walterpresents
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.