‘Love Island’ Heads To Israel
Israel has become the latest destination to embrace Love Island, with ITV Studios-backed Armoza Formats set to produce a local version for new Keshet streamer Free TV. Filming will take place in May for a summer air date, as Israel becomes the 26th territory to commission a version following the announcement of Malta and Albania last week. Avi Armoza’s ITV Studios-backed The Four creator Armoza Formats is producing the local version. The company, which was acquired by ITV Studios in 2019, pivoted earlier this year to become ITV Studios’ production arm in Israel and has already produced two local versions of Come Dine with Me for Kan 11 along with the likes of The 1% Club and The Chase. The show will air on Free TV, Keshet and RGE’s streamer that is set to launch early next year. “Since establishing Armoza Productions and producing hits in the Israeli market such as Come Dine with Me, The 1% Club and The Chase, it was the natural progression of the company to bring the next big prime time reality competition to Israel,” said Armoza. In the UK, the entertainment juggernaut remains a lucrative performer for ITV and is soon to air both a winter and summer season (seasons nine and 10). The U.S. version was originally ordered for CBS but has been airing on Peacock since last year and versions are also made across Europe and other territories.
Viaplay Calls ‘Bullshit’ On Copenhagen Biker-Gang War
A 1980s Copenhagen biker-gang war forms the spin of Viaplay’s latest original Bullshit. The series, billed as an “unconventional coming-of-age drama” comes from Milad Alami (Follow the Money), Bo Hr. Hansen (Bamse) and Molly Malene Stensgaard (Aquarela). The six-part series is based on a book by Camilla Stockmann and Janus Køster-Rasmussen and comes from Nordisk Film Creative Alliance and is set to premiere on the international streamer in 2023. The plot follows a rootless young couple, (Alba August and Marco Ilsø), who are drawn into Copenhagen’s biker subculture. “Bullshit is a four-and-a-half-hour thrill ride into the wildness of youth that starts as fun and innocent, but becomes increasingly serious and dangerous,” said Alami. Filming recently wrapped in Copenhagen. International sales are handled by Viaplay Content Distribution.
Eagle Eye Drama Secures ‘Professor T’ & ‘Suspect’ Recommissions
Walter Iuzzolino’s Eagle Eye Drama has secured a double recommission for ITV’s Professor T and Channel 4/BritBox International’s Suspect. The former is the third season of the Ben Miller-starring drama, which is set in Cambridge University, following a crime-solving professor, who, for the latest run, is in jail. Suspect starring Anne-Marie Duff was one of Channel 4’s biggest new drama series of the year and follows psychotherapist Susannah Frater trying to track down a dangerous patient. Suspect is an adaptation of the Danish series Forhøret from Christoffer Boe and Fremantle’s Miso Film and is distributed worldwide by Fremantle. Iuzzolino called Professor T an “international sales sensation” and Eagle Eye CCO Jo McGrath said the indie is “cracking on assembling another outstanding cast around her.”