Mipcom: Atrium TV, the new drama “commissioning club”, has unveiled its first scripted slate, which includes projects from Ashley Pharoah (Life on Mars), Stephen Kronish (24, The Kennedys) and Adi Hasak (Shades of Blue).
Atrium TV sources and develops high-end drama series and shares them with club members, who then decide if they wish to acquire and invest.
Club members can licence chosen series for their territories and will have the right to exploit them in their local markets.
Atrium TV was established by Sir Howard Stringer, former chairman of Sony and former president of CBS and Jeremy Fox, chairman of British distributor DRG, specifically to create drama content for delivery by regional OTT players and TelCos.
Atrium’s members now include Viaplay (Nordics), Orange (France), Movistar+ (Spain), Deutsche Telekom (Germany), Iflix (Asia/MENA), Sky New Zealand, Antenna (Greece), NewFilm (Russia), BigFlix (India) and Yes TV (Israel).
The following are the projects that were presented to club members at Mipcom:
Quasimodo (returning series) A new series based on Victor Hugo’s classic, created for a contemporary audience. Set in 15th century Paris, this tale of love, rejection, isolation, religion and politics is being written by Ashley Pharoah and produced by Tracey Scoffield, David Tanner (The Frankenstein Chronicles) and the Emmy® Award-winning lead producer on Game of Thrones, Frank Doelger. Game of Thrones alumni Charles Dance (also present in Cannes) and Peter Dinklage are attached to the project as executive producers.
Jerusalem (10 x 60’) Season one, written by Russell Rothberg (previously head of drama development, Universal Television), goes back to 1000 BCE and the story of King David, a ruler trying to reunite a fractured country while his son attempts to overthrow him. It is planned for future seasons of Jerusalem to draw on a variety of different time periods from the history of the city.
Perfect People (returning series) Based on the book of the same name by Peter James, it is a contemporary thriller with a storyline about genetic engineering and its consequences. Showrunner Adi Hasak (Shades of Blue, Eyewitness) presented this series to Atrium TV members.
State of Decay (returning series) Inspired by the hit Microsoft X-Box game of the same name, State of Decay will be a zombie TV show. Showrunner and former president of US network ABC Stephen McPherson presented the series, highlighting the characters facing impossible choices, living in a new frontier where anything is possible.
These four new titles join two existing series announced at Atrium TV’s launch in April: Fandorin and One Giant Leap. Writer Simon J Ashford (The Musketeers, Robin Hood) and BBC Studio’s Richard Stokes (Silent Witness, Broadchurch) were in Cannes to present Fandorin to members, while writer Stephen Kronish pitched One Giant Leap.
“From day one we were serious about providing our members with great stories, delivered by exceptional talent and we more than demonstrated that today,” says Sir Howard Stringer, Atrium TV’s chairman. “I’m delighted to say that by gathering some of the world’s leading TelCos and OTT operators together with such luminaries from the writing and producing worlds, our first ever meeting really did feel like an exclusive club.”
Staff Reporter
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