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THE MAGAZINE OF INTERNATIONAL MEDIA • FEBRUARY 2016
www.worldscreen.com
Berlinale Edition
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CONTENTS
FEBRUARY 2016/BERLINALE EDITION DEPARTMENTS WORLD VIEW
Publisher Ricardo Seguin Guise
8
A note from the editor.
UPFRONTS
Group Editorial Director Anna Carugati
12
Editor Mansha Daswani
New content on the market.
IN THE NEWS
Executive Editor Kristin Brzoznowski
26
SundanceTV’s Christian Vesper.
WORLD’S END
Managing Editor Joanna Padovano Associate Editors Sara Alessi Joel Marino
30
In the stars.
Editor, Spanish-Language Publications Elizabeth Bowen-Tombari
12
18
SPOTLIGHT
Associate Editor, Spanish-Language Publications Jessica Rodríguez
16 FREMANTLEMEDIA’S JENS RICHTER
Contributing Editor Elizabeth Guider
The CEO of FremantleMedia International talks about the company’s increasing commitment to high-end drama.
Special Projects Editor Bob Jenkins
—Mansha Daswani
BEHIND THE SCENES
Production & Design Director Victor L. Cuevas
18 TONY JORDAN
Online Director Simon Weaver
The acclaimed showrunner offers up an inside look at his new BBC drama Dickensian.
Art Director Phyllis Q. Busell
—Kristin Brzoznowski
SPECIAL REPORT
Senior Sales & Marketing Manager Dana Mattison
22 EUROPE TAKES AIM
Sales & Marketing Manager Elizabeth Walsh
From the U.K. to France, Germany to Iceland and beyond, Europe has become a prolific provider of drama series to the global market. —Mansha Daswani
Business Affairs Manager Andrea Moreno Contributing Writers Steve Clarke Andy Fry Jane Marlow Joanna Stephens Jay Stuart David Wood Copy Editor Stacey Wujcik
Ricardo Seguin Guise President
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Anna Carugati Executive VP Mansha Daswani Associate Publisher & VP of Strategic Development
22 THE LEADING ONLINE DAILY NEWS SERVICE FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MEDIA INDUSTRY. For a free subscription, visit www.subscriptions.ws
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WORLD VIEW
BY MANSHA DASWANI
Too Much Drama? FX Networks chief John Landgraf made headlines last summer when he declared: “this is simply too much television.” A few months later, FX backed up that view with new research indicating that there were 409 scripted titles on air across the U.S. landscape in 2015, a gain of 9 percent on the previous year. “This was the third consecutive year that the scripted series count has grown across each distribution platform— broadcast, basic and pay cable, streaming—led by significant gains in basic cable and digital services,” Julie Piepenkotter, FX’s executive VP of research, said in releasing the data. “This statistic is staggering and almost unimaginable from where they were a decade ago.” Now, in order to have access to those 400-plus shows (well, legitimate access that is), you would need to be what research firm GfK has dubbed a “digital enthusiast”—someone who subscribes to three or more online video services, plus cable TV. About 40 percent of U.S. audiences fall into that category—I’m one of them, and the process of choosing what to watch when you’re on limited time can be pretty agonizing. Jessica Jones on Netflix, Deutschland 83 on Hulu or The Man in the High Castle on Amazon? Scandal on ABC, Fargo on FX, The Walking Dead on AMC, Billions on Showtime or Da Vinci’s Demons on Starz? Audiences, and buyers, are most definitely spoiled for choice when it comes to scripted product. Indeed, there are so many new titles on offer from across the globe that it’s no wonder that industry watchers have started to ask when the drama bubble will burst. It’s not just the volume of scripted that has taken everyone by surprise: the diversity, too, would have been unimaginable a decade ago. Just look at what’s happening in the U.S., where international producers and distributors are finally seeing real traction when it comes to placing foreign product in front of American audiences. On the OTT side, Netflix, Hulu and Amazon have created a wealth of new opportunities. Cable networks in the U.S. are more open to foreign fare, both English-language and subtitled. SundanceTV made waves with its co-pro deal with FremantleMedia International on the German-language series Deutschland 83. We hear from SundanceTV’s Christian Vesper about his programming strategy in this issue, as well as from FremantleMedia International’s Jens Richter about Deutschland 83 and the company’s other high-end dramas. Esquire Network is another new face on the international scripted block, signing up for shows like Beowulf and Spotless. A&E, too, has become a home for high-end drama, committing to BBC Worldwide’s epic War and Peace, while sister network Lifetime has partnered with the BBC on the Agatha Christie-inspired And Then There
It’s not just the volume of
scripted that has taken everyone by surprise: the diversity, too, would have been unimaginable a decade ago.
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Were None. My report in this edition on European drama addresses the transformation of the U.S. market and other trends in this booming business. Around the world, distributors are finding lots of new opportunities. In China, digital platforms like Youku Tudou and Letv, among others, are buying lots of scripted, despite new content restrictions. In the U.K., Channel 4’s Walter Presents has created a new avenue for selling foreign-language drama into that market. Across Europe, broadcasters are coming together for cross-border collaborations in a bid to create scripted product that will translate easily across markets. So what is 2016 going to look like on the drama front? A recent NATPE survey indicated that more than half of the group’s members believe that the number of scripted shows will increase over the next two years, while almost half expect budgets to decline. Of those polled, 75 percent believe that streaming VOD services will play the largest role in bringing new scripted shows to the market in the next two years. As OTT services keep driving the trend toward heavily serialized scripted content, you can expect free-to-air broadcasters across the globe to continue to bemoan the lack of quality procedurals on the market. The pact announced last year between NBCUniversal International Television Production, Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland and TF1 to produce original U.S.-style procedural dramas might well be a blueprint for broadcasters going forward. So is there too much drama? Perhaps, but audiences have declared that they want a diversity of options, and they want their very targeted interests satisfied. It can’t all be heroic cops and brave doctors. Audiences want multifaceted characters and intriguing worlds. “No longer is it enough solely to attract eyeballs, seeking the largest audiences possible for advertising and subscription revenues,” PwC stated in its Industry Perspective: 2016 Entertainment & Media Industry Trends report. “Now, you must create fans: active users united by shared ideas, interests and experiences, who will return every day to your brands and properties. As a fan-centric business, buoyed by the loyalty of passionate users, you will command substantial strategic advantages. You will know more about who your users are, what they want, and how to deliver it to them. This will enable you to more effectively monetize your products and experiences. Current fans recruit new fans. Best of all, fans spend more per capita and are less likely to churn…. Any companies hoping to join the fray will need to be better than the competition in locking up fan engagement, loyalty, spending, and in investing in efforts that drive fan value.”
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UPFRONTS
all3media international Ice / Murder Detective / 800 Words Making its first outing at Berlinale, all3media international is showcasing Ice, a thriller set at an Antarctic research station. The company is also promoting the series Murder Detective, set in Sarajevo in the early 1990s during the war. These projects are “great fits for the Berlinale market as they are all set in precincts where you naturally have many different nationalities and backgrounds coming together,” says David Swetman, a senior acquisitions executive at all3media international. “These projects are on a large, multi-broadcaster scale and ambition with plenty of space for engaged creative partners from around Europe.” Another highlight is 800 Words. “It’s a charming story of personal tragedy and positive chaos and has surefire appeal in the remake market,” says Swetman.
“We haven’t attended Berlinale before but it’s clear that, even after a relatively short time as a TV market, producers and broadcasters alike see this as the market to broker co-production deals.” —David Swetman 800 Words
FILM.UA Distribution The Stolen Princess / The Stronghold / Battle for Sevastopol As FILM.UA Distribution returns to the Berlinale market, the company is keen to promote the feature The Stolen Princess to attendees. The animated fantasy/comedy movie will make its theatrical debut in Ukraine in the fall and the TV rights have been presold to Novy TV in the country. “The producers and creative team are developing the production at the highest level [of quality], plus the English-language international version is being produced simultaneously with the original Ukrainian production,” says Igor Storchak, the CEO of FILM.UA Distribution. Other highlights from the company include The Stronghold, an adventure/fantasy feature that is currently in production, and Battle for Sevastopol, the distribution rights for which are held by France’s Loco Films.
“We’re expecting to increase the awareness for our brand and projects around the world and to find new opportunities for international co-productions, as we have a list of projects in development at the moment.” —Igor Storchak The Stolen Princess
MarVista Entertainment Most Likely to Die / Consumed / Terrordactyl MarVista Entertainment has been a Berlinale participant since 2007 and returns this year with a slate of new highlights that includes the horror film Most Likely to Die, indie drama Consumed and creature feature Terrordactyl. “There’s a great deal of opportunity at Berlinale,” says Vanessa Shapiro, the executive VP of global distribution at MarVista Entertainment. “You want to make sure your films demonstrate the breadth of your production capabilities, so that buyers will want to screen more than just one film, potential co-production partners will fully understand what talents and skillsets we bring to the table, and so financiers can recognize our viability as a strong investment.” In total, MarVista will be presenting a portfolio of 13 movies across all genres at Berlinale.
“For Berlinale we looked to assemble a robust slate of films that we believe best represent the scope and diversity of MarVista Entertainment’s original productions, as well as the type of content we typically acquire.” —Vanessa Shapiro Consumed 12 World Screen 2/16
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New Films International The Sound and the Fury / Undercover / New York A longtime attendee of Berlinale, New Films International is returning this year with a slate of series, including Undercover and New York, as well as films such as The Sound and the Fury. “The Sound and the Fury is a top-quality artistic movie directed by James Franco and he is also starring in it,” says Nesim Hason, the founder of New Films International. There’s a fifth season of Undercover being presented as well. “Undercover is our hit action/crime show, which was sold in 184 countries in the world so far and it keeps selling,” says Hason. The series New York blends elements of action, crime and comedy to tell the story of Israeli immigrants living in New York City. Hason says it has an “amazing story” at its center.
“We are planning to focus on making sales for our catalogue titles as well as TV series.” —Nesim Hason Undercover
Séries Mania Berlinale Drama Series Days: February 15 & 16 / Séries Mania Festival: April 15 to 24 For the second year, Séries Mania is partnering with the Berlinale Drama Series Days for a project exchange between the two events. In 2016, the Berlinale Co-Production Market will invite the Danish project DNA, which was part of the Séries Mania selection in April 2015, to be pitched during the co-pro series pitching sessions that will take place on February 16. In return, Laurence Herszberg, the general director of event organizer Forum des Images and founder of Séries Mania, will assist with the pitching session in Berlin and will choose one project from the Berlinale selection. She will invite the producers to pitch their project in Paris on April 19. “This second window will give producers more chances to find the right partner and complete the financing of their projects,” says Herszberg.
“We are very proud of this collaboration between two major events in two amazing European cities, Paris and Berlin.” —Laurence Herszberg Séries Mania Festival
ZDF Enterprises Ku’damm 56 / Blochin / The Fall The 3x90-minute event movie Ku’damm 56, a top highlight for ZDF Enterprises at Berlinale, tells a story of young women in the 1950s and their rebelliousness against the view of a woman’s role in post-war society and their struggle for a self-determined, feminine identity. Fred Burcksen, the executive VP and COO of ZDF Enterprises, says the show “could easily turn into a bingeviewing favorite with its stunningly realistic sets, costumes and, of course, stories.” Further highlights include Blochin, which stars Jürgen Vogel as a police inspector who used to work on the other side of the law. “Blochin has us on pins and needles after its resoundingly positive reception at last year’s Berlinale and its nomination for the Golden Camera this year,” says Burcksen. There’s also a second season of The Fall being presented.
“For a high production value, we need renowned producers and popular actors, which is why we work with some of the greatest talents of their generation, who have been honored with various prestigious awards.” —Fred Burcksen The Fall 14 World Screen 2/16
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SPOTLIGHT
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JensRichter FremantleMedia Drama has been a key focus for FremantleMedia over the last year. The group made a string of investments in drama producers, among them Corona in the U.K. and Wildside in Italy, aligned itself with a range of indies and ramped up the scripted output from its bases around the world. With a slate that includes Starz’s upcoming American Gods, the critically acclaimed German period piece Deutschland 83 and the Scandi hit Modus, FremantleMedia International (FMI) has emerged as a leading distributor of drama series for broadcasters across the globe. FMI’s CEO, Jens Richter, tells World Screen about the company’s strategy for further expanding its presence in the worldwide drama business. By Mansha Daswani WS: Tell us about how FMI’s drama business has evolved. RICHTER: Over the last year at FremantleMedia in general we had a huge push into drama. And you see it on various fronts. On one side we invested quite heavily into new drama production companies. We had new drama talent join the group, like Kate Harwood coming over from the BBC to revive Euston Films. The other thing is communication about drama within the group went up a lot. We work really closely with each other. We talk about pipeline development, we talk about who’s doing what, we are working on co-productions between various FM producers on ideas that can connect countries. At the beginning of 2015 we launched The Returned from FremantleMedia North America (FMNA) and there was a global rollout with Netflix. You heard about the ratings for Deutschland 83 on Channel 4, which were amazing. With FMNA we’re in pre-production for American Gods. We work with Paul Abbott and AbbottVision—we launched No Offence, we have some great international partners on it, like France Télévisions, and we have a second season coming. We have from Scandinavia’s Miso Film Modus, Acquitted and Dicte. Modus is TV4’s highest-rated drama launch in two and a half years. Acquitted had huge ratings in Norway on TV2, and a second season is coming. We have in production now The Young Pope, from Wildside, starring Jude Law and Diane Keaton. We have Hard Sun written by Neil Cross, the guy behind Luther, for the BBC. We went out with Capital, produced by Kudos. We have another season of Wentworth coming from FremantleMedia Australia. We even had a local remake in Holland. WS: What are the biggest challenges in selling nonEnglish-language drama? RICHTER: The acceptance in the market, the perception. It starts from a practical point of view: if you have an Englishlanguage drama and you put that in front of a buyer, they just understand it, they get it, it’s what they’re used to buying. You come with a German or Italian show, they’re reading subtitles. It is a bigger hurdle. So the proposition you put in front of buyers has to be unique and really good. It doesn’t make sense to come around with non-English-language drama that is just OK. We launched Modus for instance at MIPCOM. It looks like Scandi noir, it fits that bill 100 percent, but it’s not a whodunit because we know in the first scene who did it. So it’s why did he do it? It’s a different perspective. He’s also the best-looking serial killer ever on television! Before going out to market with a non-English-language drama, you have to be even more careful about what the USP of the show is. Why should a broadcaster or platform take it on?
In general, SVOD platforms can play more with programming. On the one hand, they play it really safe because they need to have the mainstream shows, they have to have the big names. But they can take a part of their platform and turn it into a sandbox where they can try stuff. It’s very different from the linear world, where every time slot is a valuable piece of real estate. If your 8 p.m. time slot goes wrong, your whole audience flow for the evening is screwed up. If you put something out that you haven’t tried before on an SVOD platform, you get the numbers and you analyze the numbers, and if it works you can get more into it. Generation War was on Netflix in the U.S. and it did well for them, so by the time we spoke to SundanceTV [about Deutschland 83] we knew there was a market there in the U.S. for outstanding German drama, so why not try linear as well? To be frank, you have to run through the same kind of thought process and preparations when you go to market with an English-language drama. You just have to be even more careful with the non-English-language because it’s not your traditional product. WS: How much have the SVOD platforms changed the way you invest in and distribute your dramas? RICHTER: When it was only linear, the market was smaller, you had to play it a little safer maybe. Now you have new players in the market, new technology, the consumer behavior is changing territory by territory. There’s an opening for both serialized drama product and the closedended procedural product. So when you look at drama, especially drama series, you have a little bit of a divide. In the SVOD and pay-TV worlds that allow for binge-watching, the serialized product is really cool. In the traditional linear world, the procedurals, the story-of-the-week aspect, is still very important. The other aspect is English-language versus non-English-language—with the rise of SVOD there is more potential for non-English-language. However, there’s also more potential for non-Englishlanguage product in the linear world now. There were a lot of slots previously dominated by American drama series, procedural drama series. There are less of those coming out of America. Linear needs procedurals, so if they don’t come out of America, maybe they come from somewhere else. In general, there are more opportunities, it’s a changing world, and we need to think in terms of building a wider slate. However, we have to be very careful about how original the individual drama is, what the USP of that original drama is. You don’t want to be number five in line with the same kind of idea as other shows before you.
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BEHIND THE SCENES
Tony Jordan
Dickensian By Kristin Brzoznowski
Set within the fictional realms of Charles Dickens’s classic novels, the drama Dickensian brings together some of the most iconic characters in literary history. The 20-part series, produced by Red Planet Pictures for BBC One and sold by BBC Worldwide, follows as these characters’ lives intertwine against the backdrop of 19th-century London. Tony Jordan, the founder of Red Planet who spent many years as the lead writer and series consultant for EastEnders, is behind the period piece. He tells World Screen about how he went about reimagining the world of Dickens and the characters that inhabit it. WS: What was the genesis of Dickensian? JORDAN: I had read about another [Charles] Dickens adaptation and thought, I’ve seen that about 11 times! Does Dickens have any new material that I could adapt? [Laughs] His characters are amazing, and I thought it would be really fun to mix them all up, to do a Dickens mash-up. But I thought, obviously someone has done that already because it’s so brilliant. I forgot about it for a few days, and then I mentioned it to someone, who said they hadn’t heard of anything like it being done before. We researched it, and nobody had done it! Nobody had ever taken those quite brilliant, iconic characters and put them together. Even Dickens himself never wrote a scene between Scrooge and Fagin, and I did that.
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WS: How closely did you draw from Dickens’s works? JORDAN: I’m not using any of his books in any way. Nothing about Dickensian is an adaptation. You don’t need to have watched any other adaptations or read any of his books; you can come in as a Dickens virgin. [The series features] all new stories, but some are prequels to Dickens’s stories. For example, everybody has an image of Miss Havisham [from Great Expectations], the woman who was jilted on her wedding day and all these years later is still wearing the veil, sitting at a table brokenhearted. We’ve seen different versions of that [character], played by Helena Bonham Carter, Gillian Anderson. But nobody has ever asked, How did she get to be that woman? With Dickensian, we wanted to tell that story. We have Tuppence Middleton, who is amazing in this, as our young Miss Havisham, and we see what happens to her—how she comes to be a crazy woman, or whether she gets married and lives happily ever after! That’s the thing with Dickensian: there are no rules. WS: How did you decide which characters were going to be part of the series? JORDAN: You pick your favorites, don’t you? One of my favorite Dickens adaptations is The Muppet Christmas Carol. Kermit as Bob Cratchit, it’s amazing! So I wanted to use Scrooge, and we have Robert
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Dickensian, which is being rolled out by BBC Worldwide, premiered on BBC One in December.
Wilfort, who’s a fantastic actor, as our Bob Cratchit. We wanted to do that story because it’s a frame of reference that everybody understands. People the world over, who may not know anything about Dickens, have probably heard of Ebenezer Scrooge. That character was first on my list. Most people also know [the characters of] Oliver Twist, Fagin, Bill Sikes and Nancy [from the novel Oliver Twist], but I also found some more obscure characters that people may not know, like Mrs. Gamp from Martin Chuzzlewit. I wanted to mix all of these characters up, and one story has an effect on another, characters cross over, and in the end it becomes a celebration of Dickens’s work rather than a retelling of stories that are already known. I wanted it to be accessible to everybody. Some people think of Charles Dickens and [find his work to be] a bit stuffy and not for them. All of my shows are made for big, popular audiences. This show is about the joy of being able to see those characters in a different setting and you don’t need to know anything about Charles Dickens to enjoy it. WS: Did you also aim to please Dickens devotees? JORDAN: We did the whole series with a real irreverence but were still respectful to the characters. I’ve made sure that the characters we’ve lifted out of the
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novels are faithful to the originals. I haven’t made Scrooge gay! We’ve stayed true to the characters. For the purists, they will get to see a side of those characters they’ve never seen before. This is the most exciting project I have ever done as a writer, without question. The subject matter is amazing, and we tell universal stories, about love, betrayal, murder. WS: What were some of the challenges in re-creating Victorian London? JORDAN: Dickens used elements like night, snow, mist, fog and all of that stuff to create an atmosphere. That’s tough to shoot! Just shooting at night is tough! So we created a world of Dickens’s imagination on this amazing backlot set, which had 27 two-story buildings, a church, stately homes, law buildings, cobbled streets. We can make it snow, make it rain, have it be night or day whenever we’d like. We’ve created a Victorian London that is probably closer to [the actual time and setting] than anything seen before. The shops you see on our street are real; you could actually go in and they are stocked. It feels like a real place. The set itself is a work of genius. Internationally, people love the idea of Victorian London and that old London town, and you’ve got that in spades with Dickensian.
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ZDF Enterprises’s Blochin.
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EUR PE
TAKES AIM From the U.K. to France, Germany to Iceland and beyond, Europe has become a prolific provider of drama series to the global market. By Mansha Daswani
S
ome 2.5 million viewers in the U.K. tuned in to the first episode of Deutschland 83 last month. The ratings on Channel 4 make the RTL commission the highestrated foreign-language drama in U.K. history. The impressive U.K. numbers come after a buzz-generating American launch on SundanceTV last summer
and a slate of other international deals. “It’s turned into the bestselling German drama in a very long time,” says Jens Richter, the CEO of FremantleMedia Inter national, which is distributing the show. “It’s one of the best-selling non-Englishlanguage dramas in a long time.” It has, indeed, been a good few years for European drama, with the Scandinavians, the French, the Germans and others joining the Brits as go-to suppliers for primetime scripted product. “When you look at the market, there is an opening for European non-English-language drama,” Richter says. “There’s been good stuff coming out of Scandinavia for years.
There are good shows coming out of France, out of Spain, out of Italy. Why not Germany? UFA, FremantleMedia’s German arm [which produced Deutschland 83], is the biggest producer of drama in Germany, and Germany is the biggest TV market on the continent and spends the most money on local production. So it was almost overdue! Generation War won the International Emmy [in 2014] and proved that the unexpected shows can come out of Germany.”
GERMAN MIGHT Alexander Coridass, president and CEO of ZDF Enterprises, is also feeling bullish about what’s happening in the German scripted market at present. “With a drama output that’s among the best in Europe both in quantity and quality, Germany is in a truly privileged situation, and fiction is the programmatic spine of all major players, no matter whether in free TV, pay TV or VOD,” Coridass notes. “ZDF alone produces more than 300 new episodes every year, primarily for the genres of crime, family and drama. These series, which can rake in an enormous viewership, are also a bank for international sales.” Coridass notes that German broadcasters are also beginning to experiment with edgier fare, notably Generation War and
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Deutschland 83 as well as The Team and Blochin. “I see the following new trend: very strong projects in limited series that prove to be particularly successful for both nonlinear and niche broadcasters, and strong mainstream series that grab the broad audience of linear broadcasters.” Coridass adds, “We are very satisfied with the European hit status of German series and TV movies. They are aired in many important markets—from Italy to other Southern European, Central and Eastern European countries, to the Benelux and Northern Europe. In particular, many productions that are not given flashy write-ups in the press secure us long-term, profitable sales volumes—and we are still making 60 to 70 percent of our turnover with linear TV. But our more ‘niche’ oriented programs are also doing very well.” Red Arrow International, a division of ProSiebenSat.1, has been diversifying its scripted slate over the last few years but still sees the benefit of having high-end local series to offer the market. Its newest German highlight is Einstein, and Henrik Pabst, managing director of Red Arrow International, expects the SAT.1 series to generate both finished-program and format sales. “In general, European drama is on the rise, but it’s not without its challenges,” Pabst observes. “European broadcasters are spending less
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Federation Entertainment is steadily building up a slate of both English-language and local European drama, with offerings that include The Bureau (Le Bureau des Légendes), a CANAL+ commission. money, so financing is more fragmented. That leads to the problem of several cooks. If you have a restaurant, it doesn’t make sense to have ten chefs in the kitchen! There must always be a very strong vision at the start of any project.”
SCRIPTED FORMULAS “Partnership has become the flavor of the month,” agrees Lionel Uzan, co-founder and managing director of Federation Entertainment, which has such scripted properties on its slate as the French hit The Bureau, Netflix’s upcoming Marseille, the Finnish show Replacements and the Israeli drama Hostages. It is also the French partner on Lookout Point’s The Collection with BBC Worldwide and Amazon. And when it comes to how best to manage those collaborations across borders, many agree that it begins with open communication. “It’s all about knowing what the broadcasters are looking for and which production companies would fit with which projects,” says Maartje Horchner, head of acquisitions at all3media international, which has been stepping up its scripted co-production activities. “It is an interesting development that so many more channels have hired heads of co-production. Whereas previously this would probably only be the bigger channels, even smaller and digital channels and of course the VOD platforms (worldwide and national) have hired people to lead
their co-production opportunities and therefore have become an interested partner to us.” Gaumont Television created a new international co-production role in 2014 to tap into these opportunities around the world. “They’d started the U.S. office five years prior, and French television at around the same time,” says Elizabeth Dreyer, the studio’s Parisbased head of international coproduction. “This was the last piece of the puzzle. I’m looking for European stories and storytellers, and bringing them to global audiences.” In the works are the 1960s-set Spy City with novelist William Boyd, 1001 by Lars Lundström and Ken Sanzel’s show Crosshair. Asked about how to manage complex copro partnerships, Dreyer notes, “There’s a lot of diplomacy involved. I find myself explaining a lot to our French co-producers about what needs to be done abroad. Those are usually conversations about how talent works. We’re working with U.S. writers and those deals are complicated and otherworldly to our French co-producers who’ve originated these great ideas. The talent just works so differently in the U.S. when you’re dealing with U.S. agencies. It’s not rocket science, it’s just a lot of educating both sides on what’s done habitually, what the expectations are.” The international co-pros of today are a far cry from the socalled “Euro-puddings” of the ’90s.
But, Dreyer observes, “You still have the Euro-puddings—they just have a harder time getting financed. Sometimes you can feel actors working their mouths around the English [in shows written in Europe]. You just need somebody in the driver’s seat who is really paying attention.”
MIND YOUR LANGUAGE A new development in the international drama business is Continental European dramas shot in English— think Zodiak Media’s Versailles or Red Arrow’s 100 Code. Pabst notes that “100 Code continues to sell really well. We sold it to Sky Atlantic in the U.K. The way the story is told, it’s absolutely natural that 70 percent of the [dialogue] in the series is English and the rest is Swedish. But it didn’t do us any harm in selling the show. As long as it feels natural that the people speak English, we will continue to produce these European co-pros in English. If it’s needed that we build in the local language for the story, we will.” “The barrier of the language is still there, but it isn’t as high as it used to be,” says Federation’s Uzan. Dreyer points to Gaumont Television’s U.S. drama Narcos for Netflix, where much of the dialogue is in Spanish. “Narcos really changed the game for us internationally in terms of the stories you can tell and what language you can do a show in. The projects we’re looking at now we’re saying, the characters can speak
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French in this part, they can speak German to each other.” Richter acknowledges that foreign-language drama can be a tougher sell: “So the proposition you put in front of buyers has to be unique. It doesn’t make sense to come around with non-Englishlanguage drama that is just OK.” However, in this crowded market, even English-language drama can no longer just be average. And for distributors, having a diverse slate is key. At ZDF Enterprises, for example, “Scandinavian series remain a major pillar of our co-production and sales strategy,” Coridass notes, adding that the company is looking at scripted projects out of Central Europe, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain and the U.K. Red Arrow has built up its slate of U.K. scripted and is taking its first Icelandic series to market with Case, which Pabst describes as “The Killing meets Broadchurch.” For Pabst, one of the biggest challenges in rolling out European drama is finding qualified talent. “So many of the top people and companies are tied up in deals.” Gaumont’s Dreyer lists finding writers for projects as one of her biggest issues. “They’re all very busy. There aren’t enough writers. Everybody says so. And the market hasn’t evolved enough here where you can [get a show commissioned from a] great piece of writing by somebody with no credits. I hope it will get there. And there are people
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like Frank Spotnitz and Paul Abbott who are training writers up on their shows, and [there are] writing programs like Serial Eyes—the new voices are being nurtured.”
TALENT MANAGEMENT Horchner reports that at all3media, “Some of our writing talent are working with younger script writers. It is a tough market for new writers—commissioners like to bank on security, experience and celebrated talent. It gives them comfort knowing that someone with so many highly acclaimed credits is writing their newest big title. The problem is there is only a small pool of writers who get the commissions—getting those writers to write for you might force producers to wait for them to become available. So for us it is important that there is collaboration, mentoring in some instances, where writers with great acclaim will set up a story and mentor their juniors through writing further episodes.” Horchner notes that all3media has its own portfolio of sister companies to tap into for its drama-distribution catalogue, but she is still on the lookout for other ventures and talent to tie up with. “We have a healthy
FremantleMedia’s expanding drama portfolio includes, from Scandinavia, the crime series Modus, produced by Miso Film for TV4 Sweden. stream of new content coming through via the all3media-owned companies, but we also work with third-party independent producers, some of whom we have first-look deals with. In the last 18 months we signed eight first-look deals with production companies across all genres, but our emphasis has firmly been on drama production talent.” Examples include an alliance with George Faber’s The Forge, and Jack and Harry Williams, the writers of The Missing. “Our drama strategy is to surround ourselves with production talent and the greatest creative minds, which allows us to dip
all3media international has an alliance with Jack and Harry Williams, who penned The Missing.
into a pool of fabulous drama developments where we can collaborate on creating and developing content, produced to a high standard—with us helping on the production finance and ultimate exploitation revenues of the shows.” As for the kinds of projects she’s looking for, Horchner says, “We steer toward big-budget crowdpulling titles with big-name actors, writers, directors and production talent already attached. The intention is to make them a genuine co-production, with that I mean a co-production where both territories have meaningful input, either by shooting location and/or cast and crew, but sometimes we will consider to have co-productions where it is for funding reasons solely.” One area that a number of European producers and distributors are exploring is procedurals, given that the U.S. market has shifted much further into serialized storytelling. “Free- and pay-TV broadcasters are looking for and airing longrunning series with self-contained episodes because a large part of the viewers love this kind of TV,” ZDF Enterprises’s Coridass says. “We are often asked when a European series like Derrick will come to 21st century media. I think we already have it in our catalogue [with] A Case of Murder, and series such as Dr. Klein or our SOKO franchise.” Gaumont’s Dreyer observes that “the European market is changing very slowly. The channels want to take big swings, they are trying, but it’s hard—they still have to treat their home territory right, they still have to give their audiences what they want. But you do feel a willingness
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from RTL, from Rai, to think about the shows that could work for them at home and [sell well] abroad. That door was completely closed a couple of years ago—now they’re willing to have those conversations.” What’s helping to drive those conversations, Pabst notes, is that “countries are opening up in terms of tax breaks to incentivize coproductions. Tax breaks are a fundamental piece of the financing.” Ultimately, “It’s all about the script,” Horchner says. “A good script is the cornerstone of any great drama, but especially for international co-production where sometimes concessions need to be made.” And, on top of getting the creative right, you need to be spot-on with your windowing strategies. “More buyers is always good,” says Federation’s Uzan on how OTT platforms have impacted the drama-distribution business. “They’ve created competition, which is good. What’s difficult is how to organize your windows. That’s becoming complex. OTT platforms started buying locally and now they’re buying global rights. So what does it mean for a distributor in terms of windowing? What do you favor in terms of deals? Is it good to do a global deal? Is it better to sell territory by territory? What do you do if you get an offer out of Germany from a broadcaster, but you know if you make that sale then maybe a deal with a platform that wants to have the major European territories might be at stake? It’s that complexity we have to address. And I think it’s going to become more and more complex.”
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IN THE NEWS
way that is completely addictive, dramatic and tense and yet are still character-driven. There are no cheap sentiments or plot devices; it’s earned. That, to me, is the greatest kind of storytelling that we can do. Those pieces also have a genre quality. The crime and the drama are a backdrop to the characters discovering something about themselves. What I loved about Top of the Lake was that ultimately what was interesting about the story wasn’t the whodunit or howdunnit; it was about where all the characters lived emotionally throughout the piece. Those are the kinds of projects that we’re always looking for. It’s all about finding pieces that are smart and entertaining at the same time.
CHRISTIAN VESPER
SundanceTV By Kristin Brzoznowski
Since its launch 20 years ago, SundanceTV has carried out founder Robert Redford’s mission of celebrating creativity and distinctiveness in storytelling. The network’s current crop of programming is testament to that, from originals such as the critically lauded Rectify and upcoming darkly comedic noir Hap and Leonard to international co-productions such as The Last Panthers, Rebellion and Cleverman. As the senior VP of international programming, development, acquisitions and coproductions at SundanceTV, Christian Vesper has been working to bring the world’s best dramas to the U.S., seeking out stories with a unique point of view. He tells World Screen about his strategy for original programming and co-productions. WS: Tell us about the scripted strategy at SundanceTV. VESPER: Right now it’s all about having stories that offer a unique vision of the world. All of our storytelling is linked [together] by a distinctive point of view, with intimate, grounded stories in any genre. It’s about having scale and scope, and we are very character-driven in our storytelling. We [appreciate] projects that come to us from a creator or showrunner who has a point of view that is distinct and is told in a way that is very intimate and dramatic. Coming up we have The Last Panthers, Hap and Leonard and Rectify season four. What I love in particular on the co-production side with the experience of The Last Panthers and The Honorable Woman, which we had [in 2014], is that they are big stories, but they are told in a
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WS: SundanceTV recently came on board as a co-producer for The Last Panthers, Cleverman and Rebellion. What’s guiding your overall approach to co-productions? VESPER: In this marketplace, it’s about two things. It’s about making sure that you have good relationships with producers and distributors so that you’re constantly aware of what’s coming down the pike. We have good relationships with writers as well, so we ourselves are making sure that we are coming across projects that make sense for us. It’s also about timing. So with those three projects in particular, we had the space for them and they were the right projects at the right time. Each came to us in a different way. With The Last Panthers, I’m close to the producers, Haut et Court and Warp Films. I have been talking to them about that project for years. As it came together, we saw that it was something we could get involved with. We have been a part of that project [from an early stage]; we have been coproducers since the beginning. I read the scripts when they were first done, we gave notes and it evolved. With Cleverman, we were also involved early on. Rebellion is a special project. We have often said that we don’t do period [pieces]. Now, we’re doing period! [Laughs] It goes to show that you can never count anything out. There were early versions of the scripts that we read that Touchpaper TV and RTÉ brought to us. I have a good relationship with Jane [Gogan, RTÉ’s head of television drama] and she kept pushing me to think about it. So I did, and it had such a unique point of view. It was a period piece, but from a very different perspective. [It tells the story of] the first stage of the Irish breaking free from the English. I didn’t realize that it was this whole social justice movement and that women at that time in Ireland were pushing for equal rights. By the second stage of the Irish revolution the church had totally sidelined women and set up a 20th century of patriarchal repression. It was neat to see this perspective, so we jumped in. I’m convinced that there’s a big Irish-American audience for it. WS: How important is it for you to be involved at the earliest possible stage? VESPER: We like to get involved as early as possible. We want to help projects get made. We also feel that we bring value to the equation. We are very respectful collaborators. We believe in the writers’ and directors’ visions and like to work with producers and companies that have that same perspective. We also understand our market and what the channel needs. The earlier we get involved, the better placed we are to get a show that works for us. We have a track record in terms of award nominations that bears that out.
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TRULY GLOBAL
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WORLD’S END
IN THE STARS Almost every national constitution forbids the establishment of an official state religion. But this secular bent doesn’t stop people from looking to the heavens for answers to life’s most troublesome questions: Will I succeed? Will I find love? Will I get mistaken for a bank robber?
George Lucas
Ricky Gervais
Sharon Osbourne
Johnny Depp
GEORGE LUCAS
JOHNNY DEPP
reportedly forgets to remove his Apple Watch while filming a scene for the next Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Producers on the flick, which is set in the 18th century, allegedly incur some costly editing expenses to erase the hi-tech gadget from being seen during a swashbuckling swordfight. Horoscope: “Be sure to pay close attention to details, especially when handling important tasks.” (stonerhoroscope.com)
these little pearls of random fore-
Rose, the Star Wars creator compares Disney— which bought his company, Lucasfilm, and the rights to the hit film franchise for $4 billion in 2012— to “white slavers.” He tells the interviewer, “These are my kids. All the Star Wars films. I love them, I created them, I’m very intimately involved in them. And I sold them to the white slavers that take these things and....” Lucas later issues an apology for what he calls an “inappropriate analogy.” Horoscope: “You could find yourself in the spotlight, so be as careful with what you say as how you say it.” (johnhayes.biz)
sight occasionally prove prophetic.
RICKY GERVAIS
Every day, papers, magazines and websites worldwide print horoscopes—projections for people born in a specific month, based on the positions of the stars and planets. While many people rely on these daily, weekly or monthly messages for guidance in their lives, some readers skip over them entirely. The editors of WS recognize that
But rather than poring over charts of the zodiac to predict world events, our staff prefers to use past horoscopes in an attempt to legitimize the science. As you can see here, had some of these media figures remembered to consult their horoscopes on significant dates, they could have avoided a few surprises.
Global distinction: Filmmaking legend. Sign: Taurus (b. May 14, 1944) Significant date: December 30, 2015 Noteworthy activity: In an interview with Charlie
Global distinction: Snarky comedian. Sign: Cancer (b. June 25, 1961) Significant date: January 10, 2016 Noteworthy activity: This year’s Golden Globes host is criticized for his joke about transgender TV personality Caitlyn Jenner, who was involved in a car crash in 2015. “I’ve changed,” Gervais says during the awards show. “Not as much as Bruce Jenner, obviously. Now Caitlyn Jenner, of course. What a year she’s had. She became a role model for trans people everywhere, showing great bravery in breaking down barriers and destroying stereotypes. She didn’t do a lot for women drivers—but you can’t have everything, can you?” Horoscope: “If you say anything that others consider to be over-the-top or in poor taste it could cost you dear[ly].” (theglobeandmail.com)
SHARON OSBOURNE
Global distinction: Feisty Brit. Sign: Libra (b. October 9, 1952) Significant date: January 6, 2016 Noteworthy activity: While accepting a People’s Choice Award in Los Angeles, Osbourne and her fellow The Talk co-hosts are interrupted by a stage crasher attempting to steal the mic. The 63-year-old quickly reacts by literally kicking the intruder off the stage. Horoscope: “Be on your guard.... Someone could steal your thunder.” (uk.astrology.yahoo.com) 30 World Screen 2/16
Global distinction: Eccentric actor. Sign: Gemini (b. June 9, 1963) Significant date: January 19, 2016 Noteworthy activity: The Hollywood heavyweight
MIKE ROWE
Global distinction: Reality TV star. Sign: Pisces (b. March 18, 1962) Significant date: January 4, 2016 Noteworthy activity: After Oregon’s Medford Police Department posts a pic of a bank robbery suspect on social media, several commenters begin to point out the crook’s uncanny resemblance to Rowe (Dirty Jobs), who responds via Facebook: “Yes, I do share a certain resemblance with the culprit. I’ve also been spotted in Medford.... However, I am not ‘5’ 6” to 5’ 8” tall with a small-to-medium build.’ The last time I was 5’ 6” to 5’ 8” I was in the sixth grade. And the ‘smallto-medium’ ship sailed some time ago.” Horoscope: “Leave records of everything you do to prove you are not responsible for the misdeeds committed by your doppelgänger.” (thetartan.org)
WILL FORTE
Global distinction: FOX funnyman. Sign: Gemini (b. June 17, 1970) Significant date: January 17, 2016 Noteworthy activity: The Last Man on Earth star attends the Critics’ Choice Awards sporting an interesting look: one side of his head features long hair, a mustache and a bushy beard, while the other is entirely hairless, including no eyebrow. Co-star Mel Rodriguez dons a similar look, so it’s assumed the silly shave is for a plotline in the FOX comedy rather than a fashion choice. Horoscope: “The dual nature of Geminis often leave them confused about their true feelings. This is why it is important for you to be self-aware.” (123newyear.com)
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