ZDF sells romance, dark drama in Cannes

Germany’s ZDF Enterprises has sold a collection of romantic telemovies to broadcasters in French-speaking Canada and Switzerland, as it launches its MIPCOM slate.

Bell Media-owned Canal Vie and Switzerland’s RTS have bought telemovies from the commercial arm of German pubcaster ZDF. These come from authors such as Johanna Trollope, Dora Heldt, Rosamunde Pilcher, Cecelia Ahern and Barbara Wood.

The deals came as ZDFE revealed its MIPCOM slate, which includes a third season of Swedish-Danish drama Bron/Broen (The Bridge).

New from Scandinavia is The Fourth Man, a 3x60mins effort for the ZDFE.drama collection based on a 1975 terrorist attack in Sweden.

ZDFE also has HBO Europe original Wataha, which follows a captain attempting to uncover what led to a bomb on the Polish-Ukrainian border that killed his friends and girlfriend.

On the formats side is TV! The Game Begins, a 1x180mins special that adapts board games for the television and pits teams of celebrities against children.

Quiz Champion is billed as “Germany’s most difficult quiz”, with th winner taking home thousands of euros, while Crime Watch XY is a reality show based around unsolved crimes.

On the factual front comes two-parter How Climate Made History, Human Limits and The Secret Garden. Kids shows include Home of Mermaids, Coconut the Little Dragon and Four and a Half Friends.