ZDF Enterprises Rebrands as ZDF Studios

Naman Ramachandran Premium documentary titles featuring iconic musicians including John Lennon, Freddie Mercury, Tupac Shakur and Amy Winehouse have sold widely for BBC Studios.Rogan productions’ feature-length documentary for BBC Two, “Freddie Mercury: The Final Act,” charts the final chapter of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury’s life story. International sales include the U.S.

In anticipation of Los Angeles County lifting most masking requirements tomorrow, Universal Studios Hollywood today announced it would do away with all masking, vaccination and testing requirements for guests.

EXCLUSIVE: Lucifer exec producer Sheri Elwood has struck a first-look deal with Blink49 Studios, the Endeavor Content-backed studio founded by John Morayniss.

Fremantle International Bolsters Scripted

The depute leader of Dumfries and Galloway Council is taking up a role with South of Scotland Enterprise.

EXCLUSIVE: NEO Studios U.S., the production arm of sports media group Eleven, has set its leadership team and unveiled its inaugural development slate.

West Lothian social entrepreneur, Angela Moohan, who is the chief executive of The Larder, has been named as one of the UK’s top 100 women social entrepreneurs by NatWest bank.

BBC Studios And Sky Deutschland Strike Factual Content Deal

Naman Ramachandran BBC Studios and Sky Deutschland have agreed an output deal for factual content in Germany.The long-term partnership agreement will see Sky Deutschland as the pay TV home for BBC Studios premium factual content in Germany, which will include 150 hours of factual titles from the BBC Studios catalogue. The factual output from BBC Studios can be seen on Sky Deutschland’s Sky Nature and Sky Documentaries channels.BBC Studios titles acquired under the deal include “Greta Thunberg A Year to Change the World,” “Louis Theroux: Shooting Joe Exotic,” “David Attenborough: The Sound of Nature” and “Primates.” In 2019, BBC Studios signed a partnership with Germany’s ZDF to produce factual shows, which includes the upcoming “Green Planet” presented by David Attenborough, alongside co-developing scripted TV series.

ITV Studios Strikes Major CBC Content Deal

Ed Meza @edmezavarZDF Enterprises has struck further deals for the first season of post-apocalyptic disaster thriller “Sløborn,” including sales in the U.K., Russia and Japan.The eight-part series is produced by Christian Alvart’s Berlin-based Syrreal Entertainment in co-production with ZDF, Tobis, Nordisk Film and ZDF Enterprises. Alvart, who also penned and helmed the Netflix series “Dogs of Berlin,” co-wrote and directed “Sløborn” along with Adolfo J.

Channel 4 Pre-Buys ‘Hitler: A Life In Pictures’

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentThe Amazon Studios Inclusion Policy and Playbook released last June in the U.S. is reverberating in the streaming giant’s productions around the world.That is the main takeaway of a panel at the European Film Market on Amazon’s diversity, equity and inclusion panel where it emerged that, though it is U.S.-specific, Amazon’s teams in Europe are starting to create their own adaptations of the Playbook, including the German unit led by head of German Originals Philip Pratt.“We are inspired by what the U.S.

Anna Marie de la Fuente ZDF Enterprises, to be rebranded ZDF Studios in April, has snagged worldwide distribution rights to the topical post-WWII dramatic series “Between Two Worlds” (“Ein Hauch Von Amerika”).Skein is set in a fictional German town in the ’50s where a robust U.S. military presence is impacting the lives of its people, in particular the two young friends Marie and Erika, whose relationships with their family, community and each other are put to the test by the presence of a U.S.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentZDF Enterprises and the U.K.-based Parsonage Productions are developing a new drama, “The Bronte Girls,” a fictional account of the last summer which the three Bronte sisters spent together.The drama is based on the stage play of the same name by New York-based playwright Caroline Franklin (“Last Night at the Carmine”). Franklin will adapt the drama for the small screen with the British writer-director Darcia Martin (“Riches,” “Shakespeare & Hathaway,”Call the Midwife”).The initial series, structured as a six-part drama, will be executive produced by Harvey Myman, Patty Lenahan Ishimoto and Patrick Irwin, who first worked together on A+E Networks’ U..K.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorStudio Hamburg Enterprises has signed its first-ever co-production deal with Germany’s Gebrueder Beetz Filmproduktion to produce high-end documentary series “Reeperbahn Special Unit 65.” The show is the first non-fiction series to receive an invitation to present at the Berlinale Series Market showcase Up Next: Germany, which runs from Feb. 14-16.Now in production, “Reeperbahn Special Unit 65” is a cop series that tells the story of FD65, Germany’s first-ever police unit dedicated to fighting organized crime.

Penzing Studios, a significant film and TV studio facility development, has begun a phased opening plan in a former air base 30 miles west of Munich.

The European heads of Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max and Paramount+ have talked up their autonomy from the U.S., with Amazon Studios Europe boss Georgia Brown stating: “In my head we’re a European streamer.”

Jamie Lang Penzing Studios is in expansion mode, and has begun hosting film and TV shoots in the former airbase 30 KM west of Munich.The refurbished airplane hangars already feature a full-scale virtual production stage with additional sound stages set to open in June and a major investment planned.Developers plan to invest an additional €100 million ($113 million) over the next three years to expand the facility to 12 sound stages with 25,000 square meters of production space and 15,000-square-meters of workshop and office spaces, they announced in a statement on Monday. The new hub will also house post-production, visual effects, gaming, digital media, and technology companies, educational opportunities.

EXCLUSIVE: Alexandra Fraser, a UK indie veteran and former Joint-CEO of Embarrassing Bodies producer Maverick TV, has joined Channel 4-backed Spirit Studios in the newly-created role of Creative and Board Advisor.