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Amazon lands on French Love Island

Love Island has been adapted by broadcasters including CBS in the US

Amazon Prime Video has ordered a French version of hit format Love Island, among a slate of new scripted and unscripted French originals.

The adaptation of UK broadcaster ITV’s reality format, which sends a group of romantic hopefuls to a luxury villa in hopes of finding love, will launch next year.

New episodes of the dating format, produced by ITV Studios France, will be offered daily on Amazon. Audiences will participate via an app allowing them to vote on which contestants should stay and which should be sent home.

The French adaptation of the format, which is distributed by ITV Studios Global Entertainment, follows commissions from CBS in the US and Network Nine in Australia, among others.

Another new French show joining the streamer is drama Voltaire, Mixte. The eight-part series is set in Voltaire high school in 1960s France and sees an all-boys school make the switch to mixed intake, with 12 female students arriving in the midst of the country’s cultural and sexual revolution.

Voltaire, Mixte is set to launch on the platform in 2021 and is produced by En Voiture Simone and Autopilot Entertainment. The series is currently in pre-production and Marie Roussin will serve as showrunner.

Meanwhile, Cold War spy thriller series Operations Totems will also be added to Prime’s catalogue in 2021.

The drama revolves around the love affair between two enemy spies, a member of the French secret service and a KGB recruit. Set in 1964, the eight-part series follows the pair as they negotiate the geopolitical tensions of the time.

The series is produced by Gaumont France and is set to start filming in 2020. It is co-created and co-written by Juliette Soubrier and Olivier Dujols, with Dujols serving as showrunner.

Additionally, Amazon Prime has ordered unscripted adventure series The Missing One, in which four teams, made up of celebrities and their relatives, race across Australia to find missing team members.

Along the way, they must complete a series of challenges, and the first to locate its missing person will win a €200,000 (US$221,000) prize, which will be donated to a charity of their choice.

The Missing One, produced by Paris-based prodco WeMake, co-created with Borderline Media, will launch on the platform in 2020.

Finally, a number of comedy titles will also be hitting the platform. My Story, from French comedian Ary Abittan, will launch exclusively on Prime on December 15, while the So Chic comedy festival will be made available exclusively on the platform on Christmas Day.

Georgia Brown, director of European Amazon original series, said: “We’re incredibly focused on investing a resource of time, passion and budget to achieve the highest quality shows for our audiences in France, because we believe that putting the spotlight on the very best local stories will not only delight our French viewers but our prime members around the world.

“We have many more exciting ideas in development with talented French producers, writers, directors and acting talent. Today is just the beginning of our announcements of premium TV productions in France. There will be plenty more in the coming months as we continue our commitment to invest in TV production in France.”

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