The distributor will be arriving in Cannes with three dramas, two formats and one documentary.
Keshet International (KI) has secured the international distribution rights to a further raft of content for its MIPCOM 2023 slate, including Radio Canada’s medical super-series STAT (120×30’) and psychological thriller Eyes Shut (Les Yeux Fermés) (6×60’); KAN’s detective drama Tell Me Everything (8×30’); Keshet Studios’ first original unscripted format Stuck! (60’); C4’s Celebrity Save Our Sperm (60’); plus Keshet 12’s International Emmy® Award-nominated Last Stop Before Kyiv.
Kelly Wright, KI’s MD of Distribution, says: “This is our first MIPCOM since I stepped up to oversee the distribution arm of Keshet International’s business, and I am proud of this slate of gripping entertainment we are presenting this year in Cannes. It is our strongest line-up this decade by far, with some truly stand-out international dramas, fun formats, and news-generating documentaries.”
KI has picked up STAT (120×30’), Canada’s #1 rated original Canadian series, from Aetios Productions. An upscale daily drama premiering four days a week, STAT secures 40% viewing share on Radio Canada, averaging 1.612M viewers, and rating #1 with 18-24-year-olds. The fourth daily super-series to be produced by Aetios Productions, STAT follows in the footsteps of police drama District 31 and medical drama Trauma, which have both recently sold well on the international market (to Sony [AXN] and Netflix, respectively).
Written by Marie-Andrée Labbé (Trop, Sans Rendez Vous) and starring a formidable cast, STAT charts the daily lives of staff at the St Vincent Hospital in Montreal, centering on four lifelong friends orbited by an ever-changing gallery of patients who bring to life the day-to-day medical dramas of a universe that never sleeps. STAT is produced by Aetios Productions’ Fabienne Larouche and Michel Trudeau (Doute Raissonable, Ruptures, 30 Vies, Blue Moon).
KI has also acquired the psychological thriller Eyes Shut (Les Yeux Fermés) (6×60’) from Aetios Productions. Directed by Jeanne Leblanc (Our Own) and again commissioned by Radio Canada, Eyes Shut shifts seamlessly between the past and present on the trail of a compelling mystery. In the autumn of 1994, 15-year-old Simon’s body is found in the river and declared a suicide. Now, 29 years later, Simon’s younger sister Elise (Magalie Lépine-Blondeau) is on a quest to understand what motivated her brother to end his life. As Elise digs into her troubled family history and tracks down Simon’s teachers and schoolmates, the murkier things become. Will she ever discover what really happened to Simon? Eyes Shut will premiere in Canada on ICI Tele – Radio-Canada every Wednesday at 9pm from 25 October.
Both these French-language dramas are being picked up by KI following its acquisition Aetios Productions’ action-packed thriller Blue Moon (3 seasons of 10×60’) penned by Luc Dionne and starring award-winning actor Karine Vanasse (Cardinal), which KI has sold in Spain, Portugal, Israel and Mongolia, with licenses being discussed in the US and Greece.
Meanwhile, KI has also secured the format and finished tape rights to Gum Films’ detective drama Tell Me Everything (Ha’ish Sheratza Ladaat Hakol) (8×30’) for its scripted slate. A sexual assault in a locked hotel room ignites a head-to-head clash between the lead detective on the case and the victim’s husband who goes rogue, conducting his own private enquiries in parallel to the official investigation. When another assault occurs in the same hotel chain, the race to catch the perpetrator heats up, with tragic results. Slated to premiere on Israel’s KAN this coming November, Tell Me Everything is based on the best-selling novel The Man Who Wanted to Know by Dror A Mishani (A Body That Works, Prisoner No. 1, Wisdom of the Crowd) and directed by Michal Vinik (Valeria Mithatenet).
All three of these new dramas will be launched to buyers in Cannes alongside Shenhar Productions’ hotly anticipated thriller Trust No One (Harosh) (9×60’) for Keshet 12, which headlines KI’s MIPCOM 2023 slate and has already been sold to Netflix exclusively in 20 territories, including the US and UK (as announced on 21 September 2023).
KI’s scripted slate will also feature the original paper format Wisdom of the Crowd, a crime procedural that centers on an eccentric millionaire who is not convinced his daughter’s true killer is behind bars. He develops an AI tool powered by crowd-sourced tips that can solve any crime. The public springs into action. Though the Wisdom of the Crowd has the potential to free an innocent man, soon greed and ulterior motives come into play. Co-created by Dror Mishani and Shira Hadad (A Body That Works), this format was adapted by Keshet Studios with Universal Television as a 13-part crime procedural that debuted on CBS in 2017.
KI’s formats slate also includes Keshet Studios’ first original unscripted format, STUCK!. Created by Rebecca Mayer and Ben Long, the newly appointed SVP of Unscripted and VP of Unscripted, respectively – STUCK! is a comedic, physical game show for all ages. Families, groups of friends, colleagues – anybody can form a team, suit up into sticky suits, and run the gauntlet to play hilarious and physically challenging studio games on sets that move, twist, and shake. Their goal is to attach as much money to their body as they can, all while avoiding getting stuck – literally – to the set.
KI has also acquired the format and finished tape of Crackit Productions’ factual entertainment series, Celebrity Save Our Sperm (1×60’). Originally commissioned for Channel 4, comedian Russell Kane, Radio 1’s Melvin Odoom, and Made in Chelsea’s Ollie Locke unite in a ballsy attempt to increase their sperm count in just 10 weeks and stop “Spermageddon”. With male fertility rates plummeting by 59% in the West in the last 40 years, can they make the lifestyle changes scientists believe could Save Our Sperm?
KI’s factual slate also includes Keshet 12’s International Emmy® Award-nominated documentary Last Stop Before Kyiv by Uvda’s filmmaker Itai Anghel, alongside two high-profile documentaries acquired from Flicker Productions that generated news headlines in the UK – Wayne Couzens: Killer in Plain Sight (1×90’) for Channel Five and Ellie Simmonds: Finding My Secret Family (1×60’) for ITV1 – as well as 38 Minutes to Live (1×60’). Returning series include three from Crackit Productions: the seventh season of 5 Action’s Trucking Hell (20×60’), the sixth season of Channel 5’s Casualty 24/7 (25×60’), and the second season of ITVBe’s Emergency Nurses (10×60’); and an eighth season of Sky Pick’s World’s Most Evil Killers (20×60’) from Woodcut Media, which has sold internationally in 96 territories to date.
