French commercial broadcaster Canal+ has taken a 50% stake in Kissman Production Group. Kissman is the prodco of Jamel Debbouze, whose comedy-entertainment series Jamel Comedy Club is a fixture on Canal+. Following the investment, financial terms of which were not disclosed, Canal+ and Kissman will work to develop new TV and digital projects in the […]
UK channel BBC Four’s love-affair with European drama has continued with the acquisition of Belgium series Cordon and new seasons of Spiral and The Bridge. Cordon (pictured) is a 10x60mins drama from Warner Bros-owned Eyeworks that follows events after the Antwerp is hermetically sealed off from the outside world after a deadly virus outbreak strikes […]
Newen Distribution has acquired rights to Witnesses, a 6x52mins drama from France 2. Newen has taken the rights from producer Cinétéve and will look to repeat its success selling Spiral (Engrenages) to the international market to the likes of BBC Two and Netflix. France 2 commissioned Witnesses, which is known locally as Les Temoins.
LA-based Endemol Studios, the studio behind Hell on Wheels, is to remake French crime drama Engrenages (aka Spiral) for US audiences. The show launched in France on Canal+ in 2005 and is now into its fifth season with a sixth in development, and has picked up audiences in the UK on BBC Four and the […]
BBC Two has acquired the 3x90mins German miniseries Generation War, marking the first foreign language drama on the UK broadcaster in 12 years. Generation War depicts the lives of five young German friends during World War II, whose lives veer in wildly different directions as the horror of the period plays out between 1941 and […]
The French broadcasting family is about to get bigger. This month will see the arrival in the free-to-air game of a major player, Canal+, whose acquisition of DTT outlets Direct 8 and Direct Star from Group Bolloré was approved by the Competition Authority in July. Marie-Agnès Bruneau reports. French communications regulator the CSA is about […]
