It’s been almost eerily quiet in this year’s international MIPTV television market, which runs through Wednesday in Cannes, but a trickle of deal announcements suggests that while budget cuts and cost-cutting are the order of the day, business is still being done.
French giant Studiocanal unveiled a wave of territory sales on Tuesday for two new Belgian thrillers, The crash And 1985both based on real life events, which are part of the company’s MIPTV slate.
The crash is a dramatization of the plane crash in 1992, in which flight 1862 from El Al to Tel Aviv crashed into two overcrowded residential towers in the suburbs of Amsterdam. 1985 tells the story of Belgium’s most infamous, unsolved crime spree with a series of violent attacks, believed to be carried out by three men, that resulted in the deaths of 28 people.
SBS Australia, Canal+ in France, Disney+ and BeTV in Belgium, Germany’s MagentaTV/Telekom, Free TV Israel and Cellcom Israel, RTP Portugal and Cosmo Spain have acquired local rights to The crash. The five-hour limited series was created and written by Michael Leendertse (Turbulent skies), directed by Lourens Blok and Edson Da Conceicao and produced by Fleur Winters via Big Blue for NPO1/KRO-NCRV.
Canal+ took over 1985 for France, the Czech Republic and Solvakia, with further deals with SBS Australia, Free TV Israel, Ireland’s TG4 and Filmin for Portugal and Spain. The 8-part series is written by Willem Wallyn, directed by Wouter Bouvijn and produced by Peter Bouckaert. It is the very first drama ever commissioned by two Belgian public broadcasters: VRT and RTBF, and was produced by Eyeworks in Belgium.
