Sweden’s SVT orders ‘Whiskey On The Rocks’; Winner of the Netflix Women Pitch Contest; Keshet International Hire; ‘Gogglebox’ Wales; Red Arrow Mipcom Scripted — Global Briefs
Sweden’s SVT Orders’Whiskey On The Rocks‘ From Skyverse Nordic
Sweden’s public service company SVT has boarded the Skyverse Nordic comedy-drama Whiskey On The Rocks as its main ordering company. The six-part series is still in the script and production development stages and is billed as a “premium, epic Cold War drama special event” directed by Björn Stein (Midnight sun) and based on an original story from author Jonas Jonasson. It is among the first shows from Skyverse Nordic, which is a subsidiary of Sparkling, the Stockholm-based sister company to Humanoids that Deadline revealed back in May. The show reunites Jonasson with Skyverse head Patrick Nebout and creative producer Henrik Jansson-Schweizer, who together were behind Sweden’s biggest export success, the Oscar-nominated The centenarian who stepped out of the window and disappeared. A Scandinavian and international actor is wanted to play the main characters of the drama on board the submarine and in Moscow. The story is inspired by an infamous incident that nearly escalated into full-scale war between Sweden and the Soviet Union in 1981, when a Soviet U-137 ‘Whiskey’-class submarine ran aground on rocks deep in Swedish territorial waters — right in the middle of a sensitive Swedish fleet exercise.
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Netflix, EPC Announce Winners of First Pitch Contest for Women Producers
Irish producer Anna Mannion of Tri Moon Films has won the first edition of Netflix and the European Producers Club’s pitch competition for fictional series run by female producers. Under the initiative, which was launched last March during Series Mania, a selection of projects by female producers affiliated with the European Film Club (EPC) were presented to the Netflix content team in Amsterdam. Mannion receives a development award of €50,000 ($49,800), while Romanian Producer Ada Solomon of Microfilm won second place €20,000 ($19,900). Runners-up were Mariela Besuievsky at Tornasol Media (Spain), Martichka Bozhilova at Agitprop (Bulgaria), Gabriele M. Walther at Caligari (Germany) and Olena Yershova, Tato Film (Ukraine, Turkey). They were each awarded €5,000 ($5,000) to help with development. Deadline revealed the news of the competition already in March.
Keshet International Rent Blue Ant’s Fleur Wheatley
Keshet International (KI) has appointed Fleur Wheatley as its London-based VP of Sales. She will be responsible for leading KI’s sales activities in the US, Canada, UK, Nordics and with global and regional SVoDs and channels. Wheatley joins after a four-year tenure at Blue Ant International, where she most recently held the position of Director, International Sales and Acquisitions for the Nordics, Benelux, MENA, Greece and Turkey. She takes up her role today and reports directly to KI’s COO and head of distribution Keren Shahar, who said Wheatley would form part of the company’s “biggest post-Covid delegation.” Wheatley, who previously worked for DRG and Fremantle, will focus on format sales, scripted and unscripted finished tapes and pre-purchase/co-production opportunities at KI, which is a subsidiary of Israeli broadcaster Keshet.
Welsh Producers Win Local ‘Gogglebox’ Remake Tender
Welsh indies Chwarel and Cwmni Da will produce Gogglebocs Cymruthe local remake of the TV viewing format Gogglebox. This is the first time original producer Studio Lambert and UK television channel Channel have licensed the franchise to another UK-based channel and producer. Gogglebox films families and friends as they watch and react to the week’s most talked about TV. The Welsh version is expected to be 70% bilingual Wales-based programming – from e.g. S4C, ITV Wales and BBC Wales – with the remaining 30% coming from UK Network broadcasters and SVoDs. Casting is now underway and the first episode will air in the first week of November. Sioned Wyn, CEO of Chwarel, said: “We’ve been waiting a long time for something like this. The ambition is to make it not just the highest-rated show on S4C, but the whole of Wales – and beyond.”
Red Arrow Studios International brings ‘Kid Sister’ to Cannes
Red Arrow Studios International has acquired the global distribution rights to a pair of new drama titles: coming-of-age comedy series Kiwi Little sister from Greenstone TV and Summer love, an eight-part anthology series from Australian producer Gristmill. The titles will headline the company’s Mipcom script, which will also include the upcoming third season of the crime drama Blood of Vienna. Kid Sister comes from Simone Nathan (Our flag means death), who also stars as Lulu in the series, which launched on TVNZ On Demand in New Zealand earlier this year. It follows her as a Kiwi woman in her prime, nearly 30 years old, but turning to the Jewish world to become curious. Summer lovefor Australian pubcaster ABC, follows eight very different sets of people who rent the same beachside holiday home, where they experience some incarnation of love.
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