HBO Europe Picks Up ‘Gunpowder’; UK’s Altitude In Fast Rise; Beta Scales ‘Pagan Peak’ – Global Briefs
HBO Europe has sparked to Gunpowder, the BBC One drama that stars Game Of Thrones’ Kit Harrington. Under a deal with Endemol Shine International, the pay-TV group has acquired rights in the Nordics, Central and Eastern Europe and Spain for air this year. HBO previously picked up the period series for North America. Produced by Kudos in association with Thriker Films, the mini follows the 17th century events surrounding the ultimately foiled Gunpowder Plot to kill King James I – events which Brits commemorate every year in November on Guy Fawkes Night. Peter Mullan, Mark Gatiss and Liv Tyler also star. Ronan Bennett wrote the drama. Executive producers are Ollie Madden for Kudos and Matthew Read for the BBC, and Bennett. Harington and Daniel West are co-executive producers for Thriker Films.
Moonlight‘s UK distributor Altitude Film Entertainment is on track to reach revenues of £18M ($24M) next year after being included on a list of the fastest rising private UK businesses. Will Clarke’s firm was ranked 84th in The Sunday Times Virgin Fast Track 100, becoming the first film firm to make the list since Framestore a number of years ago. Other entertainment business in the list include Plimsoll Productions, the UK and U.S. TV production company run by former RDF and Zodiak exec Grant Mansfield. Clarke, chairman and co-CEO of Altitude Film Entertainment, which is set to expand into television, said he was “delighted” to be included in the list. “Our growth is testament to the hard work and commitment of the Altitude team and the confidence that partners and filmmakers have in working with us to get their films made, released in the UK and sold worldwide. We are celebrating our fifth year in business marked by a number of successes including co-producing the international hit 47 Meters Down, the UK releases of Oscar and international award-winning films Moonlight, Lady Macbeth and My Scientology Movie and going forward we have a pipeline of inspiring films for next year and beyond.”
Beta Film has boarded Sky’s German original Pagan Peak. The German producer and distributor will handle global sales for the eight-part crime thriller, which is produced by Wiedemann & Berg, the German firm behind Netflix origination Dark, and Dieter and Jakob Pochlatko’s Austrian firm Epo-Film Produktionges. The thriller, which is based on an idea from Cyrill Boss and Philipp Stennert and set in the Alps, is understood to be similar to Danish/Swedish co-pro The Bridge. It follows German and Austrian detectives, who are sent to investigate an incident after a body is found, propped up right on the German-Austrian border. It stars Julia Jentsch and Nicholas Ofczarek and was previously known as Der Pass. Quirin Berg said: “We are very pleased to be able to contribute another strong entry for Sky in this exciting time for drama series. Inspired by The Bridge… the show takes us away to the visually breathtaking world of the Alps. We are tremendously happy to continue our collaboration with Cyrill Boss and Philipp Stennert – two exceptionally creative people.”
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