News round-up: Netflix to end ‘Ozark’; Fred sells ‘Mega Zoo’; HBO returns to ‘Curb’

Ozark

Netflix to end trip to Ozark

Netflix is bringing the curtain down on Jason Bateman-led drama Ozark after ordering a fourth and final season.

The show, produced by US duo Media Rights Capital and Aggregate, is from writer Bill Dubuque (The Judge) and is set in the world of drug-money laundering. The programme takes its name from its setting, the Lake of the Ozarks in the US state of Missouri.

The fourth season will consist of 14 episodes broken up into two seven-part runs.

In April, Netflix pointed to the show as one of its major subscriber-driving titles, claiming that it expected the third season of the scripted crime series to be watched by 29 million households.

Animal Planet enters Fred’s Mega Zoo

Animal Planet in the US is among broadcasters to have picked up Mega Zoo from Australian prodco Fred Media.

The 10 x 60-minute documentary series is currently being produced by parent company WTFN for Australia’s Nine Network and managed to continue filming during the Covid-129 pandemic, as revealed by TBI.

Now, Animal Planet has struck a pre-sale deal that provides it with rights for the next five years, while in France, the series has been pre-bought by commercial broadcaster TF1.

The show is filmed in Melbourne Zoo, the largest and oldest zoo in the southern hemisphere, and provides behind-the-scenes access to some of the 5,000 animals and 700 staff that live and work there.

HBO returns to Curb

US premium cable channel HBO has inked a deal for an 11th season of Larry David’s comedy Curb Your Enthusiasm.

The series, which stars David as a fictional version of himself living in LA, had been on hiatus between 2011 and 2016 until the cabler ordered a ninth season in 2016.