Scripted

Global Screen, a Telepool brand, has sold three major drama series to the UK’s Walter Presents partnered with Channel 4. Premium series Hostage, The Palace and The New Front will be available in the UK later this year.

Hostage and The Palace will also be exclusively available in the United States of America and Canada.

A six-part thriller set in the long shadow of the “War on Terror”, Hostage, is a nail-biting study of people imprisoned by their pasts. The Swedish thriller is by Karin Fahlén and produced by Kärnfilm AB. Lavish period drama The Palace is written by Rodica Doehnert, directed by Uli Edel (“The Baader Meinhof Complex”) and stars Svenja Jung (“Deutschland 89”), Daniel Donskoy (“Victoria”,“The Crown”) and Heino Ferch (“Ku’Damm”, “Downfall”). The 6 x 45’ series is produced by Constantin Television for ZDF. The New Front by Isa Prahl is a crime thriller produced by Gaumont Germany for ZDF. The 6 x 45’ mini-series stars Emma Bading (“Play”), Jannik Schümann (“Charité”), Devid Striesow (“Dignity”, “8 Days”) and Jeanette Hain (“Babylon Berlin”).

Klaus Rasmussen, Co-Head Acquisitions and Sales (Theatrical) at Global Screen comments, “We are delighted to see three of our high-end drama series heading to the US and the UK. The New Front and Hostage are real edge-of-your-seat thrillers and The Palace, set against the backdrop of Berlin’s great review theatre in a divided Germany, is a moving, exhilarating and life-affirming story. We are certain these incredible series will have strong appeal to viewers.”

Walter Iuzzolino, Chief Executive Officer at Walter Presents says, “We are delighted to be continuing our relationship with Global screen and I’m sure our audiences will love these three exceptional series.”

Hostage – When a Nordic Airlines flight to the USA is hijacked by remote control, a team of Swedish investigators must race against time to unveil the identity of the mysterious hijackers before they either bring down the plane themselves or it gets shot out of the sky by the US military. At the heart of it all is Said Kehlifi – a Syrian academic imprisoned controversially while giving a lecture in Sweden, whose case Fredrika has been working on. Is Kehlifi the mastermind behind the hijacking, and if so by what means? As the plane hurtles towards disaster, who is controlling who?

Originally entitled, Westwall, The New Front follows a young police officer who falls in love with a secretive young man and ends up entangled in a right-wing extremist conspiracy. When Julia, a young trainee police officer, meets secretive stranger Nick, she finds herself falling for him almost instantly. But after their first night together, she is shocked to see that Nick has a huge swastika tattoo on his back. Despite all the advice to forget the guy immediately, she decides to investigate the right-wing extremist scene for herself. Following a trail deep into the forests of the Eifel mountains to the abandoned bunkers of Hitler’s Siegfried Line, Julia finds the hideout of a terrorist, revealing a connection she never could have imaged.

The Palace – East Berlin, 1988. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Republic, an extravagant birthday show is undergoing rehearsals at the Friedrichstadt-Palast. During these exciting hours, young dancer Christine suddenly comes face to face with her doppelganger: Marlene, a businesswoman from West Germany seated in the audience, who happens to be Christine’s twin sister she knew nothing about. In this fateful moment, two worlds, which could not be more different, suddenly collide. To find out about their respective lives in the East and the West, the two sisters swap places, taking enormous risks and pushing their emotions to the limit yet still having great fun in this adventure of a lifetime …