Elizabeth Guider Reports: Warner Bros.’ Screening Session

LOS ANGELES: The Following has an instant foreign following—that was the open secret at Warner Bros.’ first marathon viewing session Monday for a 400-strong contingent of buyers in town for the annual L.A. Screenings.

Judging from off-the-cuff conversations with two dozen international execs from as many territories during the lunch break, the Kevin Williamson hour suspenser received the most enthusiastic thumbs-up—from several who already have output deals with the studio and will be obliged to take home the series anyway, but equally from those acquisition execs who don’t.

“It’s powerful, very strong, we are quite happy,” said Carlos Sandoval, the general manager of acquisitions, online video and business development at Televisa, who is one of the key buyers for the top Mexican broadcaster, and whose company enjoys an ongoing deal with the Hollywood major.

Even some of those without such an arrangement with that studio were complimentary. “It’s beautifully constructed," opined Rüdiger Böss, the senior VP of group programming acquisitions at ProSiebenSat.1. "In fact, what we saw overall this morning was consistently strong." (The German broadcaster will be the new recipient of series from Warner Bros. in 2013, but this upcoming fall’s crop will go to its Teutonic rival RTL.)

The Following, which will air Stateside on FOX come midseason, stars Kevin Bacon as an intense but flawed FBI agent tracking a cult of serial killers.

“It’s gritty but it has momentum à la 24 and mood à la Silence of the Lambs,” said one British executive who did not wish to be named. (The British buy on the open market and do not like to tip their hand for competitive reasons.)

The other newcomer to the fall skeds which elicited a noticeable nod of approval, from women as well as men, was Arrow, which is slated for The CW this fall. From executive producer Greg Berlanti, it aims to re-imagine characters from classic DC Comics, not unlike what Smallville managed with Superman and Dark Knight with Batman.

“I’d have to say the pilot had panache and very attractive leads,” a European buyer said. “We’ll have to see where it goes from here.” (The show features Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen and Katie Cassidy as Laurel Lance; the pilot was shot by veteran producer-director David Nutter.)

Although getting a precise read on buyers’ reactions is tricky—and what they’ll eventually opt to buy even more difficult—programmers on hand Monday appeared to enjoy the overall slate, which included not only the aforementioned action fare but also the sudsy 666 Park Avenue, which has echoes of Rosemary’s Baby, and the flirty froth of The Carrie Diaries, which targets an audience too young to have appreciated Sex and the City in its first run.

Several buyers did point out to World Screen Newsflash that they hadn’t yet seen all the offerings from other studios, and hence would withhold final judgment, as well as guard their purse strings for a few more days.

“It’s too early for buzz to settle, let alone spark a bidding war," added another buyer from the European Continent. "The last time that happened, at least for my station, was the year of Grey’s Anatomy and Criminal Minds. I would say, based on Warner’s and two other lots I’ve visited so far, that this looks to be a good year for American series, but I’m not ready to say it’s stellar. (Both Grey’s Anatomy and Criminal Minds are licensed by Disney, beginning seven years ago.)

Another veteran attendee of the Screenings pointed out that Warner Bros. often delivers impressively shot, movie-like pilots, but that not all of them hold up as viable story lines across 22 episodes. He rattled off several past fizzles—The Fugitive, Tarzan and Alcatraz—which all “looked amazing” at the outset but for one reason or another were axed their first season. “I don’t think that fate will befall The Following, what with Kevin Bacon as the star, but it’s our job not to go overboard—nor to let our personal tastes get in the way of what our audience needs are back home,” he explained.
   
Warner Bros. unveiled eight new prime-time network contenders Monday, including seven dramas, and briefly touted its 14 scripted returning series, of which eight are dramas. The studio will screen for other swathes of buyers through Friday, as will the other major Hollywood studios. (Lionsgate, Dreamworks and HBO are also hosting viewing sessions for their fare.)

In his introductory remarks to the assembled, Bruce Rosenblum, the president of Warner Bros. Television Group, reiterated the studio’s reliance on its customers from overseas.

“Both in our television and feature film endeavors, we are committed to producing big-budget, star-driven entertainment that has global appeal and the potential to be long-running, successful franchises domestically and internationally,” he said. However, Rosenblum went on, “the cost of maintaining this quality continues to increase. We depend upon international revenue to continue producing the level of programming that you are going to see today.”

As for the level of that revenue, no studio boss divulges figures nor does their trade org, the Motion Picture Association, release annual stats other than to its members. However, outside research from multiple firms would suggest the total haul from the sale of movies and TV shows to foreign outlets for the six major studios currently hovers around $8.5 billion, with Warner Bros. reckoned to rake in the largest slice.

Whatever the cautionary tone from buyers, Jeffrey Schlesinger, the president of Warner Bros. International Television, emphasized in his remarks Monday morning that the studio under production chieftain Peter Roth has had “another exceptional year.”

Because of multiple records traditionally set by the studio, Schlesinger made a joke out of all the “firsts” racked up this go-round by having attendees raise finger-pointed paddles every time he mentioned the word.

There was a lot of paddle-waving.

Once again the studio can boast the most scripted series across broadcast and cable—46 prime-time shows, of which 18 are new, and 28 returning. And the Warner Bros. team, he said, has done it for 21 of the last 25 years.

For his part, Peter Roth, the president of Warner Bros. Television, pointed out that the studio has a series retention rate “three times” that of the average. In other words, if only a paltry 16 percent of network shows generally get renewed, the percentage for Warner Bros. series is a much more respectable 48 percent.
 
In explaining why he thinks this year’s contenders are particularly strong, Roth put the accent on the array of writer, producer and directorial talent currently toiling under contract on the Burbank lot, including not only Williamson and Berlanti, but J.J. Abrams, whose new entry Revolution, he suggested, is “Hunger Games meets I Am Legend,” as well as Josh Schwartz, David Nutter, Jon Favreau, David Wilcox, Chuck Lorre and the team of Max Mutchnick and David Kohan. These last are the duo behind the studio’s one comedy pick-up, Partners for CBS, which also screened Monday morning.
 
“It’s promising,” one buyer hazarded, “and we did well with their (Mutchnick and Kohan’s) Will and Grace. Still, we’ll need to see more since it takes a while for sitcoms to fire on all cylinders.”
 
Hours, however, are the most important and lucrative commodity in the international market, raking in as much as four times what a sitcom can command in international license fees. (For their part, laffers do much better than dramas financially in domestic syndication.)
 
This time around, NBCUniversal and CBS are the runners-up to Warner Bros. in the number of new hours on offer to overseas clients.