It might be cold outside but this month’s Hot Properties playlist is smokin’. Check out this month’s titles, which range from headline-grabbing Hollywood exposés and dark dramas about spooky mysteries to crazy quizzes and toons featuring mythical Oriental monsters.
For buyers of factual, this month’s playlist includes the headline-grabbing documentary Secrets of Playboy from A+E Global Content Sales, which promises to dive into the dark underbelly of the Playboy lifestyle, featuring candid interviews with the friends, employees and confidantes of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner. Their stories reveal the crumbling foundation on which the hedonistic pleasure palace was built.
This is Joan Collins, meanwhile, is a film from Abacus Media Rights that also explores Hollywood but from a different angle, as the celebrated actress reveals tales from her journey from The Bitch and The Stud to Dynasty, while UFO Conspiracies from Passion Distribution is a new 10-part series on Sky History investigating some of the world’s most recent UFO sightings.
Green themes are also central to the next two titles. Prince Charles’ Green Grand Design from Blue Ant International is an exclusive look at a project that the UK royal has been working on for over a decade – the purchase and restoration of Dumfries House in Scotland. Meanwhile, Race for the Future from Beyond Rights is a 9,000-mile climate change adventure that doesn’t impact the planet, fronted by adventurer James Levelle.
A political documentary is also on the list this month, in the form of Bolsonaro: The Far Side of Brazil from France’s Terranoa. Due to be delivered in May 2022, the doc profiles the Brazilian leader known as ‘the Trump of the Tropics’ in the run-up to the country’s election in October 2022.
Mixing factual and entertainment, Dream Home Makeovers with Sophie Robinson is from Cineflix Rights and follows Britain’s ‘queen of colour’ as she turns boring into beautiful makeovers that dazzle. Meanwhile, classic fact-ent format You Are What You Eat from Sony Pictures Television is back with a new series on Channel 5.
On the entertainment front, Red Arrow Studios International’s Stealing the Show! is a programme in which “everything you know about quizshows is turned upside down,” according to the producers, while Starstruck from Banijay Rights is a new entertainment format that sees ordinary members of the public team up to transform into some of the world’s biggest music icons.
The boom in demand for drama is showing no signs of slowing down, so thankfully we have several high-profile scripted titles on the February playlist. Hidden season three, from All3Media International, is an example of Welsh noir, an atmospheric crime drama featuring the very best of the country’s talent, both in front of and behind the camera, while Shillings From Heaven tells the story of a village mayor caught between hopeless recession and looming fascism in 1930s Austria. Bavaria Media International distributes.
Don’t Leave Me from France’s Federation Entertainment is a drama set in a dark and unusual Venice that explores the deep web, and Sex Insta Exams from India’s GoQuest Media tells a story of high-school students grappling with class bullying, social media fame, parental expectations and sexual misadventures. Set in the 1970s and the modern day, White Night from ZDF Enterprises is a compelling drama that follows a family struggling to cope with an imbalance of power wielded by a person who is no longer alive.
The playlist also includes two dramas from Japan: My Neighbor Chikara from TV Asahi is a comedy about an indecisive but gentle guy who helps lonely people, while Keigo Higashino’s The Hovering Blade from Wowow is a provocative revenge tragedy of a father hunting down the teenage boys who drugged, raped and killed his daughter.
For buyers looking for laughs we have About Last Night… (Narvalo) from StudioCanal. After the success of the first season, actor/director Matthieu Longatte is back with eight new true-to-life adventures from France’s inner city estates.
For the younger generations, this month we are highlighting several new kids shows. Glowbies from CBC & Radio-Canada Distribution follows Jelly, Randy, Alby and Poppy as they have fun adventures around Brighthouse Bay, while Kiri & Lou from Cake offers new episodes of a “joyful, imaginative and gently humorous” series about empathy and managing childhood emotions from Antony Elworthy (Coraline, Corpse Bride).
Monsters in the Forbidden City, from China’s Tencent Video, explores the wondrous world of mythical Oriental monsters in this live-action and animated series, and Claymotions from Jetpack Distribution is an educational miniseries featuring seven sweet and positive plasticine characters that can transform into anything they like.
Rounding out the slate is DisRupted from the Australian Children’s Television Foundation. The show comprises three short films about children living with disabilities: Rocky & Me, And Then Something Changed and The Legend Of Burnout Barry.
That’s all for February, stay tuned for more Hot Properties in March!
READ LESSIt might be cold outside but this month’s Hot Properties playlist is smokin’. Check out this month’s titles, which range from headline-grabbing Hollywood exposés and dark dramas about spooky mysteries to crazy quizzes and toons featuring mythical Oriental monsters.
For buyers of factual, this month’s playlist includes the headline-grabbing documentary Secrets of Playboy from A+E Global Content Sales, which promises to dive into the dark underbelly of the Playboy lifestyle, featuring candid interviews with the friends, employees and confidantes of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner. Their stories reveal the crumbling foundation on which the hedonistic pleasure palace was built.
This is Joan Collins, meanwhile, is a film from Abacus Media Rights that also explores Hollywood but from a different angle, as the celebrated actress reveals tales from her journey from The Bitch and The Stud to Dynasty, while UFO Conspiracies from Passion Distribution is a new 10-part series on Sky History investigating some of the world’s most recent UFO sightings.
Green themes are also central to the next two titles. Prince Charles’ Green Grand Design from Blue Ant International is an exclusive look at a project that the UK royal has been working on for over a decade – the purchase and restoration of Dumfries House in Scotland. Meanwhile, Race for the Future from Beyond Rights is a 9,000-mile climate change adventure that doesn’t impact the planet, fronted by adventurer James Levelle.
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