Bronte sisters drama among Series Mania co-pro pitch finalists
A coming-of-age drama about the Bronte sisters from The Fall exec Patrick Irwin is among the series selected for the co-pro pitch competition at Series Mania.
Six-parter The Bronte Girls is based on the play of the same name by Caroline Kelly Franklin, pictured, left hand side of photo (Last Night at the Carmine) and centres on a fictionalised account of the final summer the novelist sisters Anne, Charlotte and Emily spent together as teenagers.
Set in the Yorkshire village of Haworth, the series foreshadows the experiences of the various books the sisters went on to write, exploring rebelliousness, passion, sexual tension, gender politics in stark contrast with the expectations for strait-laced Victorian society.
The project has been developed from Irwin’s Parsonage Productions in association with Germany’s ZDF Studios, with Patty Lenahan Ishimoto, Irwin and Harvey Myman (Miss Scarlet and the Duke) exec producing. Franklin is co-writing with writer-director Darcia Martin, pictured, right hand side of photo (Riches).
The Bronte Girls sits alongside 14 other international dramas selected from 450 projects spanning 66 countries, in competition to secure €50,000 (£44,510) to help develop the winning series and attract financial partners. A sixteenth project will also be presented out of competition in partnership with the ongoing Berlinale co-production market.
Other projects include Australian-South African crime drama Cooper, produced by Goalpost Pictures and Quizzical Pictures, Irish-Canadian comedy Our Father from ShinAwil and Reel One Entertainment, and war thriller Unspoken from Ukraine and Poland, produced by Match&Spark, Toy Cinema and 2Brave Productions, which is based on multiple true stories from the ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
An international jury of industry professionals led by Channel 4 drama chief Caroline Hollick will decide the winner. The remaining jurors feature Rai commissioning editor Michele Zatta, StudioCanal executive managing director of TV series Françoise Guyonnet, YLE head of drama Jarmo Lampela and Lindsey Martin, vice-president of development and co-productions, CBS Studios International.
Laurence Herszberg, founder and general director of Series Mania, championed the “record number of submissions” with “increasing interest from African countries”.
“Genres that dominated the selection process this year included thrillers and detective stories followed closely by historical dramas with a strong appeal to the 90s,” she added. “We also received many women-themed stories based on real life events.”
Selected projects for co-pro pitch competition
Asma - 8 x 52’ - France
Genre: Biopic
Produced by Patricia Boutinard Rouelle for Nilaya Productions
Written by Antoine Vitkine
Cooper - 8 x 45’ - Australia, South Africa
Genre: Crime drama
Produced by Kylie du Fresne for Goalpost Pictures and Nimrod Geva for Quizzical Pictures
Written by James McNamara, Amy Jephta and Malla Nunn, based on Malla Nunn Books
Dust and Coal - 8 x 52’ - Israël, France
Genre: Psychological thriller
Produced by Ronen Ben Tal for Bental Productions Ltd and Morgane Le Moine for First Love
Written by Ronen Ben Tal, Ron Ninio, Ofer Seker and Eleanor Sela
Executioners - 6 x 60’ - Spain
Genre : Coming of age, Thriller
Produced by Alberto Rull for Vertice 360
Written by Pedro Garcia Rios and Rodrigo Martin
Fort Apache - 8 x 50’ - Italy
Genre: Action, Crime
Produced by Fabrizio Donvito, Marco Cohen, Benedetto Habib, Daniel Campos Pavoncelli for Indiana Production Company
Executive Producer: Kim Gualino
Written by Ivano Fachin, Giovanni Galassi and Tommaso Matano
Hijacking Paradise - 6 x 52’ - Belgium
Genre: Geopolitical hostage thriller
Produced by Dimitri Verbeeck for Caviar
Created by Stijn Deconinck
Written by Stijn Deconinck & Nathalie Teirlinck
Yop - 8 x 45’ - Sweden
Genre: Drama
Produced by Moa Westeson, Cindy Hanson and Anni Faurbye Fernandez for Nevis Productions
Written by David Jassy
Letters to Leonard - 5 x 50’ - Greece
Genre: Drama, LGBTQIA+
Produced by George Linardakis for Stefi Productions
Written by Fotis Dousos and John Samaras on an idea of Pierros Andrakakos
Monitor - 6 x 60’ - Germany
Genre: High-Tech Thriller
Produced by Fabian Massah & Marc Malze for Endorphine Production
Created by Nikolai Müllerschön
Our Father - 8 x 55’ - Ireland, Canada
Genre : Comedy
Produced by Aaron Farrell for ShinAwiL and Dominic Scheiber for Reel One Entertainment
Written by John Cairns and Michael McCartney
The Bronte Girls - 6 x 60’ - United Kingdom
Genre: Historical, Coming of age
Developed by Parsonage Productions Ltd. with ZDF Studios
Written by Caroline Kelly Franklin
The Salvatore Mundi Case - 6 x 52’ - France
Genre: Thriller
Produced by Florent Gellie for Incognita and Nathanaël La Combe for Wonder Films
Written by Angela Soupe and Antoine Vitkine
The Unquiet Dead - 6 x 60’ – Canada
Genre: Serialized Crime drama
Produced by Shaftesbury
Written by Abdul Malik, based on the book series created by Ausma Zehanat Khan
Unspoken - 6 x 30’ - Ukraine, Poland
Genre: War thriller
Produced by Anna Rozalska, Dmytro Sukhanov and Natalia Liber for Match&Spark (Poland), Toy Cinema (Ukraine) and 2Brave Productions (Ukraine).
Written by Zhanna Ozirna and Filip Syczy?ski
Vanished - 6 x 45’ - Germany, Iceland
Genre: Crime, Historical
Written by Mikael Torfason
Produced by Britta Hansen and Franziska Lindner for Red Pony Pictures and Ragnheidur Erlingsdottir for Zik Zak Filmworks
Exec. Producers: Sven Sund (RPP), Thor S. Sigurjónsson (ZZ) and Wolfgang Feindt (ZDF)
This article first appeared on our sister site, Broadcast.
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