Industry

 On the eve of its third annual Drama Festival, ITV Studios announces new sales of its enviable portfolio and a new slate for 2020 to be presented to global buyers.

Mammoth Screen’s major three-part television adaptation of H.G. Wells’ seminal tale - the first alien invasion story in literature - The War of the Worlds - has been acquired in the US by the AMC upgrade subscription service AMC Premiere, taking the total number of territories it is available in to 221.

The hotly-anticipated Noughts + Crosses, also from Mammoth Screen and based on the award-winning young adult novel series by Malorie Blackman, has sold to HBO Europe and BBC First Australia.

Mammoth Screen’s epic World War Two drama World on Fire, now available in 144 territories, has sold to BBC First and BBC Player Asia along with Mainstreet Pictures’ character-driven relationship thriller starring Emmy® winner Julia Ormond, Gold Digger.

Both titles make their way into Latin America with a pan regional Satellite TV service, DIRECTV, which acquires ITV Studios Factual Drama and Urban Myth Film’s A Confession written by the Oscar-nominated Jeff Pope in addition.

A Confession will also be available on Magenta TV (Deutsche Telecom) Germany, Telefonica Spain, SVT Sweden, Cineplex Thailand, Channel Zero Canada, Britbox Canada, YES Israel, Viacom Russia, Okko Russia and BBC in New Zealand, which has also picked up Stick and Stones.

TVNZ has picked up Genial Productions’ new comedy drama starring Dawn French, The Trouble With Maggie Cole (former w/t Glass Houses), which delves into what happens when idle gossip escalates, and Silverprint Pictures’ family drama meets contemporary thriller, Flesh and Blood. Flesh and Blood has also been acquired by Network Seven in Australia, KT Corp in Korea, Virgin Media Eire and RTV Slovenia.

Additionally, all six seasons of the Emmy®-nominated Schitt's Creek have sold in a pan regional deal to ViacomCBS Networks Americas.

The success of these now world-renowned titles is set to be replicated in 2020 with a stunning new slate of premium titles launching internationally today.
World Productions’ up-coming adrenaline-fuelled thriller Vigil (6 x 60’, w/t) starring Suranne Jones (Gentleman Jack, Doctor Foster), Rose Leslie (Game of Thrones, The Good Fight), Gary Lewis (His Dark Materials, Billy Elliot), Martin Compston (Line of Duty) and Paterson Joseph (The Leftovers, Peep Show) leads the new slate. Written and created by BAFTA® nominee Tom Edge (The Crown, C.B. Strike, Oscar®-nominated Judy) and directed by BAFTA® winner James Strong, Vigil unravels a high-stakes conspiracy threatening the very heart of Britain’s nuclear deterrent, a Trident nuclear submarine.
The Singapore Grip (6 x 60), from Mammoth Screen adapted by Oscar®-winning screenwriter Christopher Hampton from J.G. Farrell’s classic novel, is an ambitious and exotic family saga set in colonial Singapore during World War Two. Featuring David Morrissey (The Missing, The Walking Dead) as rubber merchant Walter Blackett, Jane Horrocks (Little Voice, Absolutely Fabulous) as his wife Sylvia and Charles Dance OBE (Game of Thrones) as his business partner, it centres on a wealthy British family living a life of luxury which is slowly crumbling around them as the Japanese make their invasion.

Inspired by the short stories created by Anaïs Nin, Little Birds (6 x 60’), from Warp Films and directed by Stacie Passon (The Affair, House of Cards), is set in Morocco in 1955 and centres on two very different women: troubled American heiress Lucy Savage (Juno Temple, Dirty John, Atonement, Vinyl) and the famous Moroccan dominatrix, Cherifa Lamour (Yumna Marwan, The Translator, One of These Days). Their lives, and those of their lovers - Hugo Cavendish-Smith (Hugh Skinner, Fleabag, Harlots) and Adham Abaza (Raphael Acloque, Mission Impossible, Humans, 24, Versailles) - become dangerously entangled in Tangier’s ‘International Zone’. Little Birds weaves together stories of private desire and public politics against a backdrop of hedonism and conflict, to deliver a modern tale of freedom and feminism.

Cattleya and Groenlandia’s Romulus (10 x 60’) is an ambitious drama that reconstructs the epic tale of Rome, as never told before. In the eighth century BC, a primitive and brutal world exists, where a man’s fate is decided by the merciless power of nature and the gods. Romulus is the story of this world as seen through the eyes of three people marked by death, loneliness and violence. As these men and women learn how to shape their own destinies instead of passively suffering the whims of fate, a ferocious and protective female figure leads the formation of a new society - laying the foundations for one of the greatest Empires ever.

ITV Studios also proudly unveils a new slate of crime titles, including the true crime dramas Honour and Pembrokshire Murders, English crime procedural Grace as well as the European titles Voiceless and Thin Blue Line.

Honour (2 x 60’ or 1 x 90’) from Hera Productions is based on the heartbreaking true story of Banaz Mahmod, a young woman murdered by her family for falling in love with the wrong man. When DCI Caroline Goode (Keeley Hawes, Bodyguard), discovered that Banaz had been to the police five times to report threats to her life from members of her own family, she was appalled that her colleagues had missed multiple chances to prevent this so-called ‘honour’ killing. This powerful factual drama explores the fight to bring her killers to justice.

Based on the book by Detective Superintendent Steve Wilkins and Jonathan Hill,
The Pembrokeshire Murders (3 x 60’, w/t) from World Productions brings to life the pursuit of the most notorious serial killer in Welsh history. When newly promoted Wilkins played by Luke Evans (Dracula Untold, The Alienist) decided to reopen two 1980s murder cases in 2006, he used pioneering forensic methods that linked the murders to a string of burglaries. This three-part drama offers insight to the painstaking detective work and cutting-edge innovations - as well as a bizarre identification via a TV gameshow – that enabled Steve and his team to catch the serial killer, John Cooper.

In the compelling and fast-paced detective drama Grace (2 x 120’) from Second Act Productions, Tall Story Pictures and Vaudeville Productions, renowned screenwriter Russell Lewis (Endeavour) brings Peter James’ award-winning Roy Grace novels to life. Starring John Simm (Doctor Who, Life on Mars) as the tenacious Detective Superintendent, the first two stories in the series: Dead Simple and Looking Good Dead. Are the subject of two new feature-length dramas. The Roy Grace book series has been translated into 37 languages with worldwide sales of over 20 million copies.

Featuring contemporary crime stories told with warmth and humour, Mammoth Screen’s McDonald & Dodds (2 x 120’) follows the investigations of a mismatched detective duo in one of Britain’s most traditional cities, Bath. Newly promoted, the ambitious DCI McDonald (Tala Gouveia, Cold Feet) is a tough, driven, battering ram of a cop originally from London, veteran sergeant Dodds (BAFTA® winner Jason Watkins, The Crown, W1A) is a quiet and unassuming man, with a hidden talent for deciphering puzzles. The pair instantly lock horns over their different approaches to policing – and to life, but soon forge an entertaining and ultimately effective partnership.

Voiceless (Bella da Morire, 8 x 60’) from Cattleya delicately yet fearlessly weaves complex, topical issues of prejudice and violence against women into a provocative thriller. Eva Cantini, a brilliant, direct and strong-willed police inspector returns to her hometown to help her sister raise her child. When Gioia Scuderi, an aspiring model and actress with a bad reputation, is discovered lifeless at the bottom of the lake, Eva is assigned the case. She forms powerful new alliances as she uncovers a net of violent, controlling men surrounding Gioia, all while embarking on an unexpected relationship of her own that could be her downfall...

Thin Blue Line (10 x 60’) from Anagram Sweden gets under the skin of what being a modern-day cop is really about. When your career requires you to deal with the grittiest parts of society, how do you remain whole and happy? Nobody in this police force expects to come home as the same person. As they try to balance their evolving personal and professional lives, and the fight against the city’s criminals intensifies, the line between private and public starts to blur. @photo FrancescaFago