Tag Archives: Shadowhunters

Vikings prosper on History

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Vikings' 20-episode fifth season will air next year
Vikings’ 20-episode fifth season will air next year

The thesis that high-quality TV drama can lift the fortunes of any TV network, no matter its positioning in the market, was partly inspired by the success of Vikings on History in the US.

Launched in March 2013 as a nine-part series, the Michael Hirst-produced drama encouraged the reappraisal of a network that had become a little too reliant on reality TV series like Pawn Stars and Ice Road Truckers. The fact that History had previously been perceived as a factual-only TV channel also encouraged an array of other networks to try their hand with scripted series.

Vikings, which is positioned as an Irish/Canadian coproduction, has grown into a huge franchise for History. After following up the first season with two more batches of 10 episodes in 2014 and 2015, the channel upped its commitment to 20 episodes for season four, which is currently on air. And that isn’t the end of the story – History has just ordered a further 20 episodes for 2017.

In total, this means there will be 69 episodes of the show by the end of 2017, which is also great news for MGM TV, which handles international distribution.

To date the main headline regarding season five, aside from the number of episodes, is that Irish actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers (The Tudors) will be joining the cast. Production starts this summer.

Vikings has proved a ratings stalwart for History at a time when the channel has been busy developing other scripted ideas for its slate. Shows set to appear on History in the near future include Roots, Six, Knightfall and the acquisition War & Peace.

Rowan Joffe
Rowan Joffe

Meanwhile, there are reports that Sky Atlantic has commissioned indie producer Kudos to make its next big-budget drama, Tin Star. Created by Rowan Joffe, The Calgary Sun in Canada says the series is “an epic tale of deception, betrayal, murder and revenge set against the backdrop of a remote and beautiful Canadian mountain town; a perfect idyll, transformed when big business moves into the area.” The series will shoot near Calgary in late spring.

Joffe, the son of renowned director Roland Joffe, has made a name for himself in recent years with productions such as Brighton Rock, The Shooting of Thomas Hurndall and Before I Go to Sleep. As yet there are no casting details on the project.

With Empire a breakout hit for Fox and American Crime Story: The People vs OJ Simpson doing well on FX, it’s interesting to note that the depiction and treatment of African-Americans is starting to become a key focal point for the Fox family of channels.

At the mainstream end of the spectrum, Fox followed Empire with crime procedural Rosewood, while in the case of the American Crime Story franchise, FX is planning to look at the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in season two. Fox has also placed a straight-to-series order for Shots Fired, which will analyse the recent racial tensions and police shooting incidents that have spurred demonstrations and outrage across the country.

Created by Gina Prince-Bythewood and Reggie Rock Bythewood Hunt, Shots Fired looks set to be a major piece of work with a high-profile cast including Helen Hunt, Richard Dreyfuss and Stephen Moyer. It will focus on the political, commercial, legal and social repercussions of a North Carolina shooting, with Hunt playing a fictional North Carolina state governor and Dreyfuss a real-estate mogul who owns privatised prisons.

Shadowhunters
Shadowhunters has been given a second run on Freeform (formerly known as ABC Family)

In other developments, US cable channel Freeform, formerly known as ABC Family, has renewed its supernatural fantasy drama Shadowhunters. Based on book series The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare, it tells the story of humans born with angelic blood who protect humanity.

NBC, meanwhile, has confirmed the fourth show in its Chicago procedural portfolio will be a legal series called Chicago Justice. The new show will be introduced to viewers during episode 21 of sister series Chicago PD, which is coming up in April.

This isn’t an especially active time of year for new drama greenlights, with the emphasis being on renewals and acquisitions. In terms of the latter, UK pay TV channel Sky Living has added Jennifer Lopez crime drama Shades of Blue and season four of country music drama Nashville to its line-up (The latter previously aired on More4). These join an existing slate of US series that includes Scandal, Elementary, The Blacklist, Grey’s Anatomy, Criminal Minds, Bones and Blindspot. Shonda Rhimes’ new show, The Catch, will also soon feature on the channel.

Distributor Hat Trick International, meanwhile, has announced a number of sales of three-part period drama Doctor Thorne. Based on the novel by Anthony Trollope, the fact this is Julian Fellowes’ first project since Downton Abbey was always expected to generate strong interest among buyers.

Channels to have jumped on board so far include VRT Belgium, DR Byen Denmark, UTV Ireland, YES Satellite Services Israel, Prime New Zealand and SVT Sweden. The show has also been licensed for the US and Canada by The Weinstein Company.

Doctor Thorne
Doctor Thorne has sold into a number of territories

Hat Trick sales director Sarah Tong said: “Doctor Thorne received a great deal of interest from the outset and we are delighted to announce these pre-sales ahead of MipTV (the Cannes market at the start of April). The unique combination of the original Trollope story together with Julian Fellowes’ first-class adaptation and input from the production team at Hat Trick has delivered a miniseries that will no doubt become a classic. We are looking forward to screening episodes of the drama to our clients.” Next week we’ll take a closer look at some of the dramas being presented at Mip.

Finally, a cancellation story: ABC in the US has axed biblical drama Of Kings and Prophets after just two episodes. The show, which tells the story of Saul and David from the Old Testament, already had a shadow hanging over it after ABC moved it out of the autumn schedule to make a few changes. But dismal ratings in the first two episodes sealed the show’s unhappy fate.

Two interesting themes come out of this story. The first is that ABC has a major problem with Tuesday at 22.00, with a long line of shows failing to perform in the slot (including Wicked City). The second is that biblical stories don’t seem to be able to gain much traction on US network TV.

While Mark Burnett and Roma Downey’s The Bible did exceptionally well for cable network History, its sequel, AD: The Bible Continues, was aired on NBC and only lasted a single season before it too was cancelled.

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Fans go Gaga for Hotel – but what next?

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Lady Gaga in American Horror Story: Hotel
Lady Gaga in American Horror Story: Hotel

The Golden Globes award ceremony was a perfect example of why you might want to put Lady Gaga in your TV drama. Not only is she a good actress, as evidenced by her performance in FX’s American Horror Story: Hotel, but her every slightest action sends the media into a feeding frenzy. When she brushed past fellow actor Leonardo DiCaprio to collect her award for her role in the anthology series, she made front-page news around the world.

The Gaga factor was also evident during the first episode of AHS: Hotel, which attracted a staggering 5.81 million viewers when it launched on October 7 last year. Within weeks, FX had announced an order for season six of the franchise. Creator Ryan Murphy even went as far as to suggest that it might be possible to run two seasons of the AHS franchise per year, in spring and autumn.

Celebrity casting is, however, the TV equivalent of a sugar rush. Although Gaga’s casting had an amazing impact on AHS: Hotel’s first few episodes, the show has actually been on a steady downward slide across its entire run. From its opening high it has dropped to just 1.84 million (with the figures for the most recent episode not in at time of writing).

FX can still argue, truthfully, that the show is one of its strongest performers and that its average across the season is well ahead of channel average. But to shed 70% of its audience across a season still seems like a missed opportunity. It didn’t happen to other standout cable shows like Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead or Sons of Anarchy.

So, given that Gaga triumphed at the Globes – which means her performance was, objectively, speaking a good one – what does AHS: Hotel’s ratings decline tell us? Well, possibly it means Hotel wasn’t very good. For comparison, AHS season four, Freak Show, rarely dropped below three million viewers and finished with an average of 3.85 million.

Scream Queens
Ryan Murphy’s Scream Queens has achieved so-so results on Fox

Or maybe the audience is getting bored with horror – a genre that has been on the crest of a wave recently. After all, Murphy’s other anthology horror offering, Scream Queens has only managed to turn in a so-so performance on Fox. Just how many malformed monsters can squeeze underneath one bed?

Or maybe the AHS production team needed to carry out a bit more pre-production analysis into the kind of celebrity whose fans might stick with the show (a kind of Amazon or Netflix-style data analysis). A Golden Globe winner she might be, but perhaps there wasn’t a close enough overlap between Lady Gaga’s fanbase and that of AHS. For the long-term health of the franchise, it might have been better to cast a celebrity whose fanbase wasn’t likely to jump ship halfway through. Whatever FX chooses to glean from the show’s decline, there’s no question it’s going to have to find another big name to lead in the sixth series, the subject of which is yet to be revealed.

Heroes Reborn will not return
Heroes Reborn will not return

Still in the US, NBC has just announced that Heroes Reborn will not be renewed. Speaking to journalists, NBC chairman Bob Greenblatt made out it was no big deal by suggesting the show was only ever meant to be a limited series. But the reality is that the show didn’t really capture the audience’s interest. Having started at the 6.5 million mark, it settled down at 3.7 million for the back end of the 13-part run (this is on network television, as opposed to the lower-scoring cable universe).

As its name suggests, Heroes Reborn was a reboot of Tim Kring’s original Heroes series – but it looks like the latent demand for the franchise that NBC had anticipated didn’t really exist. Perhaps we will see the franchise return again in a decade or two. But for now it’s a reminder, if we needed one, that bringing back a classic series isn’t a guarantee of success. The news won’t be too disheartening for Kring, who is partnering with Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson on Fox series Boost Unit.

Pretty Little Liars
Pretty Little Liars is still going strong

Pretty Little Liars, a hit show for Freeform (the new name for ABC Family), returned to the air this week after a four-month break. And it did pretty well, generating an audience of 2.25 million viewers. There had been fears the show might suffer after a closely followed plotline was resolved in the last episode before the break. Figures were down, but not enough to set any alarm bells ringing.

In fact, it also provided a good launch pad for a new show called Shadowhunters, which followed it in the schedule. Shadowhunters, about a group of demon-hunting teenagers who are part angel, part human (sound like Buffy?), attracted 1.82 million viewers, making it the channel’s best new show in two years. The last big debut for Freeform was Ravenswood, a spin-off of the bankable Pretty Little Liars.

Shadowhunters
Shadowhunters opened strongly

In the UK, all eyes are on the BBC’s lavish six-part adaptation of Tolstoy’s War and Peace. The first two episodes were pretty good and have drawn a positive critical response. The harsher critics have accused it of being a bit soapy, a bit racy, a bit English and maybe just lacking some of the gravitas you’d associate with Tolstoy. But as Sunday evening entertainment, it’s a noble effort that benefits from a strong cast and Andrew Davies’ clever ability to cut to the heart of a complex story.

In ratings terms, it debuted to 6.3 million and then dropped to 5.3 million for episode two. That’s a strong performance with a not-unexpected drop for episode two – more like Poldark than Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. The performance of episode three will probably give us our best insight into how this six-part series will pan out. Lose another 1-1.5 million and it will look as though viewers are tiring of the show. But anything above 4.5 million and it will feel like it has found a loyal audience. All of which is significant to the international drama market because the performance of War and Peace may impact investment decisions related to other classic doorstop-novel adaptations.

Gillian Anderson and Paul Dano in War and Peace
Gillian Anderson and Paul Dano in War and Peace

Playing opposite War and Peace in the UK was German-language drama Deutschland 83. Broadcast by Channel 4, the first two episodes of the show have scored 1.5 million and 1.1 million respectively, a strong performance.

With The Bridge (Sweden/Denmark) achieving audiences of around 1.4-1.5 million on BBC4 just before Christmas and The Young Montalbano (Italy) debuting with one million in January (also BBC4), it’s clear that a significant section of the UK population is now comfortable with non-English content – which is good news for mainland Europe.

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Stepping out of the big screen’s shadow

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If a feature film fails to meet expectations on the big screen, could it successfully transition to television? Shadowhunters shines a light on this new trend.

When BBC1 last year unveiled plans to adapt Philip Pullman’s celebrated novel trilogy His Dark Materials, it was not forgotten that this was once a series that had big-screen ambitions.

The Golden Compass, based on Northern Lights – the first book in Pullman’s trilogy – received mixed reviews when it was released in 2007 and failed to set the box office alight. The sequels never materialised.

However, announcing the BBC project and his partnership with producer Bad Wolf, Pullman himself noted the promise TV now offers to complex stories that film often cannot. “In recent years we’ve seen the way that long stories on television, whether adaptations or originals, can reach depths of characterisation and heights of suspense by taking the time for events to make their proper impact and for consequences to unravel.”

Gary Marenzi
Gary Marenzi

The path of Pullman’s novels to TV follows that of Shadowhunters, a new fantasy drama now showing on Freeform, the US cable channel recently rebranded from ABC Family.

Opening on January 12 to 1.82 million total viewers – marking the channel’s biggest series debut for two years – Shadowhunters is based on the bestselling young-adult book series The Mortal Instruments, which is written by Cassandra Clare and once also had a future on the big screen. A movie called The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, based on the first of six books in the series, was released in 2013, with plans for a sequel based on the second book, City of Ashes, widely reported.

That too failed to materialise, allowing Freeform to develop its own version of the story, which follows 18-year-old Clary Fray, who discovers she comes from a long line of Shadowhunters – human-angel hybrids who hunt down demons.

When her mother Jocelyn is kidnapped, Clary is thrown into the world of demon hunting with the mysterious Jace and her best friend, Simon. Now living among faeries, warlocks, vampires and werewolves, she begins a journey of self-discovery as she learns about her past and how it will shape her future.

Shadowhunters is produced by Constantin Film and executive produced by Ed Decter and McG, who also directed the first episode.

It stars Katherine McNamara as Clary, with Dominic Sherwood as Jace and Alberto Rosende as Simon. The cast also includes Emeraude Toubia, Matthew Daddario, Isaiah and Harry Shum Jr.

“Constantin had owned the rights to the IP and developed the film. It did OK,” explains Gary Marenzi, who has been working as an adviser to the production company for the last two years. “But we sat down and said it’s perfect for a TV series because it’s a huge ecosystem. You have the shadow world, the shadowhunters and the demons, and in between you have warlocks, werewolves and other myths and legends.

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, the big-screen adaptation of Cassandra Clare’s work

“It’s set in an urban setting where people look real. It’s not some complete fantasy world so it’s really that urban realism this show brings. We were fortunate enough to find Ed Decter as a showrunner. He had read the books and was passionate about the project. However, the protagonist is only 15 in the books so we had to age that up. Ed and his team outlined stories that we liked and, based on the first draft of Ed’s first script, Karey Burke (exec VP of programming and development) at ABC Family – who knew Ed and the books –  said, ‘We’re rebranding, this is perfect. Can you come in?’ So they went in and, boom, we got a 13-episode order right away.”

Any fans of the film who are expecting the show to continue where it left off will be disappointed, however, as the first episode of Shadowhunters serves as a fresh entry point into Clary’s world.

“It will follow book one and zig and zag, plus there’s new characters and situations created that are inspired by the books,” Marenzi says. “Then when we brought in McG to direct the first episode; he brought a whole new level of energy to the proceedings.

“The combination of Ed, his talented writers room, McG and the guys at Constantin, who know the IP, was great. We were very comfortable with our line producer, Don Carmody, and we set up in Toronto. The sets and locations are perfect for urban drama.”

Marenzi is keen to stress that the big-budget series is not a kids' show
Marenzi is keen to stress that the big-budget series is not a kids’ show

With Shadowhunters’ budget coming in at a hefty US$3.5m an hour, Marenzi stresses “this a big show, it’s not a kids’ show.”

He continues: “The interesting challenge is that when you tell people it’s based on The Mortal Instruments and it’s for ABC Family, people automatically assume it’s a kids’ show. It’s not – it’s a 21.00 show.”

In terms of Shadowhunters’ visual style, Marenzi says the creative team wanted it to have a modern look, “not gothic like Harry Potter.” He adds: “We wanted to make it look like these guys are going out to a club every night, just with vampires and werewolves.

“I was also involved in MTV’s Teen Wolf. It’s a much smaller show but it succeeded because people loved those characters – and they’ll love these characters too. They’re going to root for them every week and that’s the heart of a good TV show. Then it’s just a question of scale. This is bigger; there’s more drama, more jeopardy.”

While Freeform will be hoping Shadowhunters can join its roster of young-adult hits including Pretty Little Liars and Stitchers, other producers will be keen to see whether this former big-screen franchise can successfully transition to television.

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The fem factor

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ABC has confirmed the return of Agent Carter

The US is the centre of attention again this week, with scripted shows being launched, renewed or cancelled on a daily basis.

If there’s one interesting trend emerging it’s the desire among US networks to find a kickass female lead – someone who can combine the allure of Xena: Warrior Princess with the moral rectitude of Wonder Woman and the brainpower of Borgen.

CBS, for example, has given the go-ahead for Supergirl, a new series from Warner Brothers TV to be executive produced by Greg Berlanti. Starring Melissa Benoist (Glee), it tells the story of Superman’s cousin and her decision to embrace her superpowers (which unfortunately don’t extend to enhanced fashion sense). Clearly intended to attract a female audience, it is also part of the network’s strategy to reach out to much younger viewers.

Over at ABC, meanwhile, the decision has just been taken to give a second season to Agent Carter, a spin-off from the Captain America movie franchise that centres on formidable female agent Peggy Carter. There were serious doubts about whether the show would be renewed due to its modest ratings, high cost (it’s a period drama) and the fact that sister series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is coming back after a season’s break. However, the fact that Agent Carter has received a positive critical response, coupled with the fem factor, has proved decisive.

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The Mysteries of Laura has been renewed despite poor critical reception

ABC Family has another female-centred fantasy coming through in the shape of Shadowhunters, based on book series The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare. Vaguely reminiscent of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Shadowhunters follows 18-year-old Clary Fray, a human-angel hybrid who hunts down demons. This week, ABC announced that the lead will be played by Katherine McNamara (New Year’s Eve).

The emphasis on female-led shows isn’t only evident in the realm of fantasy. An NBC renewal attracting attention this year is The Mysteries of Laura, a police procedural comedy drama in which a female detective attempts to juggle her day job with single motherhood. The first series was panned by critics but rated well enough during 2014/2015 to secure a 13-episode renewal.

Leaving the female-led issue to one side, there are a number of interesting aspects to Laura’s renewal. Firstly, it is based on a Spanish show, proving that foreign formats can work on US network TV. Secondly, it was the only one of NBC’s 2014/2015 drama launches that got renewed, underlining what a ruthless market the US is (and how off the mark NBC was with its commissions last year).

It’s also interesting to note that two of the show’s executive producers are Greg Berlanti and Aaron Kaplan. Why does this matter? Because Berlanti will have six shows on TV next season and Kaplan seven. The clear message is that both know what it takes to make network drama tick.

The-Mindy-Project
The Mindy Project has been ditched by Fox but rumours suggest it could be revived on Hulu

After the recent revival of interest in sci-fi visionary Philip K Dick (The Man in the High Castle. Minority Report and much more), it’s the turn of Aldous Huxley’s iconic novel Brave New World to be dusted down and reimagined for the TV screen. Set in a world where mind-altering drugs, free sex and rampant consumerism are the order of the day (no, not 21st century LA), and people are genetically engineered in hatcheries, the TV version of the book will be produced by Syfy and Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Television.

Announcing the project, Dave Howe, president of Syfy & Chiller, said: “Brave New World is one of the most influential genre classics of all time. Its provocative vision of a future gone awry remains as powerful and as timeless as ever.” Les Bohem (Dante’s Peak) will write the screenplay and executive produce.

Sci-fi fans will also be delirious to learn that BBC America and Canadian network Space have renewed Orphan Black for a fourth season. Produced by Temple Street Productions, the show stars Tatiana Maslany as a woman with several cloned identities. The show has proved to be something of a cult hit, generating high levels of social engagement and time-shifted viewing. With a total of 40 episodes (including the new run), it’s also becoming a key property for BBC Worldwide’s international distribution efforts.

In terms of the new dynamics of the TV business, there’s a lot of interest this week in the fate of The Mindy Project, a romantic comedy that has aired for three seasons on Fox in the US. Fox cancelled the show on May 6, but there are reports that Hulu is interested in reviving it with a two-season order from coproducers Universal Television and 3 Arts Entertainment. Reminiscent of the Amazon deal that saved Ripper Street, it’s an indication of the growing significance of SVoD platforms.

orphan-black
Orphan Black will come back for a fourth season

There are also a few indications that channel chiefs are seeking to manage the cost of drama more carefully. A+E’s decision to simulcast Roots and War & Peace across three of its networks is an example of this. So is Discovery’s desire to spread the cost of drama across its global family of channels. We’re also seeing more mid-sized US cable channels jumping on board European dramas as partners, rather than taking a commissioning position.

Sundance, for example, picked up Deutschland 1983, while Pivot took a position in Fortitude. This week, building on this point, Esquire US acquired Tandem Productions’ thriller Spotless (an English-language series that has aired in France on Canal+).

Esquire is calling the Spotless acquisition an original series, adopting a form of language Netflix has been using to great effect. This is a model we’re likely to see more of as broadcasters try to make sense of the high cost of marquee scripted programming.

In a week dominated by the US, one international story stands out – the BBC’s decision to cancel Jimmy McGovern’s Banished. Commenting, the BBC said: “There are no current plans for Banished to return. We are very proud of the series and hugely grateful to all those who worked so hard on it. However, the BBC2 drama budget only allows for a limited number of returning dramas a year, which means we have to make hard choices.”

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