Lice Mother heads up scripted format deals

Comedy format Lice Mother

M6 in France has commissioned a local version of Dutch comedy Lice Mother, while Telewizja Polsat is working on a Polish version of Germany’s Danni Lowinski, as part of a raft of scripted format deals by Red Arrow Studios International.

The new 200 x3’30 series of Lice Mother will be shot this summer until mid-2022. The short-form local version of the comedy format has been developed by French independent producer Calt Story. Lice Mother was originally produced by BING Film&TV for NPO3 in The Netherlands, where it became the channel’s most watched show, with a 40% market share.

The series is set in a primary school – a mini-society with its own playground rules, competitive parents, strange teachers and the lowest of volunteer jobs – checking kids for head lice.

Danni Lowinski, meanwhile, has been commissioned for a Polish remake by Telewizja Polsat, to be produced by TFP.

The original 65×60’ German series was created by Marc Terjung and produced by Markus Brunnemann and UFA Fiction for SAT.1 (Germany).

The series has already been adapted locally in Russia, Ukraine, the Netherlands and Belgium and is also in development by CBS in the US.

Danni Lowinski follows a former hairdresser-turned-law-graduate who, when rejected by every traditional law firm in town, decides to change the world from her mall-kiosk law practice, one dollar-a-minute case at a time.

London-based distributor Red Arrow Studios International has also secured a deal for comedy format Match, with Circus completing production of the first season (10×15’) of a Turkish adaptation in collaboration with Fabrika Yapim.

Additionally, Entre Chien et Loup is currently in production on a local version for French-speaking Belgium, which will launch on public broadcaster RTBF and cable platform BeTV.

The format has also been optioned by Sputnik Productions for the Netherlands and Belgium, and Boomerang TV Productions for Spain.

Originally produced by Ape and Bjørn for NRK Norway, Match follows Stian – a twentysomething guy whose life is observed by a pair of sports commentators.

In the Czech Republic, Prima Group commissioned the first season of a recently launched local version of crime procedural Einstein, produced by Sirena Film.

The original version was created and produced by Zeitsprung Pictures for Germany’s SAT.1. Einstein centres on Felix, a science genius and the great grandson of Albert Einstein, who is forced to work with the police to solve crimes using his brilliant but eccentric mind.