Channel 4 buys French drama Rebound

Channel 4 has picked up hit French-language drama Rebound. It marks the first time in over two decades that the UK free-to-air broadcaster will have shown a subtitled drama and follows the success of non-English language offerings on BBC Four such as Forbrydelsen and Prisoners of War on Sky Arts.

The eight-part French drama follows a group of people trying to return to their homes in an Alpine village – without realising that they are actually dead.

Gil Hay, head of acquisitions at Channel 4 said: “The first fully subtitled drama that we have broadcast in 20years, everything about Rebound feels very Channel 4; visceral, compelling and incredibly contemporary, the creators have taken the supernatural genre and re-written the rules.”

It performed well on French premium channel Canal+, which commissioned the series form French producer Haut & Court.

Channel 4 bought the series from Zodiak Rights, which sells it globally.

The distributor has also sold it to broadcasters including SVT in Sweden, Hot in Israel, Now TV in Hong Kong and Viasat in Hungary.

It said it is in advanced negotiations for deals in the US, Canada, Japan, and Australia, Italy and Latin Am.

Rebound is a hot property at the moment with international sales taking off and FremantleMedia also inking a deal for English-language remake rights.

The English version will be made by AbbottVision, State of Play and Shameless creator Paul Abbott’s production company, with which FremantleMedia has a first-look deal.