The Turkish distributor hosted the world premiere for El Turco, an English-language Turkish drama produced by Ay Yapim, and Ru, a Medyapim production which premiered in May.
Turkish distributor Madd Entertainment hosted the world premiere of the trailer for El Turco, Ay Yapim’s latest premium series, at a special panel which was held at the Carlton during Mipcom, the television industry’s premiere market.
Madd joined forces with Variety to discuss how new approaches to storytelling are extending Turkish Drama’s reach – particularly in the English-speaking world. Participants included Ay Yapım CEO Kerem Çatay and Can Yaman who played the title role in El Turco, an atypical historical drama featuring an English-speaking cast from nine different countries and an award-winning crew from across Europe and North America.
El Turco combines history, action-adventure and romance in a premium package that will seem very familiar but it also brings something brand new to western viewers: A new hero; An Ottoman Janissary.
“We were initially going to shoot in Turkish. Going forward in English was a big decision,” said producer Kerem Çatay, who went well beyond his comfort zone as El Turco grew into a passion project. “Everything was so right once we cast Can [Yaman]. He was the right guy for this project and that made it perfect. After he came in, and we assembled this incredible European crew, we just went bigger during preproduction.”
Can Yaman, who plays the title role, is a popular actor known for his romantic dramas. “For me, this was something entirely different,” said Yaman. “For two months I was riding horses three hours a day, training so many hours a week. The conditions were challenging but the results are great.”
“It’s funny,” Yaman added, “I never had a chance to work with Ay Yapim in Türkiye. Then they came to me in Italy.” Yaman had relocated there several years prior. “The project matched my objectives because of the international cast,” he said.
As the world’s third-largest exporter of scripted content behind the United States and UK, Türkiye has had an enormous impact on the media landscapes of Latin America, the Middle East, Central Europe and even Southeast Asia. And today Turkish producers are experimenting with super-series in different genres that may help grow their English-speaking audience. El Turco is a case in point. Many things set it apart from the typical Turkish drama, making for a mix of action, adventure, and romance very much in line with western tastes. Shot entirely in Hungary’s famous Korda Studios, the six-episode super series is based on the legend of La Turchia, a festival which has been celebrated for over 300 years in the Italian village of Moena. According to tradition, an Ottoman janissary, wounded at the Battle of Vienna in 1683, ended up in Moena. He became a hero, leading the villagers in an uprising against the crushing taxes of their Habsburg lord. A statue of that janissary stands in the village center today.
“Everybody wants to have El Turco, but we have to have the right partner for each territory,” said Ateş İnce, Managing director of Madd. “Right now more than a dozen countries are in discussions for this show.” İnce added that a key challenge will come from coordinating the global release, which will take place simultaneously in early 2025.”
To bring El Turco to life, Ay Yapim paired Yaman with award-winning actors from across Europe, including Greta Ferro (Lo E Mio Fratello), Will Kemp (Reign), Sai Bennet (Mr. Selfridge), Kieran O’Reilly (Vikings), Nigel Pilkington (The King’s Man), Veronica Ferres (Die Frau vom Checkpoint Charlie), Magnus Samuelsson (The Witcher), Haluk Piyes (Malazgirt 1071), Slavko Sobin (Papillon), David Nykl (Supernatural), and Madalena Aragao (Quero Destino). The series is written by Kerem Deren (Kurşun, Ezel) and Çişil Hazal Tenim (Kurşun) and helmed by veteran director Uluç Bayraktar (The Choice, Crash).
Along with a star-studded cast, producer Çatay brought together a world-class team to elevate El Turco beyond any other Turkish historical drama, including Emmy Award-winning production designer Domenico Sica (Rome, Moon Knight), costume designer Carlo Poggioli (The New Pope, The Mists of Avalon), digital artist Onur Can Çaylı (Sol Invictus, Game of Thrones), make-up artist Diego Prestopino (L’Ombra del Giorno, Ben Hur), hair and wig designer Desiderria Corridoni (No Time to Die, Marie Antionette), and action director Levente Lezsàk (The Last Kingdom, The Witcher).
Madd Unveils Super Series Ru
Present in Cannes, the distributor also presented Ru, Medyapim’s premium drama about a young man and his much older lover which premiered this May. The series was introduced at a special panel on The Future of Turkish Storytelling held in conjunction with Variety at the event.
RU is an eight-episode super series about a young boy and his romance with a married woman 20 years his senior. These very different series are part of a recent movement taking Turkish storytelling beyond melodrama to explore new genres, new formats, and new platforms. There to discuss the groundbreking series were Medyapım President Fatih Aksoy and RU lead actress Meryem Uzerli as well as MADD Managing Director Ateş İnce.
RU is a drama outside the norm of Turkish primetime. The eight-part series, which debuted on Türkiye’s Gain platform, chronicles an extraordinary love affair. The boy’s mother is battling cancer when he falls in love with a married woman who runs a local restaurant. Despite the age difference and the social pressures in their small Aegean town, their love blossoms.
“This show is great for digital platforms,” said producer Fatih Aksoy. “The Turkish platform [Gain] is very happy with the first season. We are about to produce the second season for them, and we think it will work well abroad.”
“Meryem Uzerli is someone I loved before. Now I love her more!” Aksoy enthused. “You should see her performance.”
Uzerli, best known for her work on Magnificent Century, played RU’s older love interest. “When I read a script, what I look for the most is: how alive does the character make me feel! This is a good question: what are the things in our own lives that make us feel alive? When I was reading Reyan, her emotional ups and downs felt very real to me and I said okay, giving her life for a few months made me feel alive and alive too. So it wasn’t the age difference that attracted me… It was Reyan who was different”.
Looking ahead, MADD Entertainment’s Ateş İnce believes that these diverse projects will help change the perception of Turkish drama and build bridges to a wider audience. “I think Türkiye is very good at telling love stories at classical Turkish dramas. But RU is much more different than a classical love story. I believe it will open new markets for us, also with the help of Meryem’s distinguishing performance and presence in the series”.
