Sales round-up: WBITVP acquires dating format; Escapade to shop ‘Dancing Daggers’; Rainmaker extends No Equal pact

Boys Like Boys (Source: WBITVP)

WBITVP acquires dating format

Warner Bros. International Television Production (WBITVP) has acquired relationship format Boys Like Boys.

Created by Portico Media for Taiwan’s LGBTQ+ streamer GagaOOLala, the format follows eight young gay men looking for love as they move into a house together for a week.

Over the course of the week, the boys get to know each other; going on dates, taking part in games, and sharing their challenges and experiences as gay men.

Andrew Zein, WBITVP’s SVP creative, format development and sales, said: “As the producers and distributors of the world’s leading and most loved dating franchises, it was going to take something really special to get our attention, and Boys Like Boys is exactly that. It has an authenticity and honesty we instantly fell in love with, and we hope buyers will too.”

Dancing Daggers (Source: Escapade Media)

Escapade to shop ‘Dancing Daggers’

Australian distributor Escapade Media has announced Dancing Daggers, the third title from its partnership with StoryFirst.

The 10 x 60-minute series, written by and created by the Burgos Brothers, is a fantasy adventure following a world-weary detective and his young idealistic partner as they investigate the murder of a beloved elven princess, found dead in a seedy motel room.

Kim Newton serves as showrunner, and the show will be directed by Adam Kane and exec produced by Kane, Court Five’s Mark Ordesky and Jane Fleming, alongside Chukwudi Iwuji. The series will star Iwuji, alongside Vinnie Jones.

Rainmaker extends No Equal pact

Rainmaker Content has extended its collaboration with Toronto-based indie No Equal Entertainment to include new series from three North American writers.

Under a new representation deal, Rainmaker will help package and place three new scripted drama series – The Collector: Redux, The Work and Erratic — for No Equal.

The Collector: Redux looks to reboot the original format which ran for 40 episodes across three seasons and was sold in over 65 territories around the world. The Original Collector series told the story of Morgan Pym, who makes a deal with Satan: his soul in exchange for 10 years with his one true love.

The Work, meanwhile, follows the emotionally charged professional and personal lives of a team of social workers at Detroit’s Department of Health and Human Services.

Crime series Erratic. which WexWorks brought to No Equal, is based on the novel by Canadian physician, academic and author Gretchen Roedde.

It is set in a Northeastern Ontario town and inspired by real-life events which centre around a local physician and her friend, a defence lawyer in Toronto, who find themselves investigating a series of murders that appear to be related to the ubiquitous opioid drug crises in their respective cities.