By Variety | Created at 2025-03-04 09:34:50 | Updated at 2025-03-04 14:03:59
6 hours ago
Erik Barmack’s “Fusion,” Sally Wainwright’s “Riot Women” and epic fantasy “War of the Kingdoms” feature as potential highlights at the Series Mania Forum’s first Buyers Upfront, whose lineup was announced Tuesday by Series Mania founder and director general Laurence Herszberg.
Kicking off with a Beta Brunch on March 24, the Buyers Upfront also features latest series from ARD, ZDF Studios, Mediawan, Sidus, Beta Film, Slot Machine, REinvent and Bande à Part Films – making for a mouthwatering prospect.
The Upfront also underscores two trends: a move into English-language production which has larger U.S. streamer sales prospects; an increasingly attractive financing model, at least for selectively produced foreign-language shows, based on tying down partners and pre-sales among local broadcasters in Europe rather than waiting for currently highly challenging U.S. deal with a streamer.
Part of producer-distributor Erik Barmack’s drive at Wild Sheep Content into “top talent from smaller countries,” “Fusion” marks the first project to go into production from new Icelandic production powerhouse ACT4. It is co-created and written by leading Icelandic TV series producer Hörður Rúnarsson (“As Long As We Live,” “Black Sands”).Wild Sheep is backed by The Mediapro Studio.
The latest from Wainright, (“Happy Valley,” “Last Tango in Halifax,” “Gentleman Jack”), bound for BBC and Britbox in the U.S. and Canada, “Riot Woman” is produced by the U.K.’s Drama Republic (“Doctor Foster”) a Mediawan company.
Also in the mix: “War of the Kingdoms,” produced by German powerhouse Constantin, an epic medieval fantasy reimagining of heroic legend “The Song of the Nibelungs.” Weighing in at around €45 million ($47.25 million), it is the biggest budgeted German production ever.
“The Series Mania Buyers Upfront is an exclusive event for top-tier buyers, showcasing exclusive 12-minute first look screenings from ten eagerly awaited series that have strong global appeal,” said Herszberg. “From the outset, our goal with this new event has been to give unparalleled access to our buyers as well as help facilitate networking opportunities with the leading distributors behind these series,” she added.
“This new event marks the beginning of a truly new chapter in the history of Series Mania Forum. From creation to international distribution, we are further solidifying our position as the must-attend event of the spring for the scripted community.,” noted Francesco Capurro, director of the Series Mania Forum.
The six-person jury of key buyers takes in: Ghislain Barrois, director cinema, fiction, sales, rights’ acquisition and distribution, Mediaset España; Marina Chiaravelle, RAI Cinema head of TV rights acquisition; Rubén Fernández Loa, head of series acquisitions at Spain’s Movistar Plus+; Julia Fidel, head of international fiction, acquisitions, at ZDF; Katie Keenan, group director of acquisitions, Sky UK/ROI & Europe, and Virginie Padilla, commissioning editor, Arte, the French-German public broadcaster.
A brief drill-down on the titles:
“Dangerous Truth,” (“Das zweite Attentat”)
Country: Germany
International Sales: OneGate Media
Production Company: Eikon Media, Deal Productions
Format: 6 episodes x 45 minutes
Genre: Thriller
Year of production: 2024
Living for 20 years in Athens under a Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) protection program, Alexander Jaromin begins a desperate and dangerous search to uncover the truth of his father’s death. Co-helmed by “The Swarm” and “Concordia” director Barbara Eder, a political thriller backed by powerful German partners, public broadcaster ARD and commercial arm ARD Degeto and gap financier Bravado Media. An ARD sales subsid, OneGate Media, serves as global distributor.
“The Danish Woman” (“Danska Konan”)
Country: Iceland
International Sales: The Party Film Sales
Production Company: Slot Machine
Format: 6 episodes x 47 minutes
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Year of production: 2025
Toplining Trine Dyrholm, star of Oscar-nominated “The Girl with the Needle,” as a retired Danish Secret Service agent, living a quiet life in Reykjavik who can’t stop her deep sense of justice from helping her neighbors, whether they want or not. A buzz series also selected for Series Mania’s International Panorama, from Benedikt Erlingsson (“Woman at War,” “Of Horses and Men”) produced by Slot Machine (“Dancer in the Dark, “Melancholia”).
“The Deal”
Country: Switzerland, France, Luxembourg, Belgium
International Sales: Gaumont
Production Company: Bande à Part Films, Les Films Pelleas, Gaumont Télévision, Bidibul Productions, Versus Production
Format: 6 episodes x 46 minutes
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Year of production: 2024
Swiss diplomat Alexandra Weiss hosts last chance nuclear talks between the U.S. and Iran, as her former love, threatened Iranian engineer Payam, appears, threatening her stance of famed Swiss neutrality. Veerle Baetens, Juliet Stevenson, Anthony Azizi star; top Swiss production house Bande à Part Films (“Sister,” “Dog on Trial,” “Safe House”) lead produces.
“Escaping Bolivia,” (“Flukten fra Bolivia”)
Country: Norway
International Sales: REinvent International Sales
Production Company: Fenomen TV, 4 1/2 FILM
Format: 6 episodes x 44 minutes
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Year of production: 2025
Ella Øverbye, star of Dag Johan Haugerud’s Berlin 2025 Golden Bear winner “Dreams” and Jakob Oftebro (“1864”) topline the real-life thriller, inspired by the incarceration in Bolivia of three Norwegian girls for drug trafficking in 2008. Two plan escape. Anna Gutto, behind Lionsgate’s “Paradise Highway” starring Juliette Binoche, serves as concept director, alongside creator-episodic director Emilie Beck, attached to Netflix’s “Royalteen.”
“Fusion,” (“Reykjavic Fusion”)
Country: Iceland
International Sales: The Mediapro Studio Distribution, Wild Sheep Content
Production Company: Act4
Format: 6 episodes x 52 minutes
Genre: Thriller
Year of production: 2024
Co-produced by Arte in France and Germany, pre-sold to AMC Iberia for Spain and Portugal and with public broadcaster YLE for Finland and described as “Breaking Bad” meets “The Bear,” “Fusion” has Darri playing gifted chef Jónas, falsely imprisoned, now out and attempting to regain his family’s trust. Ostracized, he accepts illicit funds to open a restaurant, plunging him into money laundering and debt, jeopardizing his parole, life, and loved ones.
“Puzzle Lady,”
Country: U.K.
International Sales: ZDF Studios
Production Company: December FilmsFormat: 6 episodes x 60 minutes
Genre: Comedy, Thriller
Year of production: 2025
A “compelling, cosy crime drama,” has said Paul Testar at the Paramount-owned U.K. channel Channel 5. In it, after a strange murder takes place in sleepy market town Bakerbury, the police are baffled by a crossword puzzle clue left on the body. Fortunately, famed cruciverbalist Cora Felton (“Downton Abbey’s” Phyllis Logan ) has just moved to town. PBS-bound in the U.S. with ZDF Studios selling non-U.S.
“Riot Women,”
Country: U.K.
International Sales: Mediawan Rights
Production Company: Drama Republic Limited
Format: 6 episodes x 60 minutes
Genre: Drama
“Five not so young women create a makeshift punk-rock band in order to enter a local talent contest. Writing their first original song, however, they soon discover that they have a lot to say, as they juggle demanding jobs, grown-up children, complicated parents, husbands who’ve buggered off.” A synopsis with a distinctive Wainright flavor for a potential lineup highlight.
“S Line”
Country: South Korea
International Sales: Sidus
Production Company: Sidus
Format: 6 episodes x 60 minutes
Genre: Thriller, Science fiction
Year of production: 2024
Hyun-heup sees the S Line, a red thread linking people who had formerly had a relationship. She teams with Detective Han Ji-wook to investigate the S Line, after a friend falls into coma using sinister glasses to see the Line. From Sidus, behind “Dr. Park’s Clinic” launched on SVOD service Tving.
“Shadow Leaks,” (Schattenseite)
Country: Germany
International Sales: Beta Film
Production Company: Dreamtool Entertainment for ARD Degeto Film, funk, and Hessischer
Rundfunk, with funding from Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg.
Format: 6 episodes x 45 minutes
Genre: YA Thriller
Year of production: 2024/2025
A second ARD series in the Upfront. At her new high-school, Nola investigates a ShadowPage website which reveals the students most intimate secrets, whose creator is blackmailing her. She also tries to find out what the S Line has to do with a student’s recent death. Created by Jonas Ems (“Toxisch”) and Hanna Hribar (“Wrong”), based on Ems’ bestseller and backed by ARD Degeto Film and another play by Beta Film for YA auds, seen in “Wild Republic” and “The Sea Beyond.”
“War of the Kingdoms”
Country: Germany
International Sales: Fremantle
Production Company: Constantin Television
Format: 6 episodes x 60 minutes
Genre: Drama
Year of production: 2024
Reimagining “The Song of the Nibelungs,” an inspiration behind “Lord of the Rings” and “Game of Thrones, “War of the Kingdoms” turns on Hagen, a soldier and Lord Commander ready to stand by his King but secretly deeply in forbidden love with Princess Kriemhild. “The idea is, first, creating a new world and a new IP. And, second, if you’re going into a genre like this, the stakes and the expectations are very high, so you need a high budget,” Constantin Film head Oliver Berben has told Variety.
