France Télévisions, Hulu Japan team up to bring manga series to small screen

The Drops of God manga series

Pubcaster France Télévisions and streaming service Hulu Japan have partnered for a multilingual drama based on a Japanese manga series, which has begun production in France.

Drops of God is a live-action adaptation of manga series The Drops of God and is being produced by US prodcos Legendary Television and Dynamic Television.

The manga series was written by Yuko and Shin Kibayashi, with artwork by Shu Okimoto. It was published by Kodansha.

The plot finds the world of gastronomy and fine wines in mourning as Alexandre Léger, creator of the famous Léger Wine Guide, has just passed away at his home in Tokyo at the age of 60.

When his daughter flies to Tokyo and Léger’s will is read, she discovers that her father has left her an extraordinary wine collection – but to claim the inheritance, she must compete with a brilliant young oenologist whom her father took under his wing.

The series is being written by Quoc Dang Tran (Netflix’s Marianne, Disney+’s Parallel), directed by Oded Ruskin (Amazon’s Absentia, Hulu’s No Man’s Land) and produced by Dynamic’s Klaus Zimmermann (Borgia, Trapped). It stars Fleur Geffrier (Elle) and Tomohisa Yamashita (The Head, The Man from Toronto).

“Legendary Television’s global division strives to bring the quality genre and character-driven content that Legendary is known for to local-language projects,” said Legendary partner Anne Thomopoulos.

“Drops of God is the perfect opportunity to expand these efforts into France and Japan, adding to our existing development and production slate that already has projects underway in the UK, Spain and Mexico, among other territories.”

The 8×60’ series is a coproduction between Legendary Television, Dynamic Television, France TV and Hulu Japan, in partnership with Adline Entertainment. Legendary Television is handling worldwide sales for all territories apart from France and Japan. Hulu Japan will debut the series exclusively in Japan simultaneously with the world premiere.