SALES

BBC Studios has scored a raft of sales on all seasons of smash hit series “Sherlock,” starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman as Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson. Amazon Prime Video will take non-exclusive SVOD global rights to all four series of the series and the special, “The Abominable Bride,” excluding the U.S., Australia, and greater China. In China, the series will be available exclusively on Tencent Video, while Japanese broadcaster Mystery Channel has acquired the exclusive pay TV license for its AXN Mystery channel. In Russia, the series will have co-exclusive SVOD home on Yandex’s Kinopoisk. Cosmote has secured exclusive Pay TV and non-exclusive SVOD rights for Greece and public broadcaster RTVE in Spain has picked up non-exclusive FVOD rights for its RTVE Play service. In Canada, non-exclusive agreements with CBC Gem and BBC First are in place.

Written and created by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss and inspired by the works of Arthur Conan Doyle, the series, produced by Hartswood Films, has won 12 BAFTAs and nine Emmys.

Meanwhile, the BBC has acquired short-form comedy-drama “Cheaters,” from “The End of the F***ing World” producer Clerkenwell Films, a wholly owned BBC Studios indie production partner. The eighteen-episode story told in ten-minute chapters is written and created by Oliver Lyttelton (“The Listener”), directed by Elliot Hegarty (“Ted Lasso”) and produced by Alex Walsh-Taylor (“Lovesick”).

“Cheaters” tells the story of a chance meeting after a cancelled flight that leads to an unlikely night of drunken airport-hotel sex between two strangers in their late twenties, Fola and Josh. The next morning, as they rush to make the rescheduled flight, both admit they are with other people. The series stars Susan Wokoma (“Enola Holmes”), Joshua McGuire (“Industry”), Callie Cooke (“Britannia”) and Jack Fox (“Sanditon”).

MENTORING

U.K. broadcaster Channel 4 is launching RISE, a new mentoring initiative for mid and senior level disabled talent working in TV production. The broadcaster is looking for six deaf, disabled and/or neurodivergent off-screen freelancers working in TV production to become mentees. Mentors will then be selected according to the person they are supporting, to make sure they are a good match and have the requisite skills. The scheme is devised in partnership with TripleC/DANC (Disabled Artists Networking Community) who support and advance deaf, disabled and/or neurodivergent people in the arts and media.

Meanwhile, Channel 4’s reality competition “The Bridge” returns for a second season in Ha Long Bay, Vietnam. A.J. Odudu presents the eight-part series in which 16 strangers come together for the chance to win a cash prize of £200,000 ($268,900). In the series, made by Banijay U.K.’s Workerbee, the contestants face a race to build a bridge over 1,000 feet of water in just 12 days to reach the cash held on top of ‘Fortune Rock’. Adventurer and explorer Aldo Kane oversees the challenges that will test the teams’ nerves and ability.

FESTIVAL

The International Film Festival Rotterdam, which was forced to move online because of a resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic, will have a physical component after all. Mijke de Jong’s “Along the Way,” which was originally announced as the opening film, will now play in cinemas during the festival’s closing weekend, as the Dutch government has allowed reopening of theaters from Jan. 26. Physical screenings of the film will take place at Rotterdam, Groningen and Amsterdam.

Festival director Vanja Kaludjercic said: “It is sadly impossible for us to shift back to a physical event on such short notice. However, now that cinemas are allowed to open again, we are committed to supporting Mijke de Jong’s poignant and timely film by presenting the world premiere on the big screen as part of the IFFR 2022 program.”

Distributor September Film will release the film in Dutch cinemas later this year.

 1,376 total views