negotiator up against a terrorist in the drama series Pied Piper, which CJ E&M is highlighting for MIPTV. “Given the raised awareness of terrorism, its solving-cases-through-negotiation angle may appeal to audiences,” says Jangho Seo, CJ E&M’s head of international sales and acquisitions. The company is also offering up Memory, focused on a lawyer who pushes himself to defend one last case after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. The story of a man “fighting to regain his memory, not only for his cherished career but also to respect the value of family, Memory has a strong plot,” says Seo. There is also Vampire Detective, which stars Lee Joon as a vampire detective working to help those in need.

“CJ E&M’s mission for MIPTV and 2016 is to continue to create trendsetting content for local and global audiences, while diversifying our catalogue and fostering strategic international partnerships.”

—Jangho Seo Pied Piper

Dynamic Television Madiba / Wynonna Earp / Van Helsing Laurence Fishburne stars as Nelson Mandela in the six-hour event series Madiba, which Dynamic Television is bringing to MIPTV. “The scale and scope of Madiba will make this a true event series that will mesmerize audiences around the world,” says Dan March, managing partner at Dynamic. “It’s an important story and one we’re honored to partner on.” On the genre side, the company is presenting the 13-episode series Wynonna Earp, a supernatural thriller for Syfy based on a graphic novel. Also for Syfy, the 13x1-hour Van Helsing is in production from the same producers as Fargo and Hell on Wheels. “Van Helsing is a total reimagining of a timeless brand, and our series takes place in a world dominated and controlled by vampires,” explains March.

“We believe in developing great characters in exciting and dramatic settings, and we want our name on a show to mean quality.”

—Dan March Wynonna Earp 314 World Screen 4/16

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Eccho Rights Winter Sun / Black Heart / Servant of the People From Endemol Shine Turkey, Winter Sun (Kis Günesi) is among the dramas that Eccho Rights is looking to license into new markets. “It is an amazing series about twins who grow up under very different circumstances, as their father was murdered by his business associates,” explains Fredrik af Malmborg, the managing director of Eccho Rights. He calls the series a “true drama about family bonds and, of course, impossible love.” Also a Turkish drama, Black Heart comes from Aka Film.

“It is based on a very strong script,” af Malmborg says. Another scripted highlight in the Eccho Rights catalogue is Servant of the People, which is a Ukrainian show. “We are specialized in representing top producers in the worldwide management of drama and entertainment rights,” adds af Malmborg.

“Eccho Rights is a leader in the worldwide distribution and development of Turkish drama, but we are also [growing] strongly in drama development in Western Europe, Latin America and Asia.”

—Fredrik af Malmborg Black Heart

FremantleMedia The Young Pope / Suspects / Web Therapy From Oscar-winning director Paolo Sorrentino comes The Young Pope, a new drama starring Jude Law that FremantleMedia is promoting. “The series focuses on the beginning of Pius XIII’s (born as Lenny Belardo) pontificate and follows the inner struggle between bearing the huge responsibility [as] head of the Catholic Church and the miseries of being a simple man,” says Sarah Doole, FremantleMedia’s director of global drama. The company is also offering up Suspects, a British crime drama heading into its fifth season. “Suspects subverts and innovates the crime genre while delivering fast-paced, gripping detective drama,” says Doole. Another highlight is Web Therapy, about a therapist with questionable credentials who begins to deliver therapy sessions via webcam.

“We’re very much looking forward to bringing these top series to audiences around the world in the near future.”

—Sarah Doole Suspects

Global Agency Magnificent Century Kosem / Queen of the Night / Never Let Go Following on from the success of Magnificent Century, Global Agency has billed Magnificent Century Kosem as a younger, more colorful and more dynamic series that shines a light on an important time in Ottoman history. Meanwhile, Magnificent Century’s Meryem Uzerli stars alongside Murat Yildirim, from Love and Punishment, in the drama Queen of the Night. “The production values and story lines of Magnificent Century Kosem and Queen of the Night are far above international standards,” says Senay Filiztekin, the head of drama acquisitions at Global Agency. The story of a man and the two women who love him plays out in Never Let Go, which Filiztekin says “has the hallmarks of a classic drama series, with story lines that combine revenge, tragedy, passion and love with contemporary subjects.”

“The originality of our stories makes them exceptional. I am sure that these titles have the ability to cross boundaries with their universal story lines, cutting-edge themes and well-known casts.”

—Senay Filiztekin Queen of the Night 316 World Screen 4/16

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Hat Trick International The Secret / Doctor Thorne Hat Trick International’s move into international drama distribution began last year, “and we are delighted with the response,” says Sarah Tong, the company’s director of sales. Its slate includes The Secret, which stars James Nesbitt (The Missing, Cold Feet). The series, produced for ITV, is one of the 12 dramas selected to take part in the inaugural MIPDrama Screenings. Another Hat Trick production for ITV is the three-part period drama Doctor Thorne. It is based on the novel by Anthony Trollope and was adapted for TV by Julian Fellowes (Downton Abbey, Gosford Park). “Julian is a real fan of Anthony Trollope and has adapted his novel for the screen with a deft touch and a loving hand,” says Tong.

“This really comes across on screen.”

“Our first two dramas are of the very highest quality and have had a fantastic response from both international broadcasters and digital platforms.”

—Sarah Tong Doctor Thorne

ITV-Inter Medya Endless Love / Black Money Love / In Between The drama series Endless Love has proven to be a success both in its native Turkey as well as abroad, with ITV-Inter Medya licensing the title in more than 30 countries in less than three months. The company has placed the drama front and center of its MIPTV slate, which also includes Black Money Love, sold to more than 50 countries so far.

Can Okan, the president and CEO of ITV-Inter Medya, also believes that Black Rose and In Between have strong sales potential. Okan highlights the “strength of their stories” as a key reason for the global success of the company’s dramas. “We believe another strength of the Turkish dramas in our catalogue is that they are fast-moving and very exciting,” he adds.

“The production quality of our titles is world-class.”

—Can Okan In Between

Kanal D For My Son / War of the Roses / Sunshine Girls Three of Kanal D’s top-performing titles are For My Son, War of the Roses and Sunshine Girls, and at MIPTV the company will be looking to place these shows with more broadcasters globally. Kanal D recently began airing the Turkish adaptation of the Korean series Flames of Desire, broadcast under the local title Hayat Sarkisi. “The results and reactions from the audience are so good,” says Ozlem Ozsumbul, the head of sales and acquisitions at Kanal D. “We are sure that it will be a new phenomenon in Turkey soon and then abroad.” Production recently began on the new project Tatli Intikam. “Its casting and story are wonderful,” says Ozsumbul. “That title will be full of romance, which the audience will want to watch and feel.”

“We had our best results in 2015 in terms of revenues and ratings for Turkish content exports.”

—Ozlem Ozsumbul For My Son 318 World Screen 4/16

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Keshet International The A Word / The Writer / Spy Keshet International is introducing the BBC One drama The A Word to international buyers for the first time. Written by Peter Bowker and co-produced by Fifty Fathoms (Fortitude) and Keshet UK, The A Word is based on an award-winning Israeli series. MIPTV will also be a time to showcase The Writer, which was one of six series selected to premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival. “Its brutal honesty and realness have made it hugely impactful in Israel,” says Keren Shahar, the managing director of distribution at Keshet International. “It has potential to replicate the same success worldwide.” The company is also taking out its Korean drama Spy to buyers as a finished series. The show is based on Keshet’s original drama MICE.

“Our drama slate for MIPTV is one of our strongest yet and we can’t wait to see how it is received internationally.”

—Keren Shahar The Writer

Nordic World Seaside Hotel / Maniac / Next Summer The drama Seaside Hotel, which Nordic World is promoting at MIPTV, tells the tale of a small Danish hotel in the early 1930s and the tangled lives of its clientele and staff. “We call Seaside Hotel Denmark’s answer to Downton Abbey, in that it opens a window on a deliciously decadent time: the years between 1928 to 1933,” says Espen Huseby, the CEO of Nordic World.

Another company highlight is Maniac, produced by Rubicon for TV 2 Norway. “It’s a truly original drama that explores the line between fantasy and reality from the perspective of a man with severe mental-health issues,” explains Huseby.

Nordic World is also bringing the first two seasons of Next Summer, produced by Feelgood Scene for TVNorge in Norway, to the market. A third season will be available soon.

“The world’s appetite for Nordic drama just keeps on growing and we believe we are perfectly positioned to meet that demand.”

—Espen Huseby Seaside Hotel

Red Arrow International Cleverman / Bosch / Case The scripted crime series Bosch is back with a second season, which sees Titus Welliver reprise the role of Detective Harry Bosch from Michael Connelly’s internationally bestselling novels. Red Arrow International will be promoting the second season at MIPTV, alongside the new genre drama Cleverman and the crime drama Case. Cleverman was produced for ABC TV in Australia and SundanceTV in the U.S., while Case is an Icelandic original from the award-winning director Baldvin Z (Trapped, Life in a Fishbowl). “We continue to see strong demand for well-written, character-driven fiction across an eclectic mix of genres, as reflected in our new lineup for MIPTV,” says Henrik Pabst, the managing director of Red Arrow International.

“Red Arrow International is increasingly becoming a home for ambitious, international drama.”

—Henrik Pabst Bosch 320 World Screen 4/16

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Star Media Mata Hari / Sophia / Red October Star Media’s Mata Hari is a 12-episode biographical drama about the life of the legendary woman Margaretha Zelle, better known to the world as Mata Hari. “Her life is both fascinating and tragic,” says Vlad Ryashin, general producer and founder of Star Media. Star Media and FremantleMedia Poland are jointly developing a project under the working title Sophia, based on the biography of Sophia Potocka, a woman from a poor Greek and Turkish family who in the 18th century gained power and recognition at all royal courts of Europe and at the Russian Imperial House. Another confirmed collaboration is the eightpart drama series Red October, which Star Media is working on with the German outfit Letterbox Filmproduktion and Federation Entertainment of France.

“We have been investing in development and financing and are looking for partners around the world.”

—Vlad Ryashin Mata Hari

ZDF Enterprises Ku’damm ’56: Rebel with a Cause / The Fall / The Inspector and the Sea A highlight of ZDF Enterprises’s (ZDFE) drama slate, Ku’damm ’56: Rebel with a Cause comes from UFA Fiction, which is also behind the successful German-language series Deutschland 83. Fred Burcksen, ZDFE’s executive VP and COO, believes Ku’damm ’56 could “easily turn into a bingeviewing favorite, with its stunningly realistic sets, costumes and, of course, stories.” Additionally, ZDFE has a second season of The Fall, which stars Gillian Anderson and Jamie Dornan, to offer buyers. There’s also The Inspector and the Sea, based on the best-selling crime novels of Mari Jungstedt.

The 6x1-hour series is set on the idyllic Swedish island of Gotland in the medieval town of Visby, which looks like the picture of innocence but is far from it.

“We are the largest distributor of German-language programs, a valued co-production partner of international broadcasters and producers, as well as a major investor in audiovisual content both domestic and foreign.”

—Fred Burcksen Ku’damm ’56: Rebel with a Cause

Zodiak Rights Wolf Creek / Public Enemy / Bombshell: The Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior Zodiak Rights is launching a brand-new psychological thriller at MIPTV, Wolf Creek. Produced by Banijay Group’s Screentime, the 6x1-hour drama is based on the cult feature films of the same name written, directed and produced by Greg McLean. The show is “highly anticipated by fans of the original movies and we know there is a keen audience waiting to see the series,” says Caroline Torrance, the head of scripted at Zodiak Rights. The company is also presenting Public Enemy, which is part of the MIPDrama Screenings, and Bombshell: The Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior, based on a true story of how a deadly French Secret Service operation dramatically backfired. The 90-minute feature is produced by Screentime for TVNZ.

“Each one of these dramas has exceptionally high production values and a gripping story that we believe will have global appeal.”

—Caroline Torrance

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NBCUniversal’s Law & Order: SVU. 326 World Screen 4/16

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WANTED: PROCEDURALS Numerous distributors are looking to fill the gap in the procedurals market.

By Andy Fry n the face of it, you wouldn’t think there was a shortage of American procedural dramas on the global market. A casual glance at U.S. network schedules shows Dick Wolf’s Law & Order: SVU and Chicago trilogy (Chicago Fire, Chicago Med and Chicago P.D.) dominating the lineup on NBC. Over at CBS, leading procedurals include the NCIS franchise (three shows) and Criminal Minds (which recently spawned Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders). On FOX, Bones has been renewed for its 12th (and final) season. There are even some procedurals on cable, such as TNT’s Major Crimes.

Nevertheless, over the last year the message from leading buyers such as TF1 in France, RTL in Germany and Mediaset in Italy has been pretty clear: there are not enough episodic dramas available.

Executives on the front line of the global drama business agree that there is a shortage of U.S. procedurals and cite a number of reasons for this. To Pancho Mansfield, the president of global scripted programming at Entertainment One (eOne) Television, a big factor has been the editorial rethink at leading American cable channels such as USA Network, TNT, A&E and Lifetime. “These four networks used to provide a lot of long-running procedurals with good international appeal like The Closer, Perception, Burn Notice and The Glades. But as they have reinvented themselves, I’d say we’ve lost 10 to 15 procedurals.”

The reason for this, says Mansfield, is the pressure these networks have come under from the likes of AMC, FX and the new SVOD platforms, which have enjoyed notable success with high-concept serialized dramas. “That’s why you’ve seen USA Network come back with a show like Mr. Robot and A&E supporting Bates Motel for the last few years,” he says.

O

CHANGING TASTES Alongside this new approach at the cable networks is what Julien Leroux, deputy managing director at Newen Distribution, identifies as a growing disparity between what American and international audiences want to watch. “The mainstream U.S. audience is happy to watch superhero-procedural hybrids like CBS’s Supergirl because that is part of their culture. But superheroes are not so interesting to the audience in France.”

Supergirl is not an isolated example, adds Leroux. On ABC, slots have gone to two Marvel-based shows (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Carter) while The CW’s best-performing titles are three DC Comics-derived shows (The Flash, Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow). On FOX, there is Gotham, based on characters from DC Comics’s Batman.

It’s not just France that is ambivalent about superheroes. If you look at the U.S. imports in Germany, Italy and South Korea, it is classic American procedurals rather than the sci-fi/fantasy upstarts that perform best. Only markets such as the U.K., Australia, Scandinavia and Spain appear to have shifted in line with American editorial tastes—though even in these territories, classics including CSI, NCIS and Criminal Minds continue to be schedule stalwarts.

Cathy Payne, CEO of Endemol Shine International (ESI), says the disparity between the U.S. and global markets is evident in other ways. “Take a show like Empire, which has done incredibly well for FOX but has not had much of an impact internationally. I think this divergence in tastes has become even more noticeable because some of the really big, successful procedurals are coming to an end. CSI, The Mentalist and Castle are all popular titles internationally, but the first two have now ended and the third is in the balance.”

“The lack of procedurals is a fact,” observes Greg Phillips, the president of Content Television & Digital, “but it can be rectified by all the guys around the world who complain that the Americans aren’t providing them—they can step up more vigorously to create their own. We’re seeing the opportunity to do that. Our Jack Taylor series, financed in Ireland [along with] ZDF and ZDF Enterprises in Germany and ourselves, is an example. We’ll have another three movies, so then we’ll have nine altogether. If the foreign buyers want procedurals, either hours or movies, that’s one way to do it.”

TAKING THE LEAD The big discussion is about whether it is possible to create a “U.S.-style” international procedural that is not triggered by a commission from an American broadcaster. Currently, the most high-profile attempt to achieve this is an alliance between NBCUniversal International Television Production (NBCU-ITVP), TF1 and RTL that was formed with the specific goal of securing “a pipeline of high-quality, U.S.-style procedural content.” Under the terms of this partnership, JoAnn Alfano, NBCU-ITVP’s executive VP of scripted programming, and her team in L.A. are responsible for developing and producing projects that have been written, shot and cast in North America. NBCU-ITVP is not yet ready to unveil titles, but the company’s plan is to create 12- to 14-episode dramas that have broad international appeal. The goal is to be in production in spring 2016 for a fall or winter delivery.

Explaining the rationale for the alliance at the time, Alfano said, “There is an incredible talent pool of procedural writers and producers in the U.S. For some time now, they have had few outlets for their ideas. We look forward to working with

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Private Eyes is a new procedural, ordered by Global in Canada, on offer from Entertainment One Television.

the wealth of talent that exists in the U.S. and developing the next generation of procedural hits.”

From the perspective of the alliance’s European partners, it’s about finding successors to shows like Bones, which have been huge hits.

The companies in this partnership are not the only ones attempting to fill the procedural void. Others reported to be scouting this space include FremantleMedia, Red Arrow Entertainment Group, Endemol Shine Group and Gaumont Television. The latter has been working on Crosshair, a 13part English-language series from Ken Sanzel, an American showrunner whose credits include Numb3rs and Blue Bloods.

PROBLEM SOLVING

an English-language medical procedural. “I think the idea of developing a commercial scripted show in North America as part of a consortium is very interesting,” says Kloiber.

While the primary motivation for these shows is demand from the European market, there is always the hope that they can be sold back into the U.S. after they’ve been made.

And there are recent examples of this. Crossing Lines is a crime procedural made as part of a concerted drive by STUDIOCANAL-owned TANDEM Productions to target this section of the business. A co-production with TF1 in France, the show was made in English with showrunner Ed Bernero at the helm. It was initially picked up by NBC in the U.S. and

by Sony Pictures Television’s AXN in the international market. Although NBC didn’t renew the show for season two, the other parties kept it on air. Netflix subsequently acquired streaming rights and U.K. pay-TV channel Alibi also picked up the show.

Houdini & Doyle, a British-Canadian co-production backed

by ITV Encore and Global and headed by David Shore (House), is a period crime procedural that reimagines the relationship between Harry Houdini and Arthur Conan Doyle. The show has been sold to FOX in the U.S. The success of shows like these proves that there are opportunities for story-of-the-week procedurals that don’t require an upfront commission from a U.S. network. However they need to be approached with caution, says eOne’s Mansfield. eOne is no stranger to setting up an international scripted co-production with a procedural profile. A classic example is Rookie Blue, which was produced in Canada for Global and then sold under license to ABC in the U.S., where it survived for six seasons. eOne is also working on Ransom, a series about a crisis negotiator that is being put together in partnership with TF1 and Canada’s Shaw Media. While Mansfield recognizes the appeal of building procedurals without an upfront U.S. partner, he says in the current market there’s no guarantee you’ll secure the American deal you’re hoping for. “I think people still

Also exploring opportunities in the international procedural market is Tele München Group (TMG). Herbert L. Kloiber, the managing director of TMG, is responsible for a lot of the U.S. film and scripted TV content that is licensed into the German-speaking market. Like his peers, he notes that the gap between American and mainstream German viewing has become “problematic.”

According to Kloiber, “smaller channels like RTL II [which is part-owned

by TMG] have succeeded with shows like Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead and Teen Wolf. But audiences on RTL, SAT.1, ProSieben and ZDF haven’t adapted their preferences.”

An impact of that on TMG’s business, says Kloiber, is that “we have moved away from TV output deals with the U.S. studios because they produce a lot of shows that don’t really work on the main German channels. To fill the gap we are going to different sources and becoming more closely aligned with production companies.”

TMG has formed a partnership with TF1 and Federation Entertainment on Spring Tide, sold by Endemol Shine International, is a new crime series from Filmlance for SVT in Sweden.

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procedural shows that can be alternatives. We have a great show called Candice Renoir that airs on France 2 but has also sold to markets like Germany, Italy, Portugal and Canada.”

According to Leroux, Candice Renoir is “a kind of French Columbo that is much more in line with mainstream audience tastes than HBO or Netflix shows are.

We’re just about to shoot season four, which means there will be 38 episodes in total.”

The notion that there are ready-made alternatives to U.S. procedurals is not completely new. ESI’s Payne says there is a role for British crime drama. “The U.K. doesn’t do longrunning, U.S.-style series, but it does have shows like Sherlock, Vera, Endeavour, Silent Witness and Midsomer Murders, which all have a procedural feel about them.”

Payne says there is no particular urgency for ESI to try to fill the gap vacated by U.S. procedurals because there is such strong demand for serialized shows. But the company does have some shows that play in that direction: “The Good Karma Hospital—which is about a team of British and Indian medics at an over-worked and under-resourced cottage hospital in Goa—only has an opening run of six episodes, but we think it has the potential to develop along the lines of Death in Paradise,” a BBC One and France 2 copro now up to 40 episodes.

Canada also has a track record with procedurals, including Shaftesbury’s period piece Murdoch Mysteries and the character-driven contemporary crime drama 19-2. The latter, repped by Content Television, is up to three seasons of ten episodes each.

SERIAL WINS

Content has new TV movies to offer in the Jack Taylor crime franchise.

expect to sell their show into the U.S. after it has been made.

But they are up against a shortage of slots for story-of-theweek procedurals. And if your show doesn’t get a U.S. license, that’s tough.”

EPISODIC WOES There are other problems with internationally led procedural co-productions that make them less reliable than the classic American ones. One is that they generally come in smaller batches of episodes. CSI, for example, racked up 337 episodes over 15 seasons. But most of the co-pro series made internationally would only deliver 150 to 200 episodes in that time frame (and it’s unlikely that any of them would surpass 50 episodes).

Another problem is the fact that most international copro procedurals seem to require a mix of free-TV and payTV partners or distributors looking to sell into pay-TV channels. This can lead to hybrid shows that are too dark for mainstream channels.

Newen’s Leroux says his company is engaged in the debate about how to replace U.S. procedurals and that it is “forming a few co-pro partnerships.” But he also says there is a partial solution in acquiring completed procedural shows from markets outside the U.S. “The French networks make some good

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Susanne Müller, the executive director of feature films and TV series at German public broadcaster ZDF, is not convinced that other territories can easily fill the U.S. procedural gap; her experience has been that these territories are also moving away from procedurals. “We aren’t big buyers of U.S. shows, which tend to go to the commercial networks in Germany. But we have found that our key suppliers in the U.K. and Nordic markets are also shifting from procedurals to serialized shows, which is presenting an issue in our Sunday night drama slot. Instead of shows like Midsomer Murders, we are seeing titles like Broadchurch, The Missing and The Killing come through.”

Although Müller understands why the creative talent wants to make serialized dramas, she notes that “they aren’t always as popular with the audience and they are more difficult to schedule. It’s easier to lose momentum with a serialized show than it is with a procedural.”

For ZDF, the best solution to this issue is either domestic production (which has a cost implication) or a concerted drive towards procedural co-productions with the Nordic region. “We have a long-standing relationship with the Nordics and generally have more of a say about the shape of the show there than we do in, for example, the U.K. We’ve been discussing the way forward with companies like Endemol Shine-owned Filmlance International, which brought us series like Beck.”

Alexander Coridass, the president and CEO of ZDF’s commercial arm, ZDF Enterprises, notes that the distributor already has some procedural-style shows to offer the global market. “We are often asked when a European series like Derrick will come to 21st-century media. I think

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Spanish broadcaster RTVE is launching a period procedural at MIPTV called Crime Times.

we already have it in our catalogue. A Case of Murder and series such as Dr. Klein or our SOKO franchise are urgently needed in many countries. For many years to come, there will still be requests for classical programs—including procedurals and TV movies—and for innovative limited series. And we’re delighted that we can meet all of these program needs.”

The conundrum, of course, is how you satisfy all the parties involved. ZDF signed on to a new Filmlance project called Spring Tide, which is being distributed internationally by ESI. A 10x45-minute production, Spring Tide, about a single coldcase murder, is based on the first novel in a crime trilogy. Perhaps the best solution for broadcasters like ZDF will be shows that are positioned as serial-procedural hybrids.

Of course, Müller’s point about the role of domestic production shouldn’t be ignored, especially in light of the rising quality of drama around the world. While U.S. procedurals have always been regarded as the benchmark against which international shows are judged, Javier Llorente García at Spanish public broadcaster RTVE says the days when his organization bought shows like Desperate Housewives as part of packages are over. “Series production in Spain has improved in quality and is now at a very high level. So we are seeing a lot more [locally produced] shows instead of foreign acquisitions.”

Among them is the brand-new El Caso: Crónica de Sucesos, set in 1960s Madrid. Each episode focuses on a duo of journalists—one an ex-cop, the other a young reporter—investigating a headlines-making crime. The show is being launched to the international market as Crime Times.

saw Resonant remake Warner Bros.’ medical procedural ER for RCN and FOX in Latin America. And Twentieth Century Fox’s Bones was remade in Russia.

Another option is the model whereby high-profile theatrical movies are rebooted as European procedurals, which benefit from built-in exposure. Atlantique’s Transporter series fits this model and STUDIOCANAL has hinted at the possibility of adapting its movie IP as returnable TV series.

TV execs are always saying the media business is cyclical, so it is possible that the U.S. networks will steer back in the direction of procedurals. After all, some of this year’s high-concept launches, such as Minority Report and Heroes Reborn, failed to fly, and there’s no particular commercial logic to making shows that international channel buyers don’t want.

There have been a few positive signs in this year’s U.S. pilot season. ABC has ordered two new legal-themed pilots (Notorious and Conviction) and CBS is backing two medical shows, Bunker Hill and Sensory. Even FOX is getting in on the action with the new crime-procedural pilot A.P.B. Mansfield at eOne says there is clearly a role for procedurals in the free-to-air market, as ratings continue to show.

However, he isn’t convinced that there will be a big swing back to procedurals, because the drama market has changed so decisively. “There are so many places for people to watch drama now that the cable networks feel a need to get noticed.

The provocative serialized shows are the ones that cut through the clutter, so I don’t see them going away.”

TMG’s Kloiber takes a similar view: “I could see us possibly getting involved in one or two procedural-style shows a year. But viewing habits in markets like the U.S. and U.K. won’t go back. Audiences there have fundamentally changed their behavior.”

FINDING FORMATS International broadcasters have another solution to the shortage of U.S. procedurals: adapting U.S. archive shows. While some channel chiefs may balk at the idea of commissioning completely new procedurals to make up for the U.S. shortfall, updating and localizing classic American procedurals can be a cost-effective option. One example is the deal that

ZDF Enterprises has built up a stable of returnable German crime dramas, including A Case of Murder.

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BBC Worldwide’s War & Peace.

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BY THE BOOK Jane Marlow hears from leading producers and distributors about the science, and art, of adapting book properties. s platforms and content providers continue to mushroom worldwide, it’s not just the clamor for content that gets louder—the clamor for breakout hits also increases. Waiting for scriptwriters to come up with original ideas can be risky, so where better to look for inspiration than the triedand-true hits of the literary world?

And you can’t find material much more reliable than that of author Ken Follett. Rola Bauer, the head of U.S. TV production and co-production at STUDIOCANAL and CEO of TANDEM Productions, who established a relationship with the author on The Pillars of the Earth and World Without End, has now optioned another Follett hit, Code to Zero. The action in the novel takes place in 1958, but Bauer says they will contemporize the story in the show.

“We wanted to take it out of the Cold War and the space race between the U.S. and the Soviets and bring it into a contemporary time frame that reflects the change in technology,” explains Bauer. “We feel Code to Zero has a true relevance today.”

Sarah Doole, FremantleMedia’s director of global drama, says that traditionally British television has relied heavily on books, in part because it’s a territory with a strong literary tradition.

“Now we’re entering a different world in which those classic adaptations are really important,” says Doole, whose drama slate includes adaptations of Daphne Du Maurier’s Jamaica Inn, Michel Faber’s The Crimson Petal and the White, Neil Gaiman’s American Gods and Anne Holt’s Vik/Stubo crime novels. “But it’s about how you can tell that story in a new way for a contemporary audience.”

A

LITERARY CLASSICS As classics go, there aren’t many more challenging than Leo Tolstoy’s epic War and Peace. With a recent Franco-Italian version still sitting on some broadcasters’ shelves, Ben Donald, executive producer of international drama at BBC Worldwide, says one of the biggest challenges to creating the new BBC version was ensuring it was both relevant and different from previous incarnations.

“The classic adaptation is a subset of the overall question about the use of books as a basis for TV series,” explains Donald.

“A classic is a very specific thing. Broadcasters either do or don’t want one. I think there’s been a bit of a trend against classic adaptation, particularly as public-service broadcasters try to reinvent themselves for a younger audience. It’s perceived to be slightly old-fashioned. But I think that you can do it in a not-oldfashioned way, and writer Andrew Davies and director Tom Harper have pulled that off in War & Peace. It’s hard to convince people of that when it’s just a script in the co-pro phase.”

With sales in 153 territories, ITV Studios Global Entertainment’s (ITVS GE) new spin on Winston Graham’s classic Poldark is evidence that historical novels still do good business if they’re given the right spin. Ruth Clarke, executive VP of global content strategy and investments, attributes the success of Mammoth Screen’s production of Poldark to the fact that the story lines were updated and are relatable to a modern audience. With Agatha Christie’s Marple and Poirot in the ITVS GE catalogue, Clarke believes that literary adaptations have always been part of the TV landscape. “They have a built-in audience.

There’s a known brand there,” says Clarke, using Poirot as an example. “When we launched the end of Poirot, we had Agatha Christie’s grandson with us, and that was fantastic. People were really drawn into being able to meet part of the [author’s] family. That real-life, tangible attachment to the author was really interesting for us.”

Brand recognition is an important part of the appeal of novel adaptations across the board, but as BBC Worldwide’s Donald points out, “One country’s classic is another country’s obscure author.”

NAME DROPPING In the case of Hat Trick International’s Doctor Thorne, an ITV commission, the brand recognition may lie more with the person doing the adapting—Julian Fellowes—than with the author, Anthony Trollope, who wrote the book in the 1850s.

“Julian Fellowes made costume drama a global phenomenon with Gosford Park and then Downton Abbey,” says Sarah Tong, the director of sales at Hat Trick International. “With Doctor Thorne, he is introducing global audiences to one of his favorite writers, Trollope. This isn’t your standard costume drama. It’s fresh and not overly reverential.”

Tong also has the three-part drama The Secret, based on Deric Henderson’s novel Let This Be Our Secret, on her slate.

She says that the predictability of a well-known brand for a broadcaster is like casting a big-name star in the lead of a movie.

That could make an author like Norwegian crime writer Anne Holt the literary equivalent of Jennifer Lawrence.

FremantleMedia International has brought Modus, made by Miso Film and based on Holt’s crime novels, to the market.

Doole acknowledges the value of working with such a highprofile author. “Crime is the best-selling genre in international TV,” she notes. “If you’ve got a strongly plotted, wellcharacterized crime novel, then that’s a really important piece of IP, because usually that can be turned into great television.”

Doole adds that modern audiences are looking for a higher degree of authenticity. “In Modus, Stockholm looks so beautiful and is almost a character within the story,” she says. “In all the best crime novels, the place is usually a character. You couldn’t imagine Inspector Morse not set in Oxford. I think that sense of place is really important.”

Crime might be a law unto itself, but BBC Worldwide’s Donald says that one of the pitfalls of adaptation is assuming that book sales automatically translate into audiences. “You’ve still got to make something original for TV,” he says. “The readers will only be a proportion of the people you’re trying to make the show appeal to.”

FANNING FANDOM In the case of Robert Kirkman’s Outcast, which had a graphic novel that rolled out ahead of the TV series, the fans are paramount, says Sharon Tal Yguado, the executive VP of global programming at FOX International Studios, which is backing the new show. “We always start with the superfans, the evangelists, the people who know the source material and will watch the show, and then we broaden it.”

Of the millions of people who watch The Walking Dead, based on a graphic-novel series by Kirkman and broadcast

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production and start promoting it. Ken Follett is a very socialmedia savvy man. With The Pillars of the Earth we set him up on Facebook and Twitter [to promote the adaptation]. He launched into it and he is brilliant at it. It’s incredibly beneficial if you have someone who is active on social media.”

Holt was also supportive of the dramatization of her novels in Modus. “I’m deeply impressed,” says Holt of the series, not only by “how the universe and my thoughts that went into writing the book have been recreated, but also by the way the writers saw opportunities to strengthen the story for TV.” One of the newest entrants into the business of delivering original drama is Amazon. For the world’s largest bookseller, ordering Bosch, based on Michael Connelly’s best-selling series of crime novels, was perhaps a nobrainer. Henrik Bastin, the CEO of Red Arrow Entertainment Group’s Fabrik Entertainment and producer of Bosch, says that when he first started inquiring about the rights to the novels, they had just been released after having been tied up at Paramount for many years. Anticipating a bidding war, Bastin’s approach was to convey his creative vision for the show to Connelly himself, which was what won him the rights to the series.

“We made a handshake deal that Michael would always be a part of it if he wanted to,” Bastin says. “I really wanted him to be in, and he really wanted to. He’s been writing episodes and has been on set almost every day.”

A FRESH LOOK Hat Trick International is distributing Doctor Thorne, Julian Fellowes’s adaptation of an Anthony Trollope novel.

internationally on FOX, Yguado expects that less than 10 percent will have read the source material.

Using a comic book as source material means that in addition to the stories, there is a wealth of visual references that a showrunner and director can tap into. “Adam Wingard directed the pilot episode [of Outcast] and was very much inspired by the comic books—the muted colors, the cinematic sensibility,” explains Yguado. “The comic books were the storyboards for the show. At a lot of the locations we went to, he would look for specific elements that would make the superfans go crazy.”

Yguado has also acquired the rights to The Fix, Declan Hill’s nonfiction book about match fixing in the world of soccer, and The Prop, Pete Hautman’s novel about a female poker player.

A well-researched nonfiction book provides information that gives the drama project a solid backbone. “We could have gotten that information in other ways,” says Yguado about The Fix. “We could have talked to people, but it’s a relatively easy way to tap into that knowledge. And when you do have that source material, it legitimizes the project even more. There are so many development projects out there, it shows that this is something that has gravity.”

Yguado believes adaptations are also a good way to engage topflight screenwriters. “There are very talented writers out there, but sometimes they run out of ideas,” she says. “If you get high-profile source material, it’s easier to attach a high-profile writer. Writers get excited about these materials. Otherwise you have to wait for them to knock on your door.”

The degree to which authors are involved with the TV transformation varies from project to project.

STUDIOCANAL’s Bauer says of working with Ken Follett: “We want him to be happy about what we’re doing. The happier he is, the more ensconced in the process he is, the better it’s going to be when we start getting the show into

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Like STUDIOCANAL’s Code to Zero, there was some updating to be done with the Bosch franchise, which first appeared on the shelves in 1992. But changes were more about updating Harry Bosch’s history and setting rather than the kind of man he was conceived as. “Michael said from the beginning that he wanted to protect the DNA of Harry Bosch: who he is, how he acts,” says Bastin. “Michael wanted to make sure that people who have read his books for a number of years recognized Harry Bosch and the world he inhabits.”

If novel adaptations are seen as a way of mitigating risk in an expensive, high-stakes genre, forming relationships with agents and authors is an essential part of the job.

Doole says she benefits from the fact that FremantleMedia is part of Bertelsmann, which also includes Penguin Random House. “We have a meeting with them every month—they join our development sessions,” says Doole. “I’m interested in what trends are coming through from them as publishers. We also have great relationships with Pan Macmillan. I have two people within my team working nearly full time on that.”

Producers and distributors might be getting more organized about the ways in which they go after rights, but BBC Worldwide’s Donald thinks the interest in “buzzy books” has always been intense. “All producers have very strong relationships with agents to ensure that they’re on the submission round and get a call when something’s at manuscript stage,” says Donald.

He goes on to add: “What has changed is the appeal of a television adaptation over film. Notoriously, lots of rights were tied up in film contracts and the films never got made. I think now you can make a pitch to an author that a TV series or a serial is a good or arguably better exploitation than a film, which might not get made. Things have to be massively condensed when they reach the screen, so sometimes a TV series or serial can allow the book to breathe.”

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REBECCA EATON

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Masterpiece on PBS has been delivering some of the U.K.’s best dramas to American viewers every Sunday night since 1971. Rebecca Eaton, the executive producer of Masterpiece, has been with the service for most of its history. She tells TV Drama about filling the gap left by Downton Abbey and spotting compelling scripts and ideas amid the deluge of British drama on the market.

By Mansha Daswani TV DRAMA: Now that Downton Abbey has come to an end, what is next for Masterpiece? What do you have in the pipeline?

EATON: We saw the end of Downton way ahead of time, because our partners at Carnival Films and Julian [Fellowes] were talking about it and knew roughly when it would end. So we began to gear up some other projects a few years ago.

Poldark, for instance, with Mammoth Screen, captured a very solid audience, as did Grantchester and Home Fires. They’re all returning, as is Indian Summers. And now we are buying into shows like Victoria, which hopefully will be returning for many, many years. We have cleared the decks, making sure we can do the continuing series (if they’re successful), and trying to bring on a new show at least once a year.

TV DRAMA: What do you look for when assessing new projects?

EATON: It is the unanswerable question! You never know. You can put together the recipe and collect the ingredients, and yet the soufflé can fall flat. I look at the team that presents a project to us; that really opens up the conversation of who is going to be looking after this in terms of an executive producer. By the point at which we come in, there’s usually a script, so clearly what I look for is a plot and the [quality of the] writing.

When I say “good writing,” what does that mean? It’s not just good writing—it has to be writing with wit and with heart and with substance. You would think that’s easy to do, but it isn’t!

You could have wit and substance but no heart, wit and heart but no substance. So that’s the sacred trinity for me in the writing. If I get a script that has all three, it has a team and the plot moves like a freight train, then I’m comfortable and we can move on to the other things.

The next hurdle is the casting. Whoever is doing the casting must have the sensibility that matches this witty, heartfelt, substantial script. And then you’re setting production values and the rest of it. It can fall down at any point. The television program you make in your mind when you read a script as a coproducer is rarely the finished product. Sometimes [the finished product is] better, often it’s different, and every now and then it’s just not as good. How to pick the winners? Who knows. I do get a very strong feeling when I finally screen the first episode. That’s the point at which you can take a deep breath, or you can have a sinking heart and think, Uh-oh, we need to get this out of the way as soon as possible! [Laughs] TV DRAMA: How much creative input do you offer your partners as these shows are coming together?

EATON: It varies tremendously. Every project is different. With some we come in very late and we’re technically a co-producer.

And there are others where we are in at the first pitch, before there is even a script. At the moment, I’m dealing with projects all across the board. Sometimes we option books and find a British production company and then hire a writer, so we can come in at the point of initiating a project. We don’t do that very often, but we’re doing it currently with a book by Elizabeth Gilbert called The Signature of All Things. We can come in at the very end after screening the final cut of something. When we come in very early, we’re involved often in the choice of a writer, the cast and the director. Of course, our partners have the final decision on that because of the relative amount of money that we put in and what the [commissioning]

broadcaster puts in. I give notes on drafts of the script, go to the set and begin to screen the cuts as they arrive. Sometimes we get dailies. We tend to do that less and less [during production]—maybe just the first week to see if we’re all on the same page. And then we work closely with our partners in terms of how to publicize the show.

TV DRAMA: With so many American channels and platforms now in the market for British drama, it is harder for you to access the projects you want?

EATON: People understand that we have a very solid audience who will watch anything we put on at 9 o’clock on Sunday night. At least 5 million people will be there. That number can go up to 15 million people, as was the case with Downton. We have a reputation as being a good, respectful partner, not an invasive and intrusive partner. I really believe that these projects are made by some of the best producers in the world. The best thing to do is leave them to it. Money talks, and if there is a project that HBO—which has very deep pockets—wants, or somebody with a lot of money goes after a project, we can’t compete. But there is enough to go around at this point. We do 50 new hours of British drama a year. And we’re nearly full up for 2016.

TV DRAMA: Is the sheer volume of scripted coming out of the U.K. at present overwhelming?

EATON: Yes, it is. My eyeballs are spinning freely in my head from reading scripts! I used to have a development person who would read all the scripts. Then there got to be so few that we didn’t hire her anymore; there was nothing coming in. Now I think I probably have ten on my queue at all times. And they’re not scripts you can read and say, this is ridiculous. They’re all serious possibilities. They’re very different. We’re still doing the period adaptations. We’re now doing some contemporary material. There are a lot of new writers whose work I don’t know. So they are all worthy of careful time and attention. I love it! That is one of my favorite parts of this job—I love reading scripts and making the project in my head. People think you can read a script and it’s easy. It’s not. Even as you read you are casting it, doing the [set] design, shooting it, editing it. So it is quite overwhelming, and that’s a good thing.

Who knows what will happen in a year or two. There are so many changes at the BBC, so many changes at ITV, so many changes in technology and in the business models. It is a very unstable time in international television. A lot of this drama is very high end. The people who are writing, acting and directing are really good. That benefits the audience tremendously. It’s a fact that Masterpiece has prided itself on first-rate British dramas. Will there come a time when there just aren’t enough hours in a day and enough eyeballs to support all this drama?

Most people don’t spend 24 hours a day watching television.

There is a limited amount of time you can spend watching television. What will be the fate of all this product? How will the audience, even with time shifting, be able to manage it? I don’t know. It does seem a little unsustainable to me, and I speak from a focus group of one, myself, just trying to keep up with the [shows] I want to watch. And something’s gotta give, as the old saying goes. With all this drama, I don’t know how anybody can keep up in the numbers we need them to keep up.

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Ilene Chaiken

EMPIRE

In its first season, Empire exceeded all expectations. Its ratings increased with each episode and the finale drew 21.1 million viewers in Live+3 measurement. The show is set in the world of hip-hop and centers on the dealings and schemings of a megahit record label. In addition to showcasing lavishly produced musical performances, the series sheds light on issues such as poverty, drugs, crime, prison time and homophobia in ways not often seen on television. Showrunner Ilene Chaiken talks about the

By Anna Carugati reasons for Empire’s breakout success.

TV DRAMA: What was the genesis of Empire and at what point did you join the show? Had the pilot already been made?

CHAIKEN: Yes, as often happens in my business, sometimes television shows are written and created by people who haven’t actually worked in television before, especially now that more and more filmmakers are getting into television.

Television is getting so good these days, as we all know, and one of the reasons is that some of the best filmmakers are realizing that it is a great medium for storytelling. In the case of Empire, it was Lee Daniels and Danny Strong, who made Lee Daniels’ The Butler. Lee, in particular, had never gotten anywhere near television, Danny had only worked in television as an actor, but as a writer he was writing big movies. They had an idea to do a television show, which they pitched to Imagine Entertainment [co-founded by Brian Grazer and Ron Howard], and with Imagine they took it to FOX. They made a good pilot.

For every pilot that is made in that way, without a showrunner, at a certain point [the network] starts interviewing showrunners because they know they need a senior writer/showrunner to help them execute their vision—somebody who knows how to tell stories on an ongoing basis, how to run a staff, how to do all of these things a showrunner does. That’s the point at which I came in [on Empire], and it was just before the show was picked up.

I had spent most of my career doing my own work, and I became a showrunner doing my own shows. I was in the process of developing a new show when my agents called me and said, There are some people who are asking if you are interested in looking at other shows to showrun, and I said, No, I’m not doing that right now. Then they called me and said they had this Lee Daniels–Danny Strong script, and I said, OK fine, I’ll look at it, but I’m not doing it! I read the script and I said to my agents, It’s really good, it’s hard to pass it up, but still, I don’t want to do it. I want to do my own show. They said, would you just go look at the pilot? Again, reluctantly, I said yes. I went over to FOX. They have you watch the pilots they are thinking of putting on the schedule in the most inhospitable atmosphere! You are all by yourself, so you don’t have any of that group excitement. They put you in a dark little room, somebody locks the door behind you, and nobody even comes out to say hello. An assistant comes to put in the DVD. There really couldn’t be a worse [environment] in which to watch an hour

of television! I watched the pilot in that dark little room and as I was walking out I was already on the phone to my agent saying, I’ve got to do this! Tell me who else I have to meet and what I have to do, because I would actually rather do this than my own show right now—that’s how good it is.

TV DRAMA: The show portrays a very particular world. What do you think gave the show such wide appeal?

CHAIKEN: The actual analysis is beyond me, and I wouldn’t even want to venture a guess because it’s sociology; it’s cultural anthropology. But I do think there are a couple of things that are really important, apart from the fact that it’s just good. Television, at its best, takes you into a world in which you haven’t been before and tells you something new, tells fresh stories. It’s a really dynamic medium, and Empire couldn’t be more dynamic; these are really big stories about people who live in our world and who haven’t really been represented on television.

TV DRAMA: The show presents really serious issues wrapped up in a phenomenal entertainment vehicle. How do you balance the two?

CHAIKEN: That’s what makes the show work. I used to call television “stealth activism” because we get to promote an agenda, even though we are not supposed to admit it. We all feel strongly about different things, and I’m not saying Empire has only one agenda or that it’s pushing a political point of view, but we get to embed ideas and they are more powerful because you don’t [realize] that’s what we are doing, because it is entertaining.

TV DRAMA: My life couldn’t be more different from Cookie’s, and yet in every episode I find myself relating to her either as a mother or as a woman. What goes into making Cookie?

CHAIKEN: It’s so many things and it’s alchemy more than anything. I attribute a huge portion of it to Taraji P. Henson. Nobody else could do it. She brings everything to [the character]. It’s the perfect marriage of a character and an actress, and she’s just phenomenal; it’s undeniable.

TV DRAMA: How does the writers’ room work? The characters have such distinct voices. Do certain writers always write the same characters, or do you mix it up?

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were confections, and Empire is really grounded in the real world and talks about it in an important way. Here we are telling a story that is about the music business, that’s about entertaining people, that also has those joyful performance elements, and yet the crime stories that we are telling exist in that world. We have all of that available to us, and it’s real and justified. When we say we want to tell a story about such and such, there are writers in the writers’ room who will tell us ten stories of [similar] things that really happened.

TV DRAMA: The show shoots in Chicago. Does that provide for a different experience than shooting in Los Angeles would?

CHAIKEN: I’ve found that [to be the case]. Even though we complain a little bit about remote production, and logistically it’s challenging not to be there—I travel back and forth between Chicago and Los Angeles, with a little more time in Los Angeles than Chicago—my experience has been that when a cast on an ensemble show is outside Los Angeles, they bond in a way that is incredibly beneficial to the project. It becomes a little lab for the work and they are all about the work. If you are in L.A., actors, especially actors on a hit show, go out every night! They are the belles of the ball; everybody wants to see them! I’m not saying that that’s not happening for [the Empire actors], but in Chicago they are a little more focused on the work.

Taraji P. Henson and Terrence Howard headline the ensemble cast of FOX’s Empire, now in its second season and already renewed for a third.

CHAIKEN: We mix it up. There are writers who write certain characters better. My process is that at a certain point I give every script to a couple of writers I have identified and say, Now you take a pass at it and make sure to bring all of the flavor, all of the detail of that character to the dialogue. That’s the second-to-last step. The last step is the actors get the material and make it their own. It’s fortunate that Lee Daniels and I both come at this in the same way, because if we didn’t it would be problematic. We both love improvisation. He does a lot of improvising when he directs actors. Most television showrunners don’t. Some are very precious about the words; I’m not. I think it’s much more vibrant when the actors feel a little free.

They know their characters incredibly well, and they have to own them, they have to believe in them. It’s really a lot of fun to let them have some room to play.

TV DRAMA: There are jaw-dropping moments in each episode.

How do you balance them with moving the story forward?

CHAIKEN: Of course, we get very large at times, there are those “Oh my God!” moments, but I would put to you that there is almost not a single moment in Empire—as big as it seems, as extravagant as it seems—that couldn’t be real, that couldn’t actually have happened. One of the things that drew me to the show was Lee saying he wanted to do a black Dynasty. I think that Empire is much more than that and better than that, and I come from Aaron Spelling [producer of Dynasty]. My first job in television was working for Spelling. To me those shows

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TV DRAMA: In how many days do you shoot an episode?

And is Empire different from a series that doesn’t have musical numbers?

CHAIKEN: We get the same amount of time to shoot an episode, but there are differences because of the musical numbers. To shoot an hour of television takes anywhere from seven to many more days on a big cable show. We shoot for eight days.

What we all learned together over the course of the first season is that our scripts need to be a little shorter than the usual hour-long show. The music takes up time on screen and in the first couple of episodes we were leaving too much on the cutting room floor. But it also takes a lot of time to shoot those numbers.

TV DRAMA: The series has so many famous guest stars: Jennifer Hudson, Marisa Tomei, Chris Rock, Cuba Gooding, Jr. Did you and your staff reach out to them, or did stars also come to you?

CHAIKEN: A lot of people came to us for the second season.

Lee Daniels is the most connected person on the face of the Earth! Everybody wants to work with him. He is constantly saying, even now, So-and-so wants to be on the show, what can we do? People came to FOX, people came to me; we actually had to get a grip because it was really thrilling and fabulous, but I think we might even have had one or two too many guest stars in the beginning of the second season.

TV DRAMA: What can you share about the second half of the second season?

CHAIKEN: The second half of season two is all about the family coming back together at Empire. There was all of this fracturing in the first half of the season, and then because of the external adversaries, because of the moves

by Mimi and Camilla, they all have to come back together.

It doesn’t mean that everybody gets along, by any means, but in the midst of all of their antipathies, they have to fight together to win the Empire back.

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TV DRAMA: What attracted you to the role of Hap Collins in Hap and Leonard?

PUREFOY: I grew up in a very rural community in England. It was full of farm workers and people who worked in the industrialized countryside. It’s a very different world of chicken farms and pig farms, and it’s quite rough in many ways. I grew up with a lot of guys like Hap Collins. People who found themselves in their 30s and 40s, slightly stuck in dead-end jobs and not really having had a chance in life.

We meet Hap and Leonard when they’re in their mid-40s.

They’re rosarians—which is a fancy word for rose pickers.

Hap is a white, blue-collar, East Texan man who spent a couple of years in prison in his 20s for not going to Vietnam.

Leonard Pine, who is played by Michael K. Williams, is an African American ex-Marine, who happens to be gay and has a lot of anger issues. You wonder, how come these two people are friends? They seem to be a very odd couple.

Over the course of the show you see flashbacks to when they were little boys. The reason they’re such good friends is heartbreakingly sweet and lovely. They will always be friends; they fight and bicker and yell at each other, but they have a deep respect and love for each other.

TV DRAMA: The Texan accent cannot have been an easy one for you to master!

PUREFOY: It’s not an easy one to do. I don’t think it’s easy for anyone to do unless you come from Texas. When American actors talk to me about it, I hear, “Aww man, that’s a hard one, that’s tough!” It is tough. It is very particular, very specific, but you grow into it and you work with a dialect coach. Joe Lansdale, who wrote the books, was on set all the time, and he’s got a very thick East Texan accent.

So I would turn to him and say, “How do you say this?” and he’d give me a tip.

TV DRAMA: Did you contine using the Texan accent even when you weren’t filming?

JAMES PUREFOY HAP AND LEONARD

By Mansha Daswani

James Purefoy was already a prominent television and stage actor in the U.K. when he found fame in the U.S. with his role on HBO’s Rome. He went on to play the lead in the NBC summer series The Philanthropist, where he met Michael K. Williams of The Wire and Boardwalk Empire fame. Last year, fresh off his stint playing serial killer Joe Carroll in FOX’s The Following, Purefoy was back on set with Williams for Hap and Leonard.

Nick Damici and Jim Mickle penned the six-part series for SundanceTV, based on the set of books by Joe R. Lansdale and sold internationally by Entertainment One Television. Purefoy tells TV Drama about the 1980s-set show, billed as a “darkly comic swamp noir” with two unlikely best friends, a get-richquick scheme and plenty of eccentric characters.

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PUREFOY: I find it embarrassing [to stay in character] because everyone knows I’m English. [Laughs] Why are you speaking funny to me? I should maybe try to stay in it. I know there are English actors who stay in [their American accents] all the way through. I just feel like a bit of an ass when I do that. I’m not saying they are; I’m just saying that’s how I feel.

TV DRAMA: What has your working relationship with Michael K. Williams been like?

PUREFOY: It’s terrific. I did a show a few years back called The Philanthropist for NBC. I played a billionaire philanthropist and Michael played my security guy, jet pilot

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SundanceTV’s Hap and Leonard, distributed by Entertainment One Television, is based on the book series of the same name by Joe R. Lansdale.

and truck driver. He was my go-to factotum. We shot the whole thing over many months in southern Africa and Central Europe and had a really good time. That’s how Hap and Leonard came to me—through Michael. I was just wrapping up The Following, I was leaving New York and I got a call from him. I had been at a party with him a couple of nights before that. He said, You’ve got to read this script, I really want you to do this show with me. He had already been cast as Leonard, they hadn’t cast Hap yet, and the rest is history.

TV DRAMA: And how has working with Sundance Studios and SundanceTV been?

PUREFOY: It’s been really good. I loved doing The Following, but sometimes the decision-making process [on a network show]—about whether you can change something you say or what you are going to wear, all of that micromanagement of every tiny detail about you—can become irritating and difficult. You want to say, just get out of my character, this is what I want to do and this is how I’d like to play it. Because [broadcast networks] have to scoop up as many viewers as they can, the bumps that make characters interesting often get ironed out. When you’re filming television, you’re shooting really fast, you’re shooting a lot, and there isn’t time to do multiple takes. If you want to do another slightly different version [of a scene], oftentimes there simply isn’t time. With Hap and Leonard, everybody who was involved in the creative

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process—the two writers, the author of the novels—was on set all the time. Everything was happening right around the camera, so the decision-making process was instantaneous. It wasn’t, “L.A. isn’t awake yet so we’ve got to shoot this shit rather than the version we’ve all come to a decision about, which is clearly better.”

TV DRAMA: What are some of the biggest changes you’ve seen in TV since you started working in it?

PUREFOY: The massive change now is the attitude toward television. When Hollywood [stopped making] so many $30-million independent movies, those writers had to go somewhere. They’re brilliant, extraordinary writers, and they moved into television. As soon as that happened, they had much more power. We all know that the scriptwriter on movies is often pushed aside as soon as production begins. The scriptwriter on a television show is god—the person everybody pays obeisance to and without whose permission nothing can be changed.

Writers pulled the power back to themselves by moving into television. And actors who had been doing movies, who had looked askance at the television world—and I’m not part of that—started realizing that, actually, the great stories are now being told here. So they moved too.

The breakdown of that strange barrier and snobbishness that there had been between American films and American television disappeared. And that’s when the floodgates opened.

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