Keeping busy in the off-season
The end of July is not an especially busy time in terms of greenlighting scripted shows. Any TV executive with a shred of sense is on holiday right now, recharging their batteries before the all-important autumn season slams into action.
Having said that, HBO has made a couple of interesting announcements in the last week. First, it ordered a second season of The Brink, a comedy that takes a satirical look at geopolitical crises (season one focused on Pakistan). Soon after, it announced that it had greenlit a miniseries about the racist murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till in Mississippi in 1955.
The latter project is significant both because of its personnel and its subject matter. In terms of the former, it is being produced by Will Smith and Jay-Z – a nice shot in the arm for the TV industry’s credentials. As for subject matter, it is a sobering time to retell the story of Till’s murder, with so much racial strife in the US right now. The Till tragedy became symbolic of racial prejudice in the southern US, having a big impact on the civil rights movement.
The Smith/Jay-Z project is being developed in partnership with Overbrook Entertainment’s James Lassiter, Roc Nation’s Jay Brown and director Aaron Kaplan. No writer has been attached yet but it is expected to run to around six hours of television.
Another greenlight this week is BrainDead, which US network CBS has given a straight-to-series order. BrainDead is from Robert and Michelle King, the married team who are also the creators and exec producers of long-running CBS show The Good Wife.
Due to air in summer 2016, BrainDead centres on a young woman as she gets her first job in Washington DC. It will be executive produced by Ridley Scott, David Zucker and Liz Glotzer for CBS Television Studios, Scott Free Productions and King Size Productions, all of which were also involved with The Good Wife.
While summer isn’t a great time for production announcements, there are usually a few acquisitions stories of note, as broadcasters look to make last-minute additions to their schedules. European pay TV broadcaster Sky, for example, has picked up the rights to NBC thriller Aquarius for broadcast in the UK, Ireland, Germany and Austria.
This is in addition to a deal earlier this year between Sky Italia and the show’s distributor ITV Studios Global Entertainment.
Starring David Duchovny (The X-Files), the 13×60’ series is set in 1967 at the height of the Summer of Love. Duchovny plays LA homicide detective Sam Hodiak, whose investigation into a missing girl leads him into the dark activities of a strange cult run by notorious killer Charles Manson.
The show will debut on Sky in the UK and Ireland on August 11, before rolling out in the other territories later. All told, the Sky deals will take the show into 21 million European households. Other dramas to have been shown across the entire Sky network include HBO’s Game of Thrones and Sky original production Fortitude.
In other acquisition news, US cable channel Syfy has picked up the US rights to Wynonna Earp, a live-action television series based on the IDW Publishing comic created by Beau Smith. With an initial order of 13 one-hour episodes, Wynonna Earp is a fast-paced, contemporary thriller that follows Wyatt Earp’s great-granddaughter as she battles demons and other supernatural beings.
Emily Andras (Lost Girl, Killjoys) developed the series for television and will serve as executive producer and showrunner. Wynonna Earp will be produced in Calgary by Seven24 Films, and distributed by IDW Entertainment. Production is slated to begin in August.
“Wynonna Earp is a unique contemporary western that will bring high-octane, full-throttle, supernatural action to Syfy,” says Chris Regina, the channel’s senior VP of programming. “It is wildly imaginative and we are excited to work with Seven24 Films, IDW Entertainment and Emily on this truly original concept that will showcase fun, stylised visuals and pure escapism.”
In the absence of new shows to announce, one way networks keep up interest is by drip-feeding casting announcements linked to upcoming shows. This week, for example, it was revealed that supermodel Naomi Campbell will join the cast of FX’s American Horror Story: Hotel.
Already booked into Hotel is Lady Gaga, whose participation was announced earlier this year. American Horror Story is an anthology show, which makes this kind of bold casting decision easier than in the case of long-running episodic or procedural dramas – a trend that will feature in the upcoming summer magazine issue of Drama Quarterly.
Among the week’s most noteworthy strategic developments is a report that Amazon is going to increase its presence in India with the launch of its Prime service. According to India’s Economic Times, Amazon is planning to invest up to US$5bn in the country, some of which will be dedicated to creating local content.
The online giant has already hired Nitesh Kripalani to oversee its content strategy. Kripalani’s career to date has seen him spend five years at Sony, overseeing a number of initiatives including the premium video-on-demand brand Sony LIV.
Finally, for anyone who has been following the progress of M Night Shyamalan’s Wayward Pines, the show finished its first run of 10 episodes strongly on Fox in the US last week. Overall, the show has been a success, picking up a lot of viewers on a time-shifted basis.
Fox has not yet said whether it will renew Wayward Pines, but Shyamalan says he is open to the prospect of producing a new season.
tagged in: Amazon, Aquarius, BrainDead, CBS, Emily Andras, Fox, HBO, IDW Entertainment, ITV Studios Global Entertainment, King Size Productions, Michelle King, Nitesh Kirpalani, Overbrook Entertainment, Robert King, Seven24 Films, Sky Italia, SyFy, The Brink, Wayward Pines, Wynonna Earp