Off the Fence strikes development deal with US journalists Gloria Gomez, Robin Carter

US journalists Gloria Gomez, left, and Robin Carter

ZDF Studios-owned factual producer and distributor Off the Fence (OTF) has entered into a development deal with Emmy Award-winning US journalists Gloria Gomez and Robin Carter.

Under the agreement, OTF will co-develop and produce new true crime series based on the intelligence, access and contacts amassed by Gomez and Carter during their careers as investigative journalists on the US domestic beat.

The first project to come out of the new partnership is Love & Death Row: The Rosalie Bolin Story, a true crime series based on Gomez and Carter’s investigation into the relationship between rapist and serial killer Oscar Ray Bolin and paralegal Rosalie Martinez, who left her family to marry Bolin after visiting his cell on death row to discuss his case.

Gomez, a general-assignment reporter specialising in court cases and the criminal justice system, has worked with the Tampa Bay Fox 13 News team for the past 20 years.

Carter, a photojournalist with three decades of experience at news stations in Virginia, Texas and Florida, joined NBC 5 in 2019. She has worked in all facets of television, including news production, medical reporting, consumer affairs and special projects.

Celine Ritchie, head of development at OTF, said: “The experiences and perspectives of those who have been on the frontline of stranger-than-fiction cases exerts a powerful fascination, and it would be difficult to find a stranger or more powerful story than Love & Death Row, or two more reliable or insightful witnesses than Gloria and Robin.”

The development deal was brokered by global entertainment and sports agency Gersh.

In another US co-development partnership, OTF has joined forces with Makuhari Media on documentary King of Kandahar.

The three-part series chronicles the life of Lieutenant Colonel Mohammed Iqbal Selanee, a teenage interpreter for the US forces in Afghanistan who rose to command an elite, CIA-directed paramilitary unit.

An unsung hero of modern warfare, Selanee saved the lives of two US journalists and shielded hundreds of Afghans stranded at Kandahar Air Base, jeopardising the lives of own family to ensure the safety of his American comrades.