News round-up: Netflix lands La Liga doc; Fox extends talent deals; Series Mania reveals co-pro pitch shows

Netflix lands La Liga doc

Netflix is expanding its sports docs output with a new show exploring Spanish football league, La Liga.

The untitled series, which marks the streamer’s first sports show in Spain, is in pre-production and will focus on the 2023-24 season.

It will debut on Netflix worldwide next year, with producer credits not confirmed. The streamer has previously enjoyed success with Formula One show Drive To Survive and recent lauinch, Full Swing, which follows professional golfers.

LaLiga chief, Óscar Mayo, said the show offered the league with a chance “to take our football beyond the fans, to share with the world the emotion of the sport we love… from a totally different angle.”

Álvaro Díaz, Netflix’s director of non-fiction, docuseries & entertainment in Spain, added that the show “represents an unprecedented opportunity to experience first-hand the emotion of one of the most exciting sports competitions on the planet.”

Fox extends talent deals

Fox Entertainment has struck two new creative deals, following its pact with Curtis ’50 Cent’ Jackson earlier this week.

Justin Adler (Maggie) will create and develop comedy series that will be owned by Fox and produced by its in-house unit, Fox Entertainment Studios.

The broadcast direct deal marks a reunion of sorts. Prior to joining Fox, Michael Thorn – now its president of scripted – was EVP of development at 20th Century Fox Television, where he and Cheryl Dolins – now Fox Entertainment’s SVP of comedy programming & development – worked closely with Adler.

Thorn said: “With his sharp sense of wit, parody and humor, Justin ranks among today’s great, prolific comedic voices.”

Adler was most recently in an overall deal with 20th Television, where he created and executive produced Life in Pieces for CBS.

Fox has also struck a similar deal with series creator, writer, and producer Matt Nix (Burn Notice). He will develop and executive produce projects for Fox Entertainment.

Nix created Fox drama The Gifted, set in Marvel’s X-Men universe, which aired on for two seasons from 2017 to 2019.

Series Mania reveals co-pro pitch shows

Series Mania has revealed 15 of the 16 selected projects that will form its Co-Pro Pitching Sessions, having received more than 450 applications from 66 countries.

The initiative, which forms part of the Series Mania Forum (21-23 March), will feature an international jury of industry professionals to determine the best project. It will receive €50,000 ($50,000) to help develop the winning series.

The 16th project, to be announced 21 February, will also be presented out of competition in partnership with the Berlinale Co-Production Market.

Laurence Herszberg, founder & general director of Series Mania, said: “We could not be prouder of the fact that this year we received a record number of submissions with increasing interest from African countries including Kenya, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, and Nigeria.

“Genres that dominated the selection process this year included thrillers and detective stories followed closely by historical dramas with a strong appeal to the ’90s. We also received many women themed stories based on real life events.”

The 2023 international jury includes Channel 4 head of drama Caroline Hollick, who is jury president, and Rai commissioner Michele Zatta, alongside StudioCanal’s Françoise Guyonnet, YLE’s Jarmo Lampela and CBS Studios International’s Lindsey Martin.

Details of the projects are below:

ASMA – 8 x 52’ – France
Genre : Biopic
Produced by Patricia Boutinard Rouelle for Nilaya Productions
Written by Antoine Vitkine

COOPER – 8 x 45’ – Australia, South Africa
Genre : Crime drama
Produced by Kylie du Fresne for Goalpost Pictures and Nimrod Geva for Quizzical Pictures
Written by James McNamara, Amy Jephta and Malla Nunn, based on Malla Nunn Books

DUST AND COAL – 8 x 52’ – Israël, France
Genre : Psychological thriller
Produced by Ronen Ben Tal for Bental Productions Ltd and Morgane Le Moine for First Love
Written by Ronen Ben Tal, Ron Ninio, Ofer Seker and Eleanor Sela

EXECUTIONERS – 6 x 60’ – Spain
Genre : Coming of age, Thriller
Produced by Alberto Rull for Vertice 360
Written by Pedro Garcia Rios and Rodrigo Martin

FORT APACHE – 8 x 50’ – Italy
Genre: Action, Crime
Produced by Fabrizio Donvito, Marco Cohen, Benedetto Habib, Daniel Campos Pavoncelli for Indiana Production Company
Executive Producer: Kim Gualino
Written by Ivano Fachin, Giovanni Galassi and Tommaso Matano

HIJACKING PARADISE – 6 x 52’ – Belgium
Genre : Geopolitical hostage thriller
Produced by Dimitri Verbeeck for Caviar
Created by Stijn Deconinck
Written by Stijn Deconinck & Nathalie Teirlinck

YOP – 8 x 45’ – Sweden
Genre: Drama
Produced by Moa Westeson, Cindy Hanson and Anni Faurbye Fernandez for Nevis Productions
Written by David Jassy

LETTERS TO LEONARD – 5 x 50’ – Greece
Genre : Drama, LGBTQIA+
Produced by George Linardakis for Stefi Productions
Written by Fotis Dousos and John Samaras on an idea of Pierros Andrakakos

MONITOR – 6 x 60’ – Germany
Genre : High-Tech Thriller
Produced by Fabian Massah & Marc Malze for Endorphine Production
Created by Nikolai Müllerschön

OUR FATHER – 8 x 55’ – Ireland, Canada
Genre : Comedy
Produced by Aaron Farrell for ShinAwiL and Dominic Scheiber for Reel One Entertainment
Written by John Cairns and Michael McCartney

THE BRONTE GIRLS – 6 x 60’ – United Kingdom
Genre : Historical, Coming of age
Developed by Parsonage Productions Ltd. with ZDF Studios
Written by Caroline Kelly Franklin

THE SALVATORE MUNDI CASE – 6 x 52’ – France
Genre : Thriller
Produced by Florent Gellie for Incognita and Nathanaël La Combe for Wonder Films
Written by Angela Soupe and Antoine Vitkine

THE UNQUIET DEAD – 6 x 60’ – Canada
Genre : Serialized Crime drama
Produced by Shaftesbury
Written by Abdul Malik, based on the book series created by Ausma Zehanat Khan

UNSPOKEN – 6 x 30’ – Ukraine, Poland
Genre: War thriller
Produced by Anna Rozalska, Dmytro Sukhanov and Natalia Liber for Match&Spark (Poland), Toy Cinema (Ukraine) and 2Brave Productions (Ukraine).
Written by Zhanna Ozirna and Filip Syczyński

VANISHED – 6 x 45’ – Germany, Iceland
Genre : Crime, Historical
Written by Mikael Torfason
Produced by Britta Hansen and Franziska Lindner for RED PONY PICTURES and
Ragnheidur Erlingsdottir for Zik Zak Filmworks
Exec. Producers: Sven Sund (RPP), Thor S. Sigurjónsson (ZZ) and Wolfgang Feindt (ZDF)

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