RTÉ, Acorn TV bring Dead to life

L-R: Kerr Logan, Michael Smiley and Eileen O’Higgin in Dead Still

Irish pubcaster RTÉ has partnered with North American streamer Acorn TV to commission an Irish period mystery drama.

Dead Still is being coproduced by Dublin-based Deadpan Pictures and Toronto-based Shaftesbury alongside Germany’s ZDF Enterprises. The six-parter follows a renowned memorial photographer in the 1880s as he investigates the murders of his recently deceased subjects.

Written by John Morton and directed by Imogen Murphy (Red Rock) and Craig David Wallace (Slasher, Murdoch Mysteries), the show is exec produced by Paul Donovan, Ailish McElmeel, Christina Jennings and Scott Garvie.

It stars Michael Smiley (Luther, Wire in the Blood), Kerr Logan (Game of Thrones, Victoria) and Eileen O’Higgins (Brooklyn, Mary Queen of Scots).

Acorn TV’s parent company, the UK-based scripted investment vehicle Acorn Media Enterprises (AME), owns all rights to the series in the US, Australia, New Zealand and the UK and has co-premiere rights in Canada and secondary rights in Ireland. ZDF will distribute the series in the rest of the world.

AME is the development division of the Acorn TV brand of RLJ Entertainment, a privately owned subsidiary of AMC Networks.

Dead Still will premiere on RTÉ in Ireland in 2020 and on Acorn TV in the US as an Acorn TV original. Filming begins in Dublin next month.

“With its fascinating setting, gallows humour, inventive storylines and stellar cast, Dead Still will offer a fresh take on the genre and is sure to interest fans of international dramas,” said AME MD Catherine Mackin.