MUNICH – In one of its most powerful slates ever, Beta Film heads to MIPTV with the Canneseries-competition premieres, Cacciatore – The Hunter and The Typist, as well as the German MIPDrama Buyers Summit-entry Pagan Peak.
Cacciatore – The Hunter (Cross/Beta for RAI), for which the second season of twelve new episodes is already in preparation, tells the true story about the “hunting season” of Palermo’s Mafia in the 1990s. One of Italy’s most famous mafia hunters, Alfonso Sabella, whose memoires serve as the blueprint of the series, will attend the gala premiere together with lead cast and crew on Monday night, April 9th, at the Grand Auditorium of the Palais des Festivals in Cannes. Joining them on the Croisette are Germany’s Grande Dame du Film, Iris Berben, and Moritz Bleibtreu as lead actors of The Typist, which will have its global premiere on Sunday afternoon, April 8th.
The Typist (5 hours, Moovie for ZDF) revolves around a secretary in the homicide squad who has spent her live documenting interrogations of criminals. One day she loses faith in justice and takes things in her own hands. The Typist is the latest collaboration of Oliver Berben and Beta Film, whose two seasons of Shades of Guilt and major TV event The Verdict were recently presented at MIP as well. Beta Film will also handle world sales of Berben’s outstanding series “The Perfume”, a series remake of Tom Tykwer’s bestseller adaptation.
Beta Film presents first impressions and scenes of the limited thriller series Pagan Peak (6 hours) at the handpicked drama section MIPDrama Buyers Summit, which is said to be the most powerful industry event at MIP this year. The new Sky original of Dark -producer Wiedemann&Berg circles around a murder victim, which is found on a snowy mountain pass. The investigation leads two detectives of both countries through the cold and mysterious Alps only to realize that the crime is part of a bigger plan.
54 Hours (4 hours, Ziegler Film for ARD Degeto) depicts true events with one of the biggest scandals of West German history: the Gladbeck hostage crisis 1988. A bank robbery turned into a 54–hour long public ordeal, leaving two teenagers dead in front of the cameras of the world’s media. 54 Hours has been broadcast on ARD with a tremendous rating success of over five million viewers. The limited series reached up to 15 percent in the younger target group alone, the best numbers the broadcaster has reached within four years at its Wednesday night slot.
The international co-production Medici: Masters of Florence – The Magnificent (16 hours, Lux in collaboration with RAI, Altice, Big Light) shines with “Fear the Walking Dead”-star Daniel Sharman and goes back to Florence in 1469, when young Lorenzo di Medici, his brother Giuliano and young artist Sandro Botticelli abandon the cynical politics of the past to usher in a new era of revolution. An ongoing rating success celebrates the Galician drug trafficking series Fariña – Snow on the Atlantic. The continuously prime-time winning Atresmedia Original series by Bambú Producciones, currently running on Antena 3, has been watched by over 3 million viewers in average.
The romantic comedy Sirens (12 x one hour, Cross and Beta for RAI) is set at the beautiful coastline of Naples. The mermaids, mythological creatures with captivating beauty, leave the water to conquer the hearts of men with an endearing mission. New stories inspired by the cultures and philosophies of the great rivers of the world with River of Life (7x two hours, Schiwago).
Beta Film’s fresh MIPTV slate brings also ten US movies to Cannes, among them heart-warming Hallmark titles and love stories like Falling for Vermont, The Mistletoe Inn and Very, Very Valentine. In the dramatic Canadian thriller The Perfect Match a mother has to fight for her son’s life after discovering the dark side of his supposed saviour.
Beta’s Kids&Family section is headed by the six-part series Dschermeni (6×25’, Tellux for ZDF). The finalist of this year’s Prix Jeunesse International tells the story of a group of children from different backgrounds, who learn about finding a home and making new friends – touching on the current refugee crisis but told with lots of humour, suspense and a pinch of sadness.
