Round-up: Lena Dunham to direct HBO’s ‘Industry’; A+E UK snaps up ‘Photos’

Lena Dunham to direct HBO’s Industry

Lena Dunham is to direct and executive produce international finance drama Industry for HBO.

The eight-part series is being produced by Cardiff-based production company Bad Wolf (His Dark Materials).

The show follows a group of young graduates competing for positions at a top investment bank in London. The boundaries between colleague, friend, lover and enemy soon blur as they immerse themselves in a company culture defined by sex, drugs and ego as well as deals and dividends.

Dunham, who directed HBO’s Girls, is directing the first episode of Industry. It is penned by Mickey Down and Konrad Kay (Gregor).

News of Dunham’s participation was reported by Variety.

Netflix greenlights Prank show

Netflix has ordered Prank Encounters, a hidden-camera prank show hosted by Stranger Things star Gaten Matarazzo.

The eight part prank show takes two complete strangers who each think they’re starting their first day at a new job.

It is produced by A+E-backed US company Propagate. The executive producers are Gaten Matarazzo; Ben Silverman, Howard T. Owens, and Kevin Healey for Propagate, and Rob Hyde (Terrence Howard’s Fright Club, Troy). It is directed by Anthony Gonzalez (Dance Moms, Undercover Boss).

All3Media strikes Canadian factual deals

All3Media International has sold a range of factual shows to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).

CBC has acquired over 18 hours of North One’s Travel Man: 48 Hours in…, produced for the UK’s Channel 4, for the CBC Gem streaming service.  Also included in the deal is Raw TV’s doc Bollywood: The World’s Biggest Film Industry produced for BBC Two.

CBC has also signed Hansala Productions’ Meghan & Harry: A Royal Baby Story, a one-hour special for TLC USA. It has also acquired Spun Gold TV’s one-hour special Secrets of the Royal Babies, produced for ITV.

CBC’s French-language counterpart, Radio Canada, has picked up Drowning in Plastic (1 x 90’/2 x 1-hour) from Raw TV for BBC One.

A+E snaps up Photos That Changed The World

A+E Networks UK has commissioned UK indie Touchdown Films to produce Photos That Changed The World.

The 6×60 minute series explores the stories behind twelve iconic photos.

Featured photographs in the series include Neil Armstrong’s photograph of his fellow astronaut, Buzz Aldrin, on the surface of the moon, Ron Edmonds’ images of the attempted assassination of US President Ronald Reagan, Nick Ut’s Pullitzer Prize-winning photo of ‘Napalm Girl’, and Jeff Widener’s photograph of the ‘Tank Man’ in Tiananmen Square.

The series was ordered by Dan Korn, VP of Programming at A+E Networks UK, and is produced by John Osborne of Touchdown Films.

The series is being distributed by Banijay Rights.

Cloudco racks up Holly Hobbie deals

Cloudco Entertainment has announced international sales for Holly Hobbie, which premiered last autumn on Hulu in the US and The Family Channel in Canada.

The live action series aimed at tween and young teen girls has sold to pan Nordic channel Viaplay; NRK Norway; SVT Sweden; SEBC Sweden; Noga Israel; RTVS Slovenia; RTL Videoland, Netherlands, VRT, Belgium; and i-Cable, Hong Kong.

The show is set to launch on the UK’s CBBC this summer.

Holly Hobbie is produced by Aircraft Pictures (The Breadwinner, Bruno & Boots: This Can’t Be Happening at Macdonald Hall) in association with Cloudco Entertainment and Wexworks Media with the financial participation of the Shaw Rocket Fund and  Sarah Glinski is the showrunner.