Scripted

Beta Film has closed pre-sales in the Nordic’s and the Netherlands’ for the PBS/ITV upstairs/downstairs drama series Hotel Portofino. The visually stunning period drama was acquired by DR for Denmark, SVT for Sweden, NRK for Norway, YLE for Finland and SYN for Iceland, as well as Dutch national broadcaster NPO. Further negotiations with several international broadcasters are underway.

Earlier, ITV, BritBox, Sky Italia, and Foxtel in Australia joined the drama, produced by Eagle Eye in association with Beta Film, while PBS Distribution took North American rights. Hotel Portofino is executive produced by Eagle Eye’s Jo McGrath and Walter Iuzzolino.

The six-hour series, centered around a British family who emigrate to open a high-end hotel in Italy, captures the long-established literary tradition of comic and idiosyncratic British ‘innocents abroad’, set against the historical backdrop of the rise of Fascism in Mussolini’s Italy.

Hotel Portofino stars Natascha McElhone (Ronin, Californication, Designated Survivor) and is set in the emancipated social attitudes of the 1920s on the enchanting beauty Italian Riviera. Also starring are Mark Umbers (King Arthur, Home Fires) and Anna Chancellor (Four Weddings and A Funeral, The Hour), as well as Italian talents Daniele Pecci (Orgoglio), Lorenzo Richelmy (Marco Polo) and Rocco Fasano (Skam Italia). Created and written by Matt Baker, the series is directed by Adam Wimpenny (Blackwood). Shooting wrapped in Portofino, Italy, and along the Croatian coastline this summer.