EXCLUSIVE: The 2016 financial thriller feature Equity is headed to the small screen as a drama series, which has landed at ABC with a script commitment plus penalty. The adaptation hails from The Strain executive producer Regina Corradoand film and TV producer Amy Pascal. Sony TV’s TriStar Television is the studio.
Oren Shai’s short films have played festivals across the world and garnered praise along the way, but now his debut film will soon receive a theatrical and VOD release. “The Frontier” stars Jocelin Donahue (“The House of the Devil”) as Laine, a drifter on the run from crimes she has committed who lands in a deserted motel on the outskirts of Phoenix. She acquires a job from the owner Luanne (Kelly Lynch) to work in the diner but soon discovers that the regular clientele are all accomplices in a million-dollar heist. Laine plans to steal from the gang of thieves before they discover her true identity. The film co-stars Jim Beaver (“Deadwood”), Izabella Miko (“Coyote Ugly”), Jamie Harris (“Knight of Cups”), AJ Bowen (“The Sacrament”), and Liam Aiken (“Ned Rifle”).
CANNES, France — Studiocanal, Europe’s biggest film investor and one of the region’s fastest-growing TV drama producers, has sold “Midnight Sun,” its flagship Mipcom series, to Germany’s ZDF, Denmark’s DR and Australia’s SBS.
Produced by Sweden’s SVT and France’s Canal Plus, “Midnight Sun,” one of the most anticipated series from continental Europe, has also clinched deals with TV operators in Norway (NRK), Finland (MTV3), Iceland (RUV), Israel (HOT), and Benelux, where rights are split between Belgium’s VRT and film-TV production-distribution company Lumière. SVT will be the first broadcaster to air “Midnight Sun,” starting Oct. 23. France’s Canal Plus will launch the drama-thriller under its Creation Originale label, later this year.
Studiocanal is in advanced negotiations to close additional sales in the coming months, said Katrina Neylon, Studiocanal EVP, sales and marketing.
The high-end murder mystery series has attracted major attention since its first two episodes bowed at April’s Series Mania in Paris and shared the festival’s Audience Award. It turns on a French police officer, Kahina Zadi (Leila Bekhti, “A Prophet”), who is dispatched from Paris to Kiruna, a small mining community in Arctic Sweden, to lead the investigation of the gruesome murder of a French citizen. She is aided by a local Swedish DA, Anders Harnesk (Gustaf Hammarsten, “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”). As other bloody murders of townsfolk quickly mount up, the duo link them to rituals of the local Sami people.
“‘Midnight Sun’ is Nordic Noir at its finest. This truly international series offers sweeping scenery, compelling storytelling and stunning performances,” said Marshall Heald, SBS director of television and online content.
Produced by France’s Atlantique Productions and Sweden’s Nice Drama, “Midnight Sun” is written by “The Bridge” co-scribes Mans Marlind and Bjorn Stein from an idea by Henrik Jansson-Schweizer and Patrick Nebout.
Zero Gravity Management has landed Dennis Iliadis as a client to represent in all areas. The genre filmmaker, who has been behind such titles as the Monica Potter-Rikki Lindhome-Garret Dillahunt horror movie The Last House on the Left and the SXSW premiere +1, will continue to be repped by CAA. Iliadis is currently in post on the Sony/Screen Gems thriller He’s Out There which follows the mother of two young daughters at a remote lake house. She is forced to fight for survival after falling into a terrifying and bizarre nightmare conceived by a psychopath.
