French Hip-Hop Drama ‘Le Monde De Demain’ Scoops Series Mania International Competition Grand Prize

Hello Insiders, Tom Grater here delivering a newsletter packed full of the week’s most important headlines from across the film and TV world.

Amazon Studios Europe Boss Georgia Brown has revealed how the streamer “completely turned storymaking on its head” for upcoming hybrid grime/drill musical Jungle. 

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentPriya Dogra, president of WarnerMedia Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia (excluding China), took the stage on Thursday to deliver a keynote speech at the Series Mania TV fest in Lille, France, and the message was clear: the U.S. conglomerate is ramping up production in Europe.“Our industry is becoming more global,” said Dogra.

WarnerMedia EMEA & Asia President Priya Dogra has talked up the U.S. media giant’s plan to “ramp up investment in local creative communities across Europe,” with 40 shows in the pipeline for 2023.

The head of France Télévisions Delphine Ernotte Cunci has said she “wouldn’t personally have applied censorship” to Russian news networks.

Major networks are “beginning to see the light” by commissioning entertaining content from Africa, according to EbonyLife Founder Mo Abudu, as the heads of production houses in some of the world’s biggest growing content markets spotlighted the challenge of attracting new talent.

Manori Ravindran International EditorParamount is the latest studio to plant its flag in the ground at French TV drama festival Series Mania, where international CEO Raffaele Annecchino broke down the company’s international distribution and SVOD strategy.In a keynote moderated by Variety’s Italy and West Asia correspondent Nick Vivarelli, Annecchino detailed plans to focus internationally on premium SVOD service Paramount Plus and FAST offering Pluto TV, which has more than 64 million monthly users. Also in the mix to “compete with our ecosystem,” according to Annecchino, is Paramount’s JV with Comcast, SkyShowtime, which is launching in 20 European markets where Paramount Plus won’t be available.By the end of 2022, both Paramount Plus and SkyShowtime will be in more than 60 markets in Europe.

Paramount International boss Raffaele Annecchino has talked up the streamer for “launching quicker than others” in key European markets, as he unveiled a tied-up with global Lupin and Narcos production house Gaumont and set titles from France, Argentina and Germany.

Marta Balaga The conditions are set for an increase in scripted adaptations, argued Tim Westcott of research organization Omdia at Series Mania.According to the research opening the “With Local Content Going Global, What’s the Future of Scripted Formats?” session on Wednesday, the U.S. has been the biggest and “most enthusiastic” buyer of scripted remakes between 2010 and 2022, with South Korea, Turkey and France also following suit.

Anna Marie de la Fuente At a time when journalists are under attack in many parts of the world and the odious term “fake news” has become part of the global lexicon, Spain’s Mediacrest presents the topical drama series “Fake” at a key event in France-based Series Mania, the invitation-only Spain Pitching Breakfast, on Thursday.Leading the charge is industry vet-producer Gustavo Ferrada (“Klaus,” “Nobody Knows Anybody”), Mediacrest’s executive director of fiction, who joined the fast-rising Spanish production company in January.“Fake” is one of five selected projects from leading Spanish production companies seeking European partners, comprising Fedent España, Friki Films, Onza, Vertice 360 and Mediacrest. Created in-house by Mediacrest’s deputy head of fiction, Carlos Molinero and senior scriptwriter Nicolás Romero, the Strasbourg-based series of six 52-minute episodes follows a high-powered couple as their once idyllic relationship turns toxic.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentVariety shined a spotlight on European talents at its jam-packed dinner cocktail party at Series Mania Festival in Lille, France.The event, which was co-hosted by Variety and Series Mania Forum, celebrated Mo Abudu, the CEO of Nigeria’s EbonyLife Media who won the 2022 Woman in Series Award. The party also brought together the laureates of the Copro pitching sessions and over 800 international industry players.Following an introduction by Series Mania Forum’s head Francesco Capurro, Variety‘s international editor Manori Ravindran welcomed on stage three rising series directors and creators who are part of Variety’s 10 European Talents to Watch: Chas Appeti and Junior Okoli, the cinematographer and director of “Jungle,” and Quoc Dang Tran, the creator, showrunner and writer of Disney Plus’ French original “Parallels.” “Jungle” is an Amazon Original Series showcasing the creativity of the U.K.’s drill, grime and rap music.

HBO Max EMEA Boss Anthony Root has set out his team’s stall to “broaden the appeal” of the streamer “beyond the die hard Euphoria fan.”

Fanny Herrero, the showrunner of hit French comedy-drama Call My Agent!, discussed the genesis of the show’s success during a panel at the Series Mania festival today.

The Tudors and Vikings creator Michael Hirst has branded his upcoming big budget Billy the Kid drama a “new kind of western.”

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent“Game of Thrones” producer Frank Doelger, after executive producing “The Swarm” through his Berlin-based Intaglio Films, now has two new high-end shows for the international pipeline in the pipeline: “Concordia” and “Doing Good.”During a panel at the Series Mania TV festival Doelger described “Concordia” as “a series about a 21st century community which uses cutting edge AI technology to see if it can create a fairer, safer, society.” Twenty years after this community has been a huge success, “countries around the world are approaching the founders of this social engineering experiment to found similar communities in their countries,” he added.And, “as they research the twenty-year history of this community, they discover that this instance of utopia has provided safe homes for immigrants and thousands of refugees seeking a better life. But they also discover the dark secret that led to its founding.” Doelger — whose Intaglio is a joint venture between German outfits Beta Cinema and ZDF Enterprises — said  “Concordia” will start shooting in September.

Frank Doelger, who was an executive producer on Game Of Thrones between 2011 and 2019, provided an update on his new company in Germany during a Series Mania panel today.

EXCLUSIVE: Call My Agent! and Marianne writer Quoc Dang Tran has struck a first-look deal with Universal International Studios, becoming the first French writer to sign such a deal with a major studio.

EXCLUSIVE: BBC Studios has started drumming up interest internationally for The Birth of Daniel F Harris, the latest young adult drama from End of the F***ing World producer Clerkenwell Films.

Marta Balaga Just in time for the 20th anniversary of “The Wire,” celebrated during the opening of French TV festival Series Mania currently unspooling in Lille, David Simon returns to Baltimore with HBO’s miniseries “We Own This City.”Co-created with George Pelecanos and directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green, it focuses on true events described in Baltimore Sun reporter Justin Fenton’s nonfiction book, chronicling the inner workings of the Gun Trace Task Force: the Baltimore Police Department unit charged with racketeering, robbery, extortion and overtime fraud in 2017.Jon Bernthal and Baltimore native Josh Charles star – as disgraced Sgt. Wayne Jenkins and GTTF detective Daniel Hersl respectively – as well as “Succession’s” Dagmara Domińczyk, McKinley Belcher III, Jamie Hector and Wunmi Mosaku.