Graham Norton Fronts “Street-Sized” ITV Reality Gameshow
BAFTA winner Graham Norton is fronting a “street-sized” 12-part reality gameshow for ITV in which families and households compete for a cash prize. The show will see real-life households move in side-by-side to compete in challenges. Living together 24/7, they will need to stay popular with their neighbors or risk being voted out. The series, from the development teams at ITV Studios (ITVS)’s indies Lifted Entertainment and The Garden, will run on ITV1 and streamer ITVX next year. Lifted and The Garden are co-producing, with ITVS on international distribution duties. “Like everyone, I’m always intrigued by what goes on behind closed doors,” said presenter Norton. “Add to that some dastardly challenges and a life changing prize and I’m hooked.” Katie Rawcliffe, Director of Entertainment & Daytime at ITV, and Louise Major, Entertainment Commissioning Editor, commissioned the show. “In a TV landscape full of successful formats set in jungles, islands and luxurious villas, The Neighbourhood offers a fresh and different flavour: it’s a show all about the drama on our doorsteps,” said Richard Cowles, Managing Director at Lifted Entertainment and John Hay, CEO of The Garden in a joint statement. Casting is currently open.
Jinga Boards Post-Apocalpyse Title ‘Sword Of Vengeance’ For EFM Sales
UK genre specialist Jinga Films has boarded Nemanja Ceranic’s post-apocalypse epic Sword Of Vengeance for world sales. Produced by Milos Avramovic for Rezim and Aleksander Protic for MIR Media Group with the support of Telekom Srbija, the movie (a.k.a Volja Sinovljeva) stars Milos Bikovic as a Mad Max style warrior who must take revenge on his enemies for the crimes they committed against his family. Isidora Simijonovic (Clip) and Sergej Trifunovic (A Serbian Film) also star. Rezim has theatrically released the film in its native Serbia and Jinga will begin selling the feature film at EFM, including an eight-part TV series spin-off.
WTFN’s Radar To Manage Seven’s Great Home Ideas
Australian producer-distributor WTFN has struck its latest deal with Seven Network. The indie content group’s digital arm, Radar, will relaunch and manage Seven’s Great Home Ideas digital destination for inspiring DIY, food, garden, lifestyle and pet content. The brand has featured in Seven’s long-running series Better Homes and Gardens. On YouTube, Great Home Ideas has been running since 2012 and has nearly 950,000 subscribers. Radar, a multichannel network operator, has more than 30 owned and third-party channels, including ones for The Bondi Vet, The Dog Whisperer and Oceanliner Designs. Once Great Home Ideas is relaunched, WTFN and Seven will discuss how to further monetize the content and conversations are already underway for the production house to re-package existing content for new lifestyle shows that WTFN’s international programs arm, Fred Media, will shop. “Growing out of a production business, the Radar team uniquely marries creativity and content appreciation with an understanding of where and how to reach new audiences and ensure opportunities for our IP are fully maximised in the expanding digital world,” said Richard Henson, Director, Distribution & Content Partnerships at Seven Network. Last week, we revealed WTFN had restructured its management team, with co-founder Daryl Talbot moving from CEO to Executive Director and COO Wes Crook replacing him.
‘Song Vs Dance‘ Waltzing To MIP London
Song Vs Dance, the reality competition show from Craig and Clara Plestis’s Smart Dog Media and Japan’s TV Asahi, is headed for MIP London later this month. The program, unveiled last month, sees contestants compete in head-to-head battles of song and dance to decide which medium is better. Inspired by a video game, it marks TV Asahi’s first co-production. Smart and TV Asahi began working together following a format deal brokered by Paradigm, which represents the Plestis’ company. Craig and Clara Plestis are executive producers, with Takaaki Kitano overseeing production in Japan ahead of a series for TV Asahi. Casting and a premiere date in Japan will follow in “coming months,” according to the broadcaster. “This format strives to embrace Japanese pop culture, and video game aesthetics and game structure, to bring a distinct look and feel to a performance competition show,” said Smart Dog in a statement. “We believe this series will be internationally loved for generations. We crafted this show to be like our The Masked Singer; bold, different and never been done before.”
BBC Studios Bags Sales Rights To ‘Zog’ Series
BBC Studios Kids & Family are struck a deal with Magic Light Productions to represent the animated series Zog on the international market. The 52-part comedy series for 4-6s is based on the Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler book, which began life on TV as a 2018 family special Zog and continued with another in 2020, Zog and the Flying Doctors. The series will follow Zog the dragon, Princess Pearl and Sir Gadabout as their fly around administering care for the weird and wonderful inhabitants of their fantastical world. BBC Studios’ deal does not include the UK, where it was commissioned by the BBC and Germany, where ZDF is the partner. It does include all U.S. consumer product and licensing rights, with Magic Light continuing to represent licensing rights in the UK and Europe and TV rights to the specials internationally. The ‘Zog’ books have sold more than 4.5 million copies worldwide.
Toon Industry Veteran Karen Vermuelen Joins Flying Bark
Australia-based Flying Bark Productions has appointed children’s TV industry veteran Karen Vermuelen as Head of Development and executive producer. The Studio 100-owned company is known for work on The Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie and TV show, Marvel series What If…?, 100% Wolf and the Maya the Bee and Blinky Bill franchises. Hiring Vermuelen is part of a plan to consolidate its development slate on creator- and IP-led projects that “align with market trends.” She will manage talent and partner relationships and secure financing and greenlight productions. Vermuelen, a 20-year veteran of kids TV, was most recently at not-for-profit org On The Edge, where she developed and put into production a 75-minute animated feature film. She was Head of Global Content and Co-productions at Cloudco Entertainment and Managing Director of its UK office, and further back worked for the likes of Gaumont, Zodiak Kids (now part of Banijay Entertainment), Disney, Entertainment Rights and National Geographic Kids. Flying Bark is currently in production on Tales From Outer Suburbia, an animated series for Australian pubcaster the ABC based on Shaun Tan’s novel.
