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Beta Film, one of Europe’s biggest independent production-distribution players, has clinched a wide-ranging multi-territory sale to Canal+ across a selection of Beta titles, led by the sexually-souped thriller “The Couple Next Door,” starring “Outlanders” lead Sam Hueughan, and Berlinale 2025 hit thriller “Other People’s Money.”
Under the terms of the deal, Canal+ will roll out the higher-end Beta Film series across Austria, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Belgium and the Netherlands, among other territories. The deal spans multiple windows and platforms across Canal+’s regional services, Beta Film announced Thursday.
Titles announced in the deal are heavy on crime – the common currency of Europe’s TV trading these days – from a subplot in “The Couple Next Door” to the extraordinary tax fraud in “Other People’s Money” to crime drama “Cold Summer” and the detective procedural “Makari – Sicilian Mysteries” and true-events based criminal underworld thriller “El Inmortal: Gangs of Madrid.” It also takes it, however, coming of age series “Prisma” and “Last to Break,” a bio of Finnish motorcycling racer Jarno Saarinen.
World premiering its first four episodes at this year’s Berlinale,” “Other People’s Money” is produced by Germany’s X-Filme Creative Pool, behind European premium TV milestone “Babylon Berlin,” and Denmark’s True Content Entertainment’s, whose producer Ole Søndberg was behind “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” and “Wallander.” They are backed by German and Danish public broadcasters ZDF and DR.
“Other People’s Money” chronicles the biggest tax scam in European history, accounting for €146 billion ($170.8 billion), engineered by banks and ultra-rich investors, where the key issue is whether the fraud is even illegal and can its perpetrators be prosecuted. Created and showrunner by Jan Schomburg (“I’m Your Man,” “Above Us Only Sky”), the series was hailed by Der Spiegel as a “perfectly formed, eight-part masterpiece.”
From Eagle Eye (“Bookish”), executive produced by Walter Iuzzolino and Jo McGrath and is made in association with Beta Film, and backed by Channel 4 and Starz.
“The Couple Next Door” features a top-notch cast – Heughan, Alfred Enoch (“How to Get Away With Murder”), Eleanor Tomlinson (“Poldark”) and Jessica De Gouw (“The Huntress”), with Tomlinson playing the deeply traumatised Evie who moves with her straight-laced husband Pete (Enoch) into a seemingly perfect well-healed suburb of Leeds in Northern England – until she develops an increasingly deranged sexual obsession for neighbor Danny (a hunky Heughan.
Written by David Allison (“Marcella,” “Bedlam”) and directed by the awarded Dries Vos (“Suspect,” “Professor T”), “The Couple Next Door” was one of Channel 4’s biggest drama streaming launches, also punching a robust linear debut. It sold to over 55 territories in early dealing, including to NBC Universal for Latin America, RTL in Germany, RAI in Italy and a first-window deal with Amazon in the Netherlands.
Bowing in Canneseries’ main competition in 2022,” “El Inmortal – Gangs of Madrid,”produced by Movistar Plus+ and Telemundo Int. Studios in collaboration with Banijay’s DLO Producciones, tracks the rise of the founding leader of Los Miami, a gang which controlled Madrid’s insatiable ‘90s drug business, tensed by sudden explosive violence, and the drug-lord’s multiple near-death experiences. It scored best action series at the Produ Awards 2023 and best actor in a Drama Series (Alejandro García) at the Almería Film Festival 2023.
Produced by Clemart, Italian mafia series “Cold Summer” sold to SBS Australia and Walter Presents in the U.S. and Canada ahead of its linear U.K. premiere on Channel 4. It broke records on its home turf on RAI Italy, premiering with peak viewership at 4.6 million and a hitting a standout 23% market share.
Renewed for a second season, Amazon Italian original “Prisma,” about adolescent twin teens challenging gender norms, won the Premio Kinéo 2024 best actor award for Mattia Carrano, who plays both twins. Beta-owned Cross Productions produces.
Unspooling in Sicily, “Makari – Sicilian Mysteries” is produced by Mediawan-owned Palomar (“Inspector Montalbano,” “The Name of the Rose”). Lauded as “the other ‘Montalbano’” by newspaper Corriere della Sera, it proved a RAI primetime winner.
“Last to Break” is produced by Helsinki-based Funfar (“Bad Company”), co-produced by Fireframe and Finnish pubcaster YLE, written by Sami Keski-Vähälä (“Gracious Night,” “Brothers”) and directed by Simon Kaijser (“Spinning Man,” “Before We Die”).
It captures the shocking mortal danger of early ‘70s motorcycle racing as Finn Saarinen – dashing, charismatic, an extraordinary and meticulous racer but still the underdog – takes on three time and reigning world champion Giacomo Agostini in the 1972 350cc World Championship. Agostini seemed unbeatable, having not lost a head-to-head race since 1967.
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John Hopewell
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