News

Netflix has pulled the curtain back on a slate of UK unscripted originals, including reality competition series Bear Hunt, starring Bear Grylls and Holly Willoughby.

Announced at the Next on Netflix showcase in London, Bear Hunt (working title) will feature survival expert Grylls preying on an unlikely group of British celebrities in the Central American jungle.

Here’s the logline: “Bear believes there’s an action hero inside us all – even the celebs – but how strong is their will to survive? As Bear puts them through their paces, those who fail to impress will face the dreaded ‘Bear Hunt’ – a brutal game of cat and mouse where they’ll be hunted down by Bear himself and, if captured, eliminated from the show.”

The series will premiere next year and will be co-produced by Grylls’ The Natural Studios; Workerbee, the Banijay-backed outfit behind Discovery’s Idris Elba: Fighter; and Fremantle’s Talkback,...

Welcome to Deadline’s International Disruptors, a feature where we shine a spotlight on the key executives and companies outside of the U.S. shaking up the offshore marketplace. This week, we’re talking with James and Soleta Rogan, the founders of prolific UK documentary indie Rogan Productions, with past credits including Black Power, Stephen: The Murder that Changed a Nation and Netflix’s My Daughter’s Killer. The pair discuss a rollercoaster 10 years in which they have secured multiple BAFTAs, worked with Steve McQueen and are now winning big business from the streamers.

The 2018 Grierson Awards – Britain’s most prestigious ceremony in the documentary-making calendar – will be remembered for a heartwrenching moment when Baroness Doreen Lawrence spoke beautifully about the legacy of her son Stephen, as she collected two gongs for BBC documentary Stephen: The Murder that Changed a Nation.

Lawrence was introduced on stage by softy spoken Stephen director James Rogan,...

Exclusive: My Daughter’s Killer producer Rogan Productions has signed Passion Pictures’ Nicholas Franklin as Head of Production. Franklin replaces Viv Steele, who has exited after seven years.

Across a two-decade career, Franklin has worked on the likes of Netflix’s Catching Killers, the BBC’s David Harewood: Psychosis and Me and Channel 4’s Charlie Hebdo: Three Days That Shook Paris.

He joins Soleta and James Rogan’s outfit that is in a period of growth, having won a string of commissions during the past 12 months and recently expanded to Scotland.

Nicholas Franklin

The company most recently made Netflix’s My Daughter’s Killer and the likes of Made in the 80s: The Decade that Shaped Our World, and is currently working on a BBC documentary following Strictly Come Dancing winner Rose Ayling-Ellis. Past credits include the BAFTA-nominated Black Power: A British Story of Resistance, Putin: A Russian Spy...

Purin Pictures Cash

Purin Pictures, a non-profit Asian film financier, is to give grants to two Burmese, two Cambodian, two Thai, and one Indonesian project in its latest funding round. “We are excited to support multiple projects from Myanmar and Cambodia, two countries that have less developed film industries than their Southeast Asian neighbors,” said Purin Pictures co-director Anocha Suwichakornpong. Production grants worth 30,000 each go to “The Beer Girl in Yangon,” by Sein Lyan Tun, “Fruit Gathering,” by Aung Phyoe, both debut featuring new voices in Burmese cinema, and “9 Temples to Heaven,” the debut fiction feature of Sompot Chidgasornpongse.

Post-production grants of 35,000 each go to documentaries “Tongue of Water,” by Polen Ly and “Double Jeopardy,” by Phally Ngoeum, both shining a light on the struggle of Cambodian individuals against the larger forces of the state, and documentaries “Monisme ,”by Riar Rizaldi and “Breaking the Cycle,” by Akeaphong Saransate and Thanakrit Duangmaneeporn.

Vice Studios global president Kate Ward is joining BBC Studios to oversee its factual portfolio, Variety can reveal.

Ward has been appointed to the role of managing director for factual at BBC Studios Productions, where she replaces Tom McDonald, who left the company earlier this year to join National Geographic.

With her new role, the well-respected executive — who most recently served as president of global studios and Pulse Films for Vice Media Group — will take on one of the most significant production portfolios in the U.K. industry, spanning the BBC’s Natural History Unit, Documentary Unit and Science Unit. She will also oversee relationships with BBC Studios’ roster of production companies, including Louis Theroux’s Mindhouse Productions, David Olusoga’s Uplands TV and James and Soleta Rogan’s Rogan Productions.

Ward, who starts the role in February 2023, reports into Ralph Lee, CEO of BBC Studios Productions.

The Bbcs managing...

Exclusive: BAFTA-winning Uprising producer Rogan Productions and Electric Shadow Company are forging Original Sin, a documentary miniseries exploring South African alleged murderer Gerhard Jansen van Vuuren and his trial.

After allegedly violently murdering his girlfriend Andrea Venter, when she was 25, in front of witnesses and CCTV cameras, and escaping prison twice, van Vuuren evaded the authorities across two continents for years, assumed three different identities and started families with several different women, before he was caught in 2020.

His trial was filmed as part of the doc and sentencing is due next month, while producers gained access to many of the major characters in the case along with reams of archive from both van Vuuren and Venter’s family.

The producers are forging as a mini-series but have the option to craft into a feature film. African producer MultiChoice Studios is also on board and Original Sin is being made in association...

Channel 4 and HBO’s lauded drama It’s a Sin missed out in several major categories at the BAFTA TV Awards this evening, as the BBC and ITV emerged as the big winners. Scroll down for the full list.

Russell T Davies’ Red Production Company-created drama was up for Best Mini-Series, with Olly Alexander in contention for Leading Actor and Lydia West competing for Leading Actress.

However, BBC prison drama Time won the Mini-Series category, Sean Bean won Leading Actor for the same drama and Jodie Comer’s performance in Channel 4’s Help pipped West and Kate Winslet in the Leading Actress Category.

Compounding a disappointing evening for the hotly-tipped show, Callum Scott Howells, Omari Douglas and David Carlyle lost out to Succession’s Matthew Macfadyen in the Supporting Actor category. It’s a Sin writer Davies, who earlier today unveiled Sex Education’s Ncuti Gatwa as Doctor Who’s next Time Lord,...

September is shaping up to be a great month for fans of Steve McQueen. Amazon announced on Monday that three of the Academy Award-winning filmmaker’s new documentaries will premiere on the Prime Video streaming service in September. McQueen co-directed one of the three films and produced each one.

All three documentaries — “Uprising,” “Black Power: A British Story of Resistance,” and “Subnormal: A British Scandal” — explore key themes and events depicted in McQueen’s award-winning “Small Axe“ anthology, which is currently streaming on Prime Video. Each documentary features first-hand interviews with key participants in the events, many of whom are telling their stories for the first time. McQueen is an executive producer on all three documentaries alongside James Rogan, Tracey Scoffield, and Soleta Rogan. The documentaries will premiere on September 17.

Per Amazon, “Uprising” is a vivid and visceral three-part documentary series (comprised of three hour-long episodes) examining three events from...

Steve McQueen will premiere three new documentaries — “Uprising,” “Black Power: A British Story of Resistance” and “Subnormal: A British Scandal” — on Amazon Prime Video on Sept. 17.

Directed by McQueen and James Rogan, “Uprising” is a three-part docuseries that examines three events from 1981 in the U.K. — The New Cross Fire, which killed 13 Black youths; the Black People’s Day of Action, which saw over 20,000 join the first organized mass protest of Black British people; and the Brixton riots, a series of clashes between Black youths and the Metropolitan Police. “Uprising” will explore how these events are intertwined and how they defined race relations for a generation.

Helmed by George Amponsah, “Black Power: A British Story of Resistance” tells the story of the Black Power movement in Britain. Featuring rare archival footage of Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael’s activities in the U.K. — along with footage...

After the global success of “Small Axe,” the BBC and acclaimed British filmmaker Steve McQueen are teaming again for documentary series “Uprising.”

The three-part series will explore three seminal events of 1981 that changed race relations in the U.K. and defined them for a generation. In January 1981, a fire at a party in the London suburb of New Cross killed 13 Black teenagers. In March, more than 20,000 people joined Black People’s Day of Action, the first organized protest by Black Britons. And April was when the Brixton riots took place.

Some of these events formed the backdrop for the “Alex Wheatle” episode of “Small Axe.”

James Rogan, who directed the BBC documentary mini-series “Stephen: The Murder that Changed a Nation,” about an epochal racially-charged U.K. killing, will co-direct “Uprising” with McQueen. Rogan and McQueen previously co-executive produced BBC’s Black-themed documentaries “Black Power” and “Subnormal.”

The BBC One series was commissioned by Charlotte Moore,...

Steve McQueen will further cement his creative partnership with the BBC by co-directing a documentary series on three dramatic events in the UK in 1981 that defined race relations for a generation.

Titled Uprising, the three-part series will examine the intertwined events of the New Cross Fire that killed 13 Black teenagers at a house party in January 1981; the Black People’s Day of Action mass protest in March of that year; and finally, the Brixton riots in April.

McQueen will helm Uprising alongside James Rogan (Stephen: The Murder That Changed a Nation), with the latter’s Rogan Productions housing the series. It is the second project McQueen and Rogan are collaborating on after teaming for BBC films Black Power and Subnormal, which were conceived during production on anthology drama Small Axe.

McQueen said: “It is an honour to make these films with testimonials from the survivors, investigators, activists and representatives of the machinery of state.

Steve McQueen, currently riding a wave of global acclaim for his BBC/Amazon anthology “Small Axe,” will executive produce two Black-themed documentaries for the BBC.

“Black Power,” which originated from an idea McQueen had while filming “Small Axe,” will examine how the Black Power movement came into being in the late 1960s and fought back against police brutality and racism.

The films features rare archive of Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael’s activities in Britain, as well as footage of leading figures in the movement in the U.K., Altheia Jones-LeCointe, Darcus Howe and Roy Sawh. They shed fresh light on the stories of Black youth in the ’60s and ’70s who challenged the British establishment and helped to shape a new political and cultural landscape in the U.K.

BAFTA-nominated George Amponsah will direct the documentary, which will play on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer.

“Subnormal,...

Steve McQueen is to executive produce two documentaries for the BBC that were conceived while shooting Small Axe. One will examine Black power in Britain, while the second film investigates how Black children in the 1960s and 1970s were disproportionately sent to schools for the so-called “educationally subnormal.”

Black Power (working title) is directed by BAFTA-nominated George Amponsah (Hard Stop) and looks at how the movement came into being in the late 1960s, when it fought back against police brutality and racism. The film will include rare footage of Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and Stokely Carmichael’s activities in Britain, as well as footage of leading figures in the movement in the UK, including Altheia Jones-LeCointe, Darcus Howe, and Roy Sawh.

Subnormal is helmed by new talent Lyttanya Shannon. It tells the story of the UK schools scandal through the eyes of Black parents, teachers, and activists who banded...

Canadian Comedy Jann Heads To Hulu

Hit Canadian comedy Jann is headed to the U.S. with streamer Hulu. From Andrew Barnsley, executive producer of Schitt’s Creek, the half-hour original comedy stars Canadian singer and broadcaster Jann Arden as a fictionalized version of herself. CTV, Project 10 Productions, and Seven24 Films are behind the series, which was the most-watched new Canadian comedy series in 2018-2019. The deal was struck by Project 10 Productions and Seven24 Films.

Borat London Stunt

Because…why not? From 2Pm GMT today a giant blowup Borat will be floating down London’s River Thames to mark the launch of Amazon’s Borat sequel starring Sacha Baron Cohen. Starting at London’s Tower Bridge, the blowup will travel to the London Eye and back again. It’s getting chilly out there. Luckily he is appropriately attired.

North America Deal For Horror Beast Mode

Exclusive: Devilworks Pictures will give...

Leading television industry event the Edinburgh TV Festival has added two sessions to its lineup, with “Succession” writer Lucy Prebble and Russell T. Davies, the former “Doctor Who” showrunner, among the speakers.

Davies, executive producer and writer of “Doctor Who,” “Years and Years” and “A Very English Scandal,” will be joined by “Bulletproof,” “The Corrupted” and “Kidulthood” leading actor, writer, director and producer Noel Clarke, on a drama panel that will look at the challenges behind getting scripted TV funded and produced, as well as what the picture for drama post-lockdown is shaping up to be.

They will be accompanied on the panel, hosted by New Pictures’ Willow Grylls, by “Succession” writer Lucy Prebble, controller of BBC Drama Piers Wenger, and Channel 4’s head of drama Caroline Hollick.

The session will also delve into what Britishness means in U.K.-originated, scripted TV especially now there is an emphatic demand for,...