HBO Europe greenlights first Adria drama

Pay TV broadcaster HBO Europe has commissioned its first original series from Europe’s Adria region, a drama set in Zagreb.

Antony Root

Success (6×60’) was created and written by Marjan Alčevski and will be directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Danis Tanović (No Man’s Land).

It was the winner of HBO Europe’s Adria First Draft competition, which aimed to find new writing talent from the region.

Success, which is being produced by Zagreb-based production company Drugi Plan, follows four strangers whose lives intersect when they are all affected by a violent event. As the consequences of their actions threaten to envelop them, they decide to regain control of their lives.

Ana Balentovic and Johnathan Young will produce for HBO Adria and HBO Europe, respectively.

Antony Root, executive VP of programming and production at HBO Europe, said the service was “thrilled” to have uncovered a writer like Alčevski and to be welcoming Tanović for his first TV project and the first drama out of the Adria region.

“For a long time, I’ve been getting offers to make series, which I think, at the moment, are more interesting and inventive than the movies. But none of them have intrigued me so far,” said Tanović. “Marjan Alčevski’s script is amazingly written and I’m really happy that HBO has recognised its quality.”

HBO has been ramping up its originals roster in Europe of late. Miguel Salvat, commissioning editor of original programming at HBO España, recently told C21’s Schedule Watch strand that each HBO Europe region shares “the same original production strategy of local, country-level projects.”