Tim Roth-starring Australian drama Last King of the Cross has been picked up by Sky in Europe, marking the first major sale of the Paramount+ series as it heads to Mipcom Cannes.
Sky has picked up the show for its UK, Ireland, Italy and Germany service, striking the deal with distributor Cineflix Rights.
Inspired by John Ibrahim’s best-selling autobiography, Helium’s 10-parter stars Academy Award-nominee Roth as Ezra Shipman, a kingpin in Sydney’s Kings Cross nightclub district in the 1980s and 1990s. Roth replaced Ian McShane in one of the lead roles earlier this year.
Lincoln Younes and Claude Jabbour also lead as two Lebanese teenagers who arrive in Australia and quickly enter an underworld, making a name for themselves as the cocaine wave hits Kings Cross.
Paramount+ Australia greenlit the show and Cineflix Rights is exclusive international distributor. Produced by Mark Fennessy and Karl Zwicky, and executive produced by Fennessy and Ibrahim, the drama is written by Kieran Darcy- Smith, Morgan O’Neill, Jane Allen, Alastair Newton Brown, Matt Nable, and James Pope, and directed by Darcy-Smith, Grant Brown, Catherine Millar, and Ian Watson.
Cineflix Rights Head of Scripted James Durie described Sky Atlantic as the “perfect home.”
“With its setting in the crime-infested, but very sexy district of Kings Cross in 1980s/90s Sydney, this series really has standout appeal to international buyers,” he added.