rip goes places
Rest in peace expanding to American market
After British firm Global Series Network bought the UK rights to the television series Rest in Peace, whose development was financed by the Croatian Audiovisual Centre, the series will be showing in the United States as well.
As of today, 'Rest in Peace' is on the American television market
One of the creators and editor of the Walter Presents project, Walter Iuzzolino, chose the series "Rest in Peace" in a competition of four thousand series from around the world, and it thus found itself in the exclusive selection of the 34 best series for 2017.
After the British company Global Series Network bought the license to show HRT's series "Rest in Peace" for the United Kingdom, the series will also be broadcast in the United States.
One of the creators and editor of the Walter Presents project, Walter Iuzzolino, chose the series "Rest in Peace" in a competition of four thousand series from around the world, and it thus found itself in the exclusive selection of the 34 best series for 2017.
As of today, the entire Walter Presents USA project is available on the American television market, and thus Croatian Radio and Television has taken the leading position in Southeast Europe in the production of high-quality television content in extremely strong international competition.
The series Rest in Peace was created as a result of cooperation between the Croatian Radio and Television and the independent production company Ring Produkcija, produced by Dario Vince and directed by Goran Rukavina, Kristijan Milić, and Goran Dukić.
So far, the series has starred more than 250 top domestic actors, led by permanent characters played by Judita Franković and Dragan Despot.
Who is Walter Iuzzolino, thanks to whom the Croatian series 'Rest in Peace' will be broadcast in Great Britain from next year
Not only is this our first series to air in the UK but it is also the first from across the region. It is no coincidence that Walter Iuzzolino "hooked" on it because so far it has had quite a notable worldwide success.
Few people in our country have heard of Walter Iuzzolino, but he is a big shot in the UK. An Italian-born, a former employee of British television, offered Channel 4 to set aside a special program that viewers could consume by their choice, but composed primarily of foreign series with subtitles.
It doesn’t matter if it’s Belgian, Spanish, Czech, or Argentine: it’s important that it’s attractive and that it can attract viewers. The program was called “Walter Presents,” and that was true, because Iuzzolino took care of the marketing of each series, choosing the trailers and pushing them to Channel 4 slots that he knew guaranteed the highest ratings. It was not a fight against windmills, BBC 4 managed to turn the Danish series "Murder" and "Borgen" into big hits - as many as half a million Brits watched some of their episodes - and "Walter Presents" set a record in that: exciting German spy show “Deutschland 83” became the most-watched series with subtitles in that country. Iuzzolino appreciates Netflix but thinks they buy too much and promote too little, one would get the impression that they don’t care about the ratings of what they put on their platform.
This year alone, Walter Presents offered several treats, including the Spanish series Captives, which is considered by many to be similar to Netflix's similar series Orange Is the New Black, and the Brazilian series Magnifica 70, about a young censor who falls for a porn star, then the Dutch "Neighbors" about two couples whose destinies are dramatically intertwined, and the Belgian "Klan" about five sisters who are planning a perfect murder.
The most interesting thing is that next year "Walter Presents" will broadcast the Croatian series "Rest in Peace", both of its seasons. Not only is this our first series to air in the UK but it is also the first from across the region. It is no coincidence that Walter Iuzzolino "hooked" on it because so far it has had quite a notable worldwide success. It was invited to a festival in Seoul, where it was noticed by the Swedish company Ecco Rights and resold to the prestigious company Lionsgate Television (produced "Mad Men"), which bought the rights to eventually make an American remake. In the meantime, the series has been invited to several other important world festivals, and was bought last year by the Belgian public television VRT. It was the first time that a Croatian drama series airs in Western Europe, and now the big British market is conquered.
The first season of "Rest in Peace" was created under the supervision of Dario Vince, owner of Ring Produkcija, on the idea of Koraljka Meštrović and Goran Rukavina, which was later designed by the main screenwriter Saša Podgorelec. Directed by Rukavina and Kristijan Milić, the main roles were played by Judita Franković, Miodrag Krivokapić, and Dragan Despot, while the novelty - and not only in our production - was a story that was partly linear, and partly plunged into the past. It had 12 episodes and was executed at the level we are not used to in domestic drama production, which was very well recognized in the world.
The first season aired in early 2013, and two years later the second season arrived, which was even more successful, had fewer episodes, a total of ten, mostly linear action (there were still flaschbacks), and attractive locations in Istria - in which journalist Lucija Car (Franković) is investigating a new murder case - certainly impressed foreigners, as well as elements of occultism. Since the character of the retired prison guard who played Krivokapić died at the end of the first season, Dragan Despot and Luka Dragić joined Franković in the second, and Goran Navojec and Anja Šovagović joined them as important roles. The second season was entirely directed by Goran Dukić, who mostly lives in America, but he could not refuse such an engagement.
Ring Produkcija is near completion of the third season script, somewhat disturbed by the constant changes among key people on HRT (which is why the first season had to wait almost half a year for a broadcasting license), but they assume that entering the British market, the first in the history of Croatian television, is a sufficient trump card for approval of the production of the series, which ends this third season.
Rest in Peace to air on UK television
'The project Walter Presents was initiated in order to introduce the best dramas from around the globe and we are proud to have bought the rights to broadcast the television drama series Rest in Peace, our first Croatian series. I hope that this is the first of many successful transactions for Croatian productions on the global market,' said Walter Iuzzolino, television producer and co-creator of Walter Presents.
The TV-series Rest in Peace airs in Belgium
The right to air the Croatian drama TV series Rest in Peace, developed within the National Program for the Development of the Audiovisual Industry, was purchased by the Belgian public television for the Flemish-speaking area - Vlaamse Radio en Televisieomroeporganisatie - VRT (Flemish Radio and Television), a member of the EBU. This is the first television series, the development of which was financed by Croatian Audiovisual Centre, to be shown by a broadcaster in Western Europe.
The producer and creator, Dario Vince, told us that the series has so far been purchased for showing on two televisions in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro. 'We believe that despite the difficult financial situation of public television in Serbia and Slovenia, it should sooner or later appear there as well. The placement of the series in Belgium could help us, and others who are trying to develop ambitious drama projects here, to draw the attention of the wider world market. We are also helped by our Swedish distributors, who were the first to recognize the potential of the series and believe that it should be offered to a wider market. Of course, the "pitching" behind a serious western distribution company looks more serious than when a small producer from a country that does not yet exist on the international TV content market does so.'
Dario Vince adds that he set the basic story of the second season and that he developed the script together with Saša Podgorelec and Ivan Turković Krnjak. 'In the very end, the director of the second season, Goran Dukić, joined us. HAVC recognized the potential and seriousness of the project and helped us in its development, primarily with public support and funding. It is a great pity that there is still not enough synchronicity with TV companies that would enable the time planning of TV projects because HAVC wanted, and I am convinced it could help even more. It is of great importance that the system of script development and project development that HAVC managed to impose on cinematography begins to spread to television projects because from the professional, artistic, and business side, it's simply a necessity for smart project management. I sincerely hope that HAVC will soon announce a competition for TV projects again, so that we may have the opportunity to realize the full potential of such cooperation in the third season', Vince concluded.
By the way, this series, whose production was financed by HRT, will not be synchronized, but titled, so that Belgian viewers will hear Croatian actors in Croatian. As for the future life of the series, the wish of the author of the series and Ring Production is to complete the planned trilogy in partnership with HRT, and shoot the final ten episodes of the last, third season of the series.
Lionsgate takes Croatian crime format Rest in Peace
Lionsgate has picked up the remake rights to Rest in Peace, a crime procedural from Croatia, marking the first time a Croatian format has sold to a major North American production company.
Lionsgate buys rights to 'Rest in Peace' format
Lionsgate, one of the five largest film and television studios in the world, has bought the rights to the format of the acclaimed domestic drama series produced for HRT by an independent production company.
Young television journalist Lucija Car and retired prison guard Martin Strugar, played by Judita Franković and Miodrag Krivokapić, explored a forgotten prison cemetery in twelve exciting episodes shown in early 2013, revealing the hidden secrets and human destinies of transitional Croatia, the part of our recent past we like to forget and so far we have not often had the opportunity to see it on either big or small screens. Already in the first run, the series collected undivided praise from domestic professional critics, equally praised for its script, production quality, and numerous acting creations. Both directors of the series, Goran Rukavina and Kristijan Milić were nominated for the Croatian Theater Award, which was won by Milić, and the main actress Judita Franković was nominated for Večernjak's Ruža Award.
As the first drama series from Croatia, "Rest in Peace" entered the official selection of one of the largest festivals of television drama production in Seoul, South Korea, in 2013, where it competed with the world's best series and was noticed by the international public. In the summer of 2013, American producers contacted the international distributor of the Croatian series, the Swedish company Eccho Rights, showing interest in buying the format. Lionsgate is one of the largest production and distribution companies in the world whose film hits "The Twilight Saga" and "Hunger Games" have won world box offices in recent years, and their esteemed TV series are well known to Croatian viewers who could see on domestic programs: "Mad Men", "Weeds", "Nurse Jackie", "Nashville", "Anger Management" with Charlie Sheen, as well as last year’s big Netflix hit “Orange is the New Black,” whose new season is in the making. At the moment, Lionsgate is showing about thirty premiere TV series on about twenty different channels in America alone. Cinema distribution alone generated more than $2 billion in revenue last year, and digital home entertainment channels another $1 billion.
The author of the format "Rest in Peace", created according to the original idea of Koraljka Meštrović and Goran Rukavina, and under the supervision of the main screenwriter Saša Podgorelec with collaborators Ivor Martinić and Ivan Turković Krnjak, is Dario Vince, former international award-winning creative director of Digitel, and owner of Ring produkcija that sold the rights to Lionsgate. In 1987, Dario Vince was a finalist and winner of the special jury award of the EBU competition for young European screenwriters.
The series was selected at the HRT competition in 2011, and filmed in 2012 under the tutelage of the editor of the HRT drama program Mislav Brumec, dramaturgist Drago Kekanović, and series editor Maja Gregl.
While Ring produkcija is preparing for the final negotiations with HRT on the shooting of the second season of the series Rest in Peace, we cannot expect the first episodes of the American version before 2015, when we will hopefully be able to watch it on our screens.