TV powerhouse Beta Film has closed a weighty deal with Australian public broadcaster Special Broadcasting Service. (SBS)
Totalling nearly 200 hours of entertainment, the deal is led by RAI 2023 event series “Elsa Morante’s La Storia,” recently sold to the U.S. and Canada (MHz Choice), Canneswinner “Operation Sabre,” made for Radio Television of Serbia, Seriencamp Audience Choice Award laureate “30 Days of Lust,” from German regional state TV SWR, and a second RAI title, “Cold Summer.”
Set to air in 2025 on SBS Australia’s leading streaming platform SBS on Demand, the major deal underscores SBS’ status as one of the most avid buyers of upscale European scripted series sold on the open market.
It also suggests that very often than not these days the TV players backing these series are Europe’s public broadcasters.
Directed by Francesca Archibugi (“Like Crazy”) and inspired by Elsa Morante’s epochal 750-plus page bestselling novel, “La Storia” bowed on RAI 1 to a record-breaking 24% share. Boasting big period production values, “La Storia” stars Italian A-Lister Jasmine Trinca (“The Gunman”) as Ida, a half-Jewish single mother of two sons in an immersive tale of maternity, survival, persecution and poverty in WWII and post-war Rome which offers a female take on fascism. Ida prefers to focus on life’s essentials. It is produced by Italy’s Picomedia and France’s Thalie Images, with Rai Fiction and in co-production with Beta Film.
A Canneseries 2024 winner for its entire cast, the true event-based “Operation Sabre” turns on what Variety has called Serbia’s “Kennedy moment”: the assassination of Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić in 2003, as well as the collective responsibility for the murder and its aftermath, seen from the POVs of an investigating journalist, a police inspector and a petty criminal. Vladimir Tagić and Goran Stanković served as creators-directors for This is That Production, which produced with Agitprop.
‘Operation Sabre’
Credit: This and That Productions
Indie, a highly relatable dramedic half-hour take on romantic love as seen from the reality check of people nearly hitting 30, “30 Days of Lust” was a standout at Series Mania’s 2024 International Panorama, where it world premiered before scooping the Audience Choice Award at this year’s Seriencamp while currentlyranking among the Top 10 shows among youth demos in Germany.
Compared by Beta with “Fleabag” and “Girls” and funded by FFF Bayern and MFG Baden-Württemberg, “30 Days of Lust” is produced by Trimafilm, behind Berlin 2024 hit “Ivo,” for German state TV SWR, part of ARD which serves South-West Germany.
A hit on RAI 1, “Cold Summer” charts the morally gray alliance between a Caribinieri sergeant and a local Mafia boss, himself suspected of murder, which helps bring down an organized crime ring. Clement produces for Rai Fiction, in association with Beta Film.
SBS Australia has also acquired Dutch royal drama “Maxima,” as recently announced.
Additional highlights in the new deal are all four seasons of “Sisi,” the RTL+ megahit sold to over 120 countries that yokes period glam and larger sexual candor.
Also in the mix are all three seasons of Spain’s award-winning special ops thriller “La Unidad,” bought by Max for the U.S.; both seasons of Finnish crime suspense thriller “Helsinki Syndrome,” with “Vikings” star Peter Franzén; triple Oscar nominee Lone Scherfig’s character-centric medical drama “The Shift,” as well as reruns of the Italian international hit series “Gomorrah.”
30 Days of Lust
Credit: Trimafilm