EXCLUSIVE: Australian drama Reckless will be in Cannes at MIPCOM today, as France’s Federation International introduces it to buyers.
We hear BBC Studios Australia’s Kylie Washington, SBS Director of Television Kathryn Fink, and Federation International’s co-chiefs Monica Levy and Guillaume Pommier will reveal details of the show at the Federation Studios showcase, which is expected to attract around 130 buyers.
Paris-based Federation Studios’ sales arm has just acquired the distribution rights, marking its first Australian drama.
MIPCOM represents the official launch of the show, which is from BBC Studios Australia and follows a pair of feuding siblings who cover up the death of a man who they accidentally run over and kill. Tasma Walton, Hunter Page-Lochard and Jessica de Gouw lead the cast.
The four-part series is based on Guilt, the BBC drama starring Mark Bonnar and Jamie Sives. It is for NITV, SBS, Screen Australia and Screenwest attached, with Kodie Bedford (Return to Paradise, Mystery Road) the writer and exec producer. Stuart Page is also attached as writer. Becky Cole is director.
Per the synopsis: “High-powered lawyer June and her hapless brother Charlie accidentally run over and kill an old man. They make a split-second decision to cover it up. But when the dead man’s niece starts sniffing around and a nosy neighbour refuses to mind her own business, their lives begin to unravel. As guilt festers and suspicions mount, old wounds open up and tension between the siblings reaches boiling point.”
In related news, Federation has boarded Those Who Lived, the French drama series about survivors of the Bataclan terrorist attack in Paris.
The distributor has landed rights to the France Télévisions show, and attached more networks – Sweden’s SVT, Switzerland’s RTS and the CEE’s Nova. HBO Max and Belgium’s RTBF were already on board.
Oscar-winner Jean-Xavier de Lestrade produced the eight-episode series, which comes as France prepares about to mark the tenth anniversary of the Paris terrorist attacks of November 13, 2015. It focuses on the survivors of the Bataclan concert hall, and how from the horror of the massacre at a music gig came unbreakable bounds of friendship.
Matthieu Belghiti’s What’s Up Films, Nicolas Mauvernay’s Mizar Films and Jérôme Corcos’s NAC Films produced the show, with Federation International, the sales arm of Federation Studios, boarding project as distributor at an early stage. The series will premiere on France.tv as of October 27, with a linear broadcast on France 2 following shortly after.
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