News round-up: eOne goes global with ‘The Newsreader’; Cosmos-Maya deals; ViacomCBS links with Morena

Anna Torv

eOne takes The Newsreader global

Entertainment One (eOne) has acquired international distribution rights to The Newsreader, the one-hour drama series set to air on the ABC in Australia.

The six-part show, which has recently started filming in Melbourne, is from Werner Film Productions and is produced by Joanna Werner (Clickbait, Secret City) with creator Michael Lucas. Executive producers include Werner and Stuart Menzies (The Cry).

The show, which stars Anna Torv (Mindhunter, Fringe) and Sam Reid (Prime Suspect 1973, Lambs of God), is set in the 1980s and follows the relationship between an ambitious young TV reporter and the star female news anchor in a newsroom.

Noel Hedges, eOne’s EVP of acquisitions who struck the deal, said the show “offers fiery drama, emotion and tension each week, populated by such beautifully written, nuanced characters and layered with sharp wit, warmth and complexity.”

ViacomCBS, Morena Films codevelops The Kellys

ViacomCBS International Studios (VIS) and production company Morena Films have unveiled a co-development pact for dramedy TV series The Kellys.

The show, from Héctor Lozano (Merlí. Sapere Aude), follows a group European and Latin American cleaners as they live and love while working in a hotel on the Spanish coast.

Laura Abril,SVP of VIS EMEA & Asia, said the show offered “great international potential” and would explore the lives of “strong women” while touching “on universal themes such as personal and labor dignity, and love amidst hardship.”

Brightlight, Pier 21 explore Fort Puleyne with Bell Media

Canada’s Brightlight Pictures has started development on a new comedy with broadcaster Bell Media and Toronto-based production company Pier 21 Films, which also has writer Evany Rosen (New Eden) attached.

Fort Puleyne has been written and created by Thomas Middleditch (Silicon Valley, B Positive) and Humphrey Ker (Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet). It is set in 1812 and follows a foppishly optimistic young officer as he leaves behind the life he knows for Upper Canada to lead a misfit militia that served in the British Army.

Shawn Williamson, president of Brightlight Pictures, is attached to exec produce, along with Brightlight’s director of development, Jameson Parker.

Middleditch, who just finished a six-season run on Silicon Valley and is currently starring in Chuck Lorre’s B Positive, is repped by WME and Kirsten Ames Management. Ker, who is writing and appearing on the second season of Mythic Quest, is repped by ICM Partners and Kirsten Ames Management.

OTT.Studios, Binge! among Cosmos-Maya deals

US-based OTT.Studio has picked up four shows from distributor Cosmos-Maya, which will become available on the service via Roku and Amazon Fire TV.

Vir The Robot Boy, Motu Patlu, Tik Tak Tail and Chacha Bhatija will sit on OTT.Studio’s Cartoon Plus channel, while Cost-Maya has also secured a far-reaching agreement with Binge! Networks for the same four titles.

That deal will see the shows become available on more than 100 platforms around the world, including  North America but excluding India and the Indian subcontinent.

Science Channel digs into world’s biggest mysteries

Discovery-owned Science Channel has ordered a new 10-part factual series exploring some of the world’s most enduring mysteries with new forensic techniques.

Conspiracies Decoded premieres on 3 December and revisits some of the most enduring and inexplicable crimes and conspiracies from throughout history, including the bizarre sinking of the USS Scorpion submarine in 1968 and a possible conclusion to the decades long mystery behind the disappearance of aviator Amelia Earhart.

The series is produced for Science Channel by Bigger Bang and distributed globally by Fremantle, with Iain Riddick, Tom Adams and Wyatt Channell attached as executive producers. Andrew Barron is series producer.