Fremantle Brings ‘Costiera,’ Epic Adventure ‘Sandokan’ to London TV Screenings: ‘It’s ‘Poldark’ Meets ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’
Fremantle is readying to unleash ‘Sandokan’ onto industry insiders during next week’s London TV Screenings.
“It’s simply a great epic adventure, based on a known IP. It’s ‘Poldark’ meets ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’,” enthuses CEO Commercial and International Jens Richter, promising action, adventure and some good old-fashioned pirating.
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Starring Can Yaman (“Daydreamer”), Ed Westwick (“Gossip Girl”) and John Hannah (“Spartacus: Blood and Sand”), it’s based on the series of novels by Emilio Salgari. Set in the mid-1800s, it heads to a place inhabited by native Dayak tribes yet dominated by British law. Sandokan is used to fighting for his survival, but one thing catches him by surprise: love.
“There’s a portion of romance,” admits Richter. With each episode set in a different environment, “Sandokan” will “fit the needs of the market perfectly,” he adds.
“Right now, the market is very much focused on reaching audiences. It has gone more mainstream and when I look at London Screenings, it’s probably our most commercial slate ever. We’re coming from ‘Peak TV’ when there was a lot of money for experiments and for targeting niche audiences. Now, drama needs to reach wider. You need to entertain.”
Shows in English are also set to dominate.
“It has the widest reach. There’s been a time when we’ve been super successful in selling Italian, Danish, German or French dramas, also in non-dubbing territories. Now, they prefer English,” says Richter, recalling the recent hit “Maxton Hall,” a young adult drama set in a boarding school and shot in German.
“Amazon Prime Video loved the premise, they loved the way it was shot. They delayed the launch by more than half a year to get all the dubs in place. It turned into one of their biggest successes last year. When you do a young adult story or an epic adventure, a dubbed version can have a great appeal also in the U.S. market.”
English will also be heard in ‘Costiera’, an “ultimate blue sky procedural” which will see Jesse Williams (“Grey’s Anatomy”) as an ex-Marine traveling through Europe. Once he reaches the Amalfi Coast, the daughter of a hotel owner goes missing. Who you gonna call?
“He stays there and solves another case each episode. The ‘story of the week’ shows are making a comeback, because they’re snackable. It makes for a very interactive investment for broadcasters and platforms, and for us – closed-ended procedurals perform nicely when it comes to windowing, and windowing is back, too.”
There’s also more willingness to cooperate, he stresses.
“Streamers go in for territories or for regions. It doesn’t need to be the whole world, it doesn’t need to be in perpetuity. That makes them great partners for co-productions or for retaining rights.”
Fremantle will handle international sales of action thriller “Iris” as well, to be available on Sky and streaming service NOW in the U.K., Ireland, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. It’s created by Neil Cross (“Luther”), and features Niamh Algar and Tom Hollander.
“It’s a fantastic cast. Niamh plays a brilliant code breaker and Tom has a big AI machine he wants to decode. At first, she agrees to work with him. But then she realizes there’s more to it. She’s on the run and he’s chasing her.”
While the show’s currently in post-production, Fremantle will unveil the first visuals at London Screenings.
Another intriguing female protagonist will cause “Little Disasters,” adapted from a novel by Sarah Vaughan (“Anatomy of a Scandal”). Jess (Diane Kruger) takes her baby daughter to hospital with a head injury that she can’t explain. Soon, lifelong friendships come crumbling down.
“It’s shot in one of the most beautiful suburbs of London, in Richmond. This is the world of the upper middle-class and everything, and everyone, is picture perfect. Jess also seems to be this picture-perfect mother. As audiences, we love to see this world of beauty. But when something goes wrong there, it’s highly attractive.”
Although Catherine Zeta-Jones is attached to another thriller, “Kill Jackie”, “it’s not just about having an amazing cast. You need to have an amazing cast in the right kind of story,” argues Richter.
“There’s a lot of competition and money is a little bit tighter in 2025, so it’s really important to create TV shows that have very clear positioning. If you want to do comedy, do comedy. If you want to do action thriller, do action thriller. If you want to do epic adventure, do epic adventure. Be clear about what it is.”
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