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.

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