Atrium’s Victor Hugo series on first slate

Charles Dance presenting Quasimodo to Atrium members

MIPCOM: The first slate to come from Howard Stringer-backed commissioning club Atrium TV includes an adaption of a Victor Hugo novel that has Game of Thrones’ producer Frank Deolger and Charles Dance attached.

Atrium was launched at MipTV in April and aims to create dramas in the region of US$5m per episode for regional OTT players and telcos.

Last week it revealed companies including Movistar+ in Spain, Deutsche Telekom and Iflix in Asia/Mena had become its first members, joining founding partner Viaplay.

Now it has unveiled its first slate of shows in development lead by Quasimodo, a returning series based on the character from Hugo’s classic novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The show will be set in 15th century Paris and explore love, rejection, isolation, religion and politics.

It’s being written by Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes scribe Ashley Pharoah with Tracey Scoffield, David Tanner (The Frankenstein Chronicles) and Doelger producing. Dance and Peter Dinklage are attached as executive producers.

Other shows on the development block include Jerusalem (10×60’), about King David and the inspirational but controversial city. Russell Rothberg, previously head of drama development at Universal Television, is writing.

Howard Stringer

Perfect People is based on Peter James’ eponymous novel and is described as “a shocking, contemporary thriller with a storyline about genetic engineering and its consequences.” Showrunner Adi Hasak (Shades of Blue, Eyewitness) presented the project to Atrium TV members, who received pitches on all the shows yesterday here in Cannes.

Meanwhile State of Decay (returning series), which comes from showrunner and former president of ABC in the US Stephen McPherson, is inspired by the eponymous Microsoft X-Box game and joins two other shows revealed back in April.

These include One Giant Leap (fka The Eagle has Landed) will mark the 50th anniversary of man’s landing on the moon, while Fandorin is based on the detective novels by Boris Akunin. It’s unclear whether Saigon, based on the novel by Anthony Grey and also revealed in April, has been dropped.

Atrium, the brainchild of Stringer and DRG CEO Jeremy Fox, has teams based in London and LA finding and developing suitable shows. Many of those behind the projects were in Cannes yesterday night to present the projects to members.

“From day one we were serious about providing our members with great stories, delivered by exceptional talent and we more than demonstrated that today,” said Stringer, Atrium TV’s chairman.