Hot Properties, the Content London strand that aims to lift the lid on exciting new scripted shows about to hit the market, has unveiled the first six dramas it will feature at the November event.
The projects represent a wide range of genres and locations, including Iceland, South Africa, Canada, Croatia, Norway, Greece and the UK.
Joining the line-up are three projects set in Africa: Quizzical Pictures and Fremantle’s White Lies, a crime thriller set in Cape Town starring Natalie Dormer; Ochre Moving Pictures and Red Arrow Studios International’s Soon Comes Night, a post-Apartheid gritty crime drama; and Both Worlds Pictures’ The Morning After, produced in association with Amazon Studios and SWR Fernsehen for ARD FabFiction.
From the northern hemisphere are Act4 and Drugi Plan’s Volcano, an eco-thriller set in Iceland and Croatia; So Long, Marianne, the 1960s love story of Canadian singer and poet Leonard Cohen and his muse Marianne Ihlen, co-produced by Redpoint Productions, Tanweer Productions and Connect3 for NRK and Crave with Cineflix Rights attached as international distributor; and Bad Wolf’s Dope Girls, a drama about a female crime boss set in London’s Soho at the start of the 20th Century.
In each Hot Properties session, those closest to the projects discuss how they were conceived, created, developed and packaged, and opportunities for potential partnerships.
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Hot Properties speakers at Content London are:
White Lies
Harriet Gavshon
Creative director
Quizzical Pictures
Gavshon is a founder and the creative director of one of South Africa’s leading film and television companies Quizzical Pictures. She has 25 years’ experience making some of South Africa’s most celebrated and loved television productions, documentary series and feature films. Most recently she has produced, with Serena Cullen, the drama series Reyka – a co-production with Fremantle International and Mnet which was nominated for an International Emmy award. A second season of Reyka is in post-production. She has also recently completed White Lies with Natalie Dormer for Fremantle and Mnet and Savage Beauty and iNumber Number Jozi Gold for Netflix.
Darrel Bristow-Bovey
Writer and executive producer
Quizzical Pictures/ freelance
Bristow-Bovey has won multiple South African film and television awards, and has written four feature-length films, including two upcoming Netflix originals. Inside Story (2011) won best African film at the Zanzibar International Film Festival and a special jury award at the Los Angeles pan-African film festival in 2012. He was head writer for the award-winning television dramas The Lab and Hard Copy, and a senior writer on Hopeville, which won best drama/ mini series at the Rose d’Or global television festival in 2010, and was nominated for an International Emmy for best mini series.
Julie Hodge
VP editorial, global drama
Fremantle
In her role within Fremantle’s global drama team, Hodge works across Fremantle’s family of scripted producers around the world, providing development and strategic support to help their dramas find loyal audiences globally as well as within their local markets. Additionally, Hodge seeks co-pro-opportunities with third party producers for Fremantle to partner on, as well as leading the team’s scripted formats strategy. Hodge executive produced Fremantle’s first South African drama series Reyka (Serena Cullen Productions/ Quizzical Pictures for M-Net) on behalf of Fremantle, which has sold to 147 territories and was nominated for 2 International Emmys and has also recently overseen Reyka S2 and White Lies (Quizzical Pictures for M-Net) starring Natalie Dormer.
Soon Comes Night
Stan Joseph
CEO
Ochre Media ADO Arena Holdings (Pty) Ltd
Over the past 22 years, Joseph has led Ochre Moving Pictures to its present position as one of South Africa’s leading content studios. He has experience in conceptualising and producing television programmes in many genres, including news, daily drama, series drama, children’s television and reality television. As the CEO of Ochre, Joseph oversees the creative design and production strategy, manages stakeholder relationships, and drives sales in Africa as well as raising global finance through licensing and international co-production initiatives. Most recently, Joseph has been executive producer of the Ochre produced Netflix series Justice Served, The Brave Ones and Fatal Seduction as well as top performing local series like Lioness for MNET, Scandal! On e.tv and Spoorloos on kykNET.
Paul Rowlston
Writer
Ochre Moving Pictures
Rowlston is a prolific writer of television and feature films. He is also a director and producer and has extensive experience as an editor and camera operator. Rowlston is the writer of Soon Comes Night, a 6-part limited series based on the life of Collen Chauke. As head-writer of Umbuso, a 13-part Mzanzi TV series, Rowlston also wrote seven of the series’ 13 episodes. Rowlston is an episode writer for House of Zwide, E-TV’s daily drama. Rowlston has written multiple feature films, including 93 Days (featured on Netflix and Amazon Prime) about the 2015 Ebola outbreak in Lagos and starring Danny Glover (Lethal Weapon, etc).
Rodrigo Herrera Ibarguengoytia
VP scripted acquisitions and coproductions
Red Arrow Studios International
Based in Munich, Herrera Ibarguengoytia oversees all scripted development and acquisition activities, working with both production companies within Seven.One Studios as well as third party producers and writers, with the aim to package, co-finance and co-produce projects for the international market. In his role, Herrera Ibarguengoytia takes primary responsibility for the management and executive production of all Red Arrow Studios international’s scripted projects, including Vienna Blood, produced by Endor Productions and MR Film for ORF (Austria) and ZDF (Germany); and Departure, produced by Shaftesbury for Global (Canada).
The Morning After
Frank Tönsmann
Commissioning editor
WDR – Westdeutscher Rundfunk
Since joining WDR, in 2004 Tönsmann has acted as commissioning editor on several acclaimed series and feature-length films, such as Im Angesicht des Verbrechens (In the Face of Crime, 2010) and the collaboration Dreileben by Christian Petzold, Dominik Graf and Christoph Hochhäusler (2011). He commissioned the Tatort Dortmund series in 2012 – now running in its 10th year. His feature films include Bloodsucker by Julian Radlmeier, which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2021, and Till the End of the Night which was shown in competition in Berlin this year.
Karen Jeynes
Executive producer
Both Worlds Pictures
Jeynes has worked extensively as a writer and director for stage and screen, most recently as the writer, co-director and creative producer of comedy series The Morning After and drama series Recipes for Love and Murder, now in development of its second season. Other productions she has developed and overseen with creative partner Thierry Cassuto at Both Worlds are Point of Order, Comedy Central News, and Parlement Parlement, and the documentary Africa and I, as well as working as the head writer for ZANews: Puppet Nation (winner of 27 SAFTAs, 2 WGSA muse awards, and twice nominated for international Emmys).
So Long, Marianne
Øystein Karlsen
Creator, writer and director
Redpoint Productions
Karlsen is the award-winning writer and director of the highly successful Norwegian TV series Exit (2019-2023), One Night (2017) and Dag (2010-2015). Karlsen also directed several episodes of the popular and acclaimed Norwegian-American Netflix original Lilyhammer (2014) and was the creator and writer of the British crime drama Whitstable Pearl (2021-2022). Karlsen together with Jo Nesbø and Niclas Salomonsson established the boutique production company Redpoint Productions in December 2021. So Long, Marianne is their first production.
James Durie
Head of scripted
Cineflix Rights
Durie leads Cineflix Rights’ global strategy for sales, co-productions, acquisitions and development of scripted content. He is responsible for building partnerships with UK and international producers including Buccaneer, HELIUM, and Magical Society, with whom Cineflix recently announced a major BBC crime series Virdee. As head of scripted, Durie also holds EP roles on multiple major series, including epic Australian crime drama Last King of The Cross. Durie joined Cineflix from Miramax where he was VP, sales EMEA across the company’s TV, feature film, and library businesses.
Dope Girls
Jane Tranter
Founder and CEO
Bad Wolf
Tranter founded production company Bad Wolf in Cardiff alongside Julie Gardner, with the purpose of creating ambitious, imaginative, and relevant drama for the UK, US and global TV markets. Tranter’s credits include the multi-Emmy winning HBO series’ The Night Of and Succession; the BAFTA award-winning His Dark Materials for BBC and HBO, two seasons of Industry for HBO and the critically acclaimed BAFTA-winning Sky series I Hate Suzie. Autumn will see the release of the 60th anniversary specials of Doctor Who for the BBC, followed by the TV adaptation of Bernard Cornwell’s The Winter King for Charter and ITV. Production is currently underway on a new series of Doctor Who, as well as new drama Dope Girls, both for the BBC.
Kate Crowther
Executive producer
Bad Wolf
Crowther began her career as a production executive, working on film features including Submarine, I Am Slave and Third Star, before moving to TV. Her producer credits include the award-winning Doctor Foster, LIFE, Cradle To Grave all for the BBC, and Wanderlust for BBC / Netflix, plus the Rose d’Or-winning Raised by Wolves for Channel 4. In 2020, she joined Bad Wolf as executive producer and has been executive on two series of Industry for HBO. A third series is currently in production. She will also executive produce new drama Dope Girls, written by Polly Stenham and Alex Warren, for BBC.
Volcano
Nebojsa Taraba
Producer and partner
Drugi Plan
Drugi plan is a leading Croatian independent production company. Established in 2004, it has worked with all three Croatian national TV stations (HRT, Nova TV, RTL) and created and produced more than 15 original formats in all genres. TV series The Paper was picked up by Netflix in 2018, and was available for streaming in 190 countries. Drugi plan has also produced the first HBO Europe series in the Adria region, premiered at the beginning of 2019, entitled Success. Taraba has been producer tutor on Midpoint Series Launch Programme since 2019.
Jónas Margeir Ingólfsson
CEO
Act4
Ingólfsson is an Icelandic creator, writer, producer and lawyer. He currently serves as CEO of the Reykjavik-based production company Act4. Prior to founding Act4, Ingólfsson completed a mag. jur. degree and has served as lawyer and advisor to many of Iceland’s largest film and TV productions. His credits as writer or creator include The Minister, Thin Ice and Stella Blomkvist 2.
Donna Sharpe
Writer and creator
Sharpe is a series writer and creator. Her critically acclaimed work has been shown by the BBC, HBO MAX, C4 Walter Presents, AMC, Viaplay, ZDF, DR, SVT, Arte and Netflix, amongst others.
