MIPTV Hot List: Dramas With Mackenzie Davis, Connie Nielsen and Aidan Gillen Set to Heat Up TV Market

After two online-only versions, a consequence of the global COVID-19 pandemic, the international television market MIPTV is hoping to return with a bang.

This year will mark MIPTV’s reboot, with the spring market planned as a more business-focused trade fair. After a one-day MIPDrama showcase of 10 top international fiction series, on April 3, MIPTV proper will run over a concentrated three-days — April 4-6 — with the formerly separate markets MIPDoc and MIPFormats, for documentary and reality-TV/entertainment content, respectively, folded into the main event.

Two years of coronavirus lockdowns and pandemic protocols did little to stem the booming growth in small-screen drama, fueled by the expansion of streaming platforms both global (HBO Max, Paramount+, Starzplay) and regional (Germany’s RTL+, Scandinavia’s Viaplay). A new international focus from U.S. studios will be reflected in the majors’ return to MIP, with the likes of Sony, Fox, Warner Bros., Paramount and Lionsgate all attending. Overall, organizer RX France expects some 4,500 executives from 140 companies to make the trip to Cannes.

Those won’t include any from Russia, after MIP suspended trading with companies from the Russian Federation following the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Major industry trends, from the rise of streamers to the potential of the metaverse, are on the MIPTV agenda, but the focus, as always, will be on the new crop of shows.

The Hollywood Reporter’s annual hot list of the best new series heading to the market includes a glossy British bodice ripper, a Chinese gold-rush adventure tale, an all-American Western and an Irish drama to help ease the pains of Peaky Blinders withdrawal. Oh, and Halo, too.

Becoming Elizabeth

BUZZ A soapy period drama in the vein of global hits The Tudors and The White Queen, this eight-part miniseries purports to recount the untold story of the “virgin queen” before she acceded to the throne and promises a popular mix of courtly and sexual politics for what seems to be an insatiable international audience.

U.S. PREMIERE Later this year on Starz

SALES Starzplay

We Own This City

BUZZ After an excursion to New Orleans for Treme, and to New York for The Deuce, The Wire creator David Simon returns to Baltimore for this drama focused on the scandal-ridden elite cops tasked with getting guns and gangs off the corners. Sure to be a must-have for premium pay TV and streamers outside HBO’s global footprint.

U.S. PREMIERE April 25, 2022, on HBO

SALES HBO

The Lesson

BUZZ This Israeli drama, focused on a classroom debate between a teacher and a 17-year-old student that turns political and emotional before spinning out of control on social media and outside the school, could be a find for public broadcasters or boutique streamers targeting an upscale audience.

U.S. PREMIERE None announced

SALES Federation Entertainment

Halo

BUZZ Undoubtably the biggest show to hit the international market in a long time, this adaptation of the hit sci-fi shooter video game franchise, with a reported $200 million budget, will be out of range for all but the most premium of global buyers, which will be scrambling to secure rights for the series that features Pablo Schreiber as supersoldier Master Chief, alongside Natascha McElhone, Yerin Ha and Bokeem Woodbine.

U.S. PREMIERE March 24, 2022, on Paramount+

SALES Paramount Global Distribution Group

Souls

BUZZ A mind-bending psychological mystery series that could help those fans suffering from Dark withdrawal, after Netflix’s hit German drama wrapped up its final season.

U.S. PREMIERE None announced

SALES NBCUniversal Global Distribution

This Sceptred Isle

BUZZ Michael Winterbottom’s COVID pandemic drama, featuring Kenneth Branagh as hapless Prime Minister Boris Johnson, should have sufficient star power to have appeal beyond Britain.

U.S. PREMIERE None announced

SALES Fremantle

Audrey’s Back

BUZZ Public broadcasters and high-end streamers will be checking out this new Canadian series, which takes a gently humorous look at disability from the inside, through the story of 17-year-old Audrey, who wakes from a coma to find her world utterly transformed and having to relearn how to live again in a place she no longer understands.

U.S. PREMIERE None announced

SALES Beta Film

Django

BUZZ A high-concept re-imagining of the classic spaghetti Western franchise that inspired Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained, it features Old Guard star Matthias Schoenaerts as the eponymous cowboy outcast, alongside Noomi Rapace, Nicholas Pinnock and Lisa Vicari. A no-brainer for mainstream pay TV and streamer outlets.

U.S. PREMIERE None announced

SALES Studiocanal

Gold Panning

BUZZ Niche pay players and streamers could be enticed to scoop up this nugget: a rare Chinese drama with cross-over appeal. Set in the 1980s, this mystery adventure follows a 20-year-old who travels to the Altai Mountains to discover what happened to his brother, who went missing chasing dreams of gold.

U.S. PREMIERE None announced

SALES IQIYI

This Is Going to Hurt

BUZZ An unvarnished look at the harrowing, sometimes heartwarming and often hilarious day-to-day life in a busy gynecology and obstetrics ward, this British series, featuring Ben Whishaw and newcomer Ambika Mod, could be just the right medicine for networks looking for a post-pandemic dramedy.

U.S. PREMIERE None announced

SALES BBC Studios

1985

BUZZ There’s no shortage of crime shows at MIPTV, but this Belgian offering, set against the backdrop of a notorious, unsolved, spree in the lowlands in the 1980s, adds a layer of verisimilitude that could appeal beyond the procedural fan base to true crime fanatics. It will likely appeal to buyers in both the free-to-air and pay-TV/streamer space.

U.S. PREMIERE None announced

SALES Studiocanal

Nina and the Pig

BUZZ A teen dramedy with a vegan twist that could appeal to family-friendly networks and streamers, this French series follows a 16-year-old who, when she discovers she owes her life to a heart valve from a pig, sets out to save the life of a sow from the local farm.

U.S. PREMIERE None announced

SALES Wild Bunch

Station Eleven

BUZZ This post-apocalyptic miniseries, based on Emily St. John Mandel’s best-seller, imagines a series of survivors trying to rebuild and reimagine their world after the impact of a devastating flu. While it could prove a bit too on the nose for some in the post-COVID world, HBO should be able to count on the global appeal of high-concept sci-fi as well as the A-list cast, which includes Halt and Catch Fire and Black Mirror star Mackenzie Davis, Old actor Gael García Bernal and Yesterday‘s Himesh Patel.

U.S. PREMIERE Dec. 16, 2021, on HBO Max

SALES Paramount Global Distribution Group

Sunset

BUZZ Many are looking to Portugal as the next big thing in the international TV biz thanks to new government tax incentives that have spurned a local production boom. This telenovela spoof, a romp through the genre’s ever soap-soaked cliché, could be the first Porto series to prove a global breakout.

U.S. PREMIERE None announced

SALES RTP

House of Promises

BUZZ Another gritty German period drama from the team that brought you Babylon Berlin, this 1920s-set series follows the fate of a Jewish family opening a state-of-the-art department store at Berlin’s Torstrasse 1.

U.S. PREMIERE None announced

SALES Beta Film

Pulse

BUZZ Africa-set serial drama is slowly carving out a global market and this slick-looking South African sci-fi survival thriller, in which an electromagnetic pulse both fries the digital world and also sparks widespread mental breakdown, could trigger a wave of impulse buys from specialty networks and streamers internationally.

U.S. PREMIERE None announced

SALES Abacus Media Rights

The Net

BUZZ This ambitious European series “universe” envisions a group of stand-alone but interconnected series, some involving characters that crossover from one show to another, and all revolving around themes of global sports corruption. The first series in The Net, set to deliver ahead of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar in November, got a timely bump thanks to the recent sanctioning of Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, owner of top-flight soccer club Chelsea FC, a move that has put the spotlight on the dark side of the beautiful game.

U.S. PREMIERE None announced

SALES Beta Film

Billy the Kid

BUZZ Vikings and The Tudors creator Michael Hirst brings his unique combination of historic naturalism and high-drama storytelling to the life of legendary western gunslinger William H. Bonney, promising a cowboy epic that should fit nicely into the schedules of select public broadcasters, as well as premium pay-TV and streaming platforms worldwide.

U.S. PREMIERE April 24, 2022, on Epix

SALES MGM

The Dreamer — Becoming Karen Blixen

BUZZ This passion project from, and starring, Wonder Woman actress Connie Nielsen, follows the life of the Out of Africa writer during the period when she had returned to Denmark and, penniless, sick and divorced, was struggling to establish herself as an artist. Nielsen and Blixen’s brand-name recognition should make this historic drama stand out from the pack and draw top-end pay players and streamers.

U.S. PREMIERE None announced

SALES TrustNordisk, Viaplay Content Sales

Kin

BUZZ This Dublin-set crime drama, about a tight-knit, extended family of criminals engaged in a gang war with an international cartel and starring Aidan Gillen, could prove the right combination of blood and brogue for broadcasters looking to satisfy audiences that went mad for Peaky Blinders, which is wrapping up this year after six seasons.

U.S. PREMIERE Sept. 9, 2021, on AMC+

SALES Bron Releasing

The Man Who Fell to Earth

BUZZ Another big swing from Paramount+, this remake of Walter Tevis’ sci-fi classic — made famous in the 1976 film starring David Bowie — looks like a perfect fit for genre-leaning cablers and streamers.

SALES Paramount Global Content Distribution

Then You Run

BUZZ Streaming platforms worldwide have an insatiable appetite for teen drama, so this Brit thriller, which follows four friends whose plans for the perfect summer holiday in Europe takes a dark turn, finding them on the run with three kilos of heroin and pursued by gangsters and a mysterious serial killer, should have no problem finding a home.

U.S. PREMIERE None announced

SALES Banijay Rights

The Kingdom season 3

Twenty-five years after wrapping season two of his twisted hospital soap (think Grey’s Anatomy meets David Lynch), Danish enfant terrible Lars von Trier returns to his TV debut with season three. Expect art house-leaning streamers and other niche platforms to dive in for the last four episodes of this supernatural horror, set at an ultra-modern hospital haunted by vengeful ghosts.

U.S. PREMIERE None announced

SALES Trustnordisk

Funeral for a Dog

BUZZ Relationship dramas without a strong genre hook can be a tough sell internationally, but this German miniseries adapted together with writer Thomas Pletzinger from his novel of the same name, could prove the exception, boasting a stellar cast, including System Crasher actor Albrecht Schuch, and a slow-reveal story likely to appeal to boutique streamers and pay TV outfits worldwide.

U.S. PREMIERE None announced

SALES Sky Studio/NBCUniversal

The Inside Game — Seeds of Wrath 

BUZZ A French political drama with the insider vibe of Danish cross-over hit Borgen, this drama, about the dirty backroom dealings at France’s Ministry of Agriculture, looks like a tasty treat for public broadcasters worldwide. That the series comes from acclaimed, Oscar-winning documentary director Jean-Xavier de Lestrade (The Staircase, Murder on a Sunday Morning) should only sweeten the deal.

U.S. PREMIERE None announced

SALES Neuen Connect

A version of this story first appeared in the March 30 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.