EXCLUSIVE: Studiocanal has boarded Borgen creator Adam Price’s Danish workplace comedy Orchestra and will be shopping the show at Mipcom Cannes, as TV series boss Françoise Guyonnet talks The Wicker Man and breaking down barriers between TV and film.
Orchestra aired earlier this year on Danish pubcaster DR and Guyonnet is hopeful the French powerhouse producer-distributor will find a multitude of buyers in Cannes next week.
Produced by SAM Productions, the show, which is in development on season two, follows Jeppe Nygren, the sous-conductor of the Copenhagen Symphonic Orchestra who has to deal with a range of difficult characters in his musical collective.
“This addictive workplace comedy is a perfect examples of what Studiocanal can bring to the market,” said Guyonnet. “All our usual partners will be interested to watch and acquire.”
Studiocanal has also sold anthology series The Collapse‘s remake rights to Latin American platform TelevisaUnivision for Spanish-speaking U.S. and LatAm, Guyonnet revealed.
The show focuses on what would become of society if essential resources become scarce and the sale is testament to the in-demand nature of non-English-language shows, she added.
“I remember starting out in the U.S. and people didn’t want foreign language but now it’s not even a question. English-speaking content still travels better but we can talk about Polish series, Italian series and German series, and people are listening to us and considering the project.”
English-speaking is still a priority and Guyonnet talked up Showtime’s The Man Who Fell to Earth adaptation, which stars the likes of Chiwetel Ejiofor and Naomie Harris.
Guyonnet has been in the Executive Managing Director, TV Series role five years and has seen huge transformations as new platforms have launched and viewer habits changed rapidly.
Studiocanal, she said, has taken advantage of the barriers breaking down between TV and film, pointing to upcoming Canal+/TV2 Denmark show Families Like Ours from Another Round director Thomas Vinterberg and Lars Von Trier’s Zentropa, which Deadline revealed recently has set cast and commenced principal photography.
With that in mind, Studiocanal has sold the rights to 1973 horror classic The Wicker Man to be made into a TV series by Andy Serkis’ The Imaginarium and Studiocanal-owned Urban Myth Films, penned by War of the Worlds writer Howard Overman.
Studiocanal had been looking to adapt the film for the small screen for several years and Guyonnet said the challenge will be “keeping the strengths of the movie while making it relevant for today’s younger generation.”
“The international audience may be less familiar with the movie anyway so this is a difficult balance,” she added.
Alongside Urban Myth, Studiocanal owns It’s a Sin producer Red Production Company in the UK and that indie is in flux following the departure of celebrated Founder Nicola Shindler and subsequently CEO Sarah Doole after less than two years in post.
Guyonnet has taken temporary charge of the indie with Alex Hamilton and said shows are still being developed, with a new leadership structure set to be unveiled “some time next year.”
In all, Studiocanal is taking 22 series to Mipcom, including Canal+ drama The Night Logan Woke Up and Dutch political thriller The Crash.